What is it about?
This research investigates broad trends in the penetrating performance of ancient projectiles (atlatl darts and arrows) with knapped stone tips. We carry out these experiments using replicated weapons, carcasses of humanely culled animals such as bison, and experimenters who are practiced in the use of weapons and stone butchering tools. The experiments are designed to capture numerous data points for each weapon and impact event, allowing numerous hypotheses to be tested.
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Photo by Thomas Fields on Unsplash
Why is it important?
Archaeologists rely on our understanding of ancient weapons to interpret changes in culture, ecology, and human evolution over millennia, but there are misconceptions and a lack of information about aspects of ancient hunting weapons. This paper describes an experimental program to help fill these gaps in information. The results are useful not only for re-imagining the design and histories of ancient stone tools, but also the abilities and sophistication of ancient hunters.
Perspectives
I was very pleased to see this paper come out because it represents years of hard work by myself and our team. This involved hundreds of replicated knapped stone points, designing experimental atlatl darts and arrows based on artifacts, thousands of measurements of the experimental arsenal, thousands of data points from the experiment, and most importantly, development of an effective experimental program.
Assistant Professor Devin Pettigrew
Sul Ross State University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Terminal Ballistics of Stone-Tipped Atlatl Darts and Arrows: Results From Exploratory Naturalistic Experiments, Open Archaeology, January 2023, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1515/opar-2022-0299.
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