( Photo of a Bob Perkins Atlatl with Banerstone weight)

Article # 1, About the Atlatl Spear Launcher:

The atlatl (pronounced at-ul-at-ul) is a fascinating weapon, used long before the bow and arrow. An atlatl is made of wood or antler, often thin and flat, and ranges from 30 cm to 1 meter in length. One end is held in the hand while the butt of a light spear is placed in a surface groove at the other end. At the end of the groove is a raised spur or attached pin to hold the bottom of the spear in place while it is held in a slightly raised position by the same hand that holds the handle end of the atlatl. Using the leverage of this short board, which functioned like an extension of the thrower's arm, or like a catapult, the hunter propelled the spear in an overhand or side motion with a force far greater than that of a hand-thrown spear.

The size of the atlatl varied with the size of the prey or distance of the throw needed. Smaller ones were used for fishing, and larger ones for spearing ungulates and humans. The atlatl comes in a variety of shapes. They are sometimes incised with designs, carved with three-dimensional features or have separate functional or decorative items attached to them. Some have a looped hand grip of leather or plant fibre on the handle and some types have stone weights used to give the weapon an over-all balance, better aim and spring. The mechanical foundation of Atlatl technology is the flexible arrow. Under acceleration by the Atlatl, the arrow flexes and compresses like a spring, storing energy to be used to push itself away from the Atlatl and launching at velocities that easily exceed 100 mph. The first of many improvements to this mechanical system was the implementation of multiple length Atlatls to fine tune the device-- longer atlatls tend to increase the system's range. Interestingly, the number pi is found for optimum performance in the Relationship between Atlatl length and dart length. The great innovation of Atlatl weights in the evolution of this technology bears the mark of true genius. By building flexibility into the Atlatl's shaft and applying a mass to influence the amount of flex during the swing, the energy stored in the spring of the Atlatl can be exactly matched to that of the arrow. This allows for a more efficient use of available energies by forcing the atlatl to push away at the same time the dart is pushing away from the Atlatl, much like a diver pushing away from a springboard platform. Over time different types of Atlatl weights were developed to improve upon this effect. One particularly special type commonly called a Banner Stone and using Agent Stealth Technology, went so far as to silence the "zip"-like noise caused by the swing of the atlatl.

These weapons had many names in the respective cultures in which they were used. However, they were brought to prominence because they were used successfully by the Aztec of Mexico against the Spanish in the 16th century. The name atlatl, used in the Nahuatl language spoken by the Aztecs, came to dominance in European and American literature. The Spaniards dreaded these weapons that often pierced their protective armour. The word atlatl is a combination of the Nahuatl words for "water" and "thrower" in reference to the common use of the atlatls for hunting waterfowl and fish. Technically, only the throwing board is called an atlatl, but the term is now often used to include the throwing board and the small spear it propels.

The oldest atlatls in the world date back over 25,000 years in N.W Africa. The late Upper Paleolithic Magdalenian peoples of Europe made beautifully carved specimens from antler and bone 17,000 years ago.

Immigrants from Siberia likely brought the atlatl to North America, where it was used to hunt large animals by at least 10,000-12,000 years ago. Atlatl spears were likely tipped with the large flaked stone points that archaeologists find associated with remains of now-extinct mammoth and bison, as well as other large game animals.

In more recent times we know the atlatl was also used for hunting sea mammals, birds and fish. The Inuit and Aleut of the Arctic, the Tlingit peoples of the southern coast of Alaska and northern coast of British Columbia, and some peoples of southeastern United States, Mexico and northern South America, still used the atlatl when Europeans first arrived. However, in most regions of the New World, the bow and arrow replaced the atlatl.

Archaeologists believe that the trend toward small stone projectile points (tips for arrows or spears), and the shift from making these points with tapered bases, as opposed to thinner-necked notched bases, is evidence for the replacement of the atlatl by the bow and arrow. This change in point size and style occurred most typically around 1,350 years ago, but some researchers argue that the bow and arrow was introduced earlier in some areas of North America.

In the Great Basin (centred on Nevada, USA) there are indications that the bow and arrow may have come into use 2,000 to 3,500 years ago. The bow and the atlatl were both together in use there for several hundred years. In the American Southwest the atlatl may have finally been abandoned at about the same time that the bow reached the area - shortly after 2,000 years ago. Except for a few rare finds in dry cave sites, there is little evidence for the use of bows and arrows in the American Southwest before about 1,500 years ago. The period between 2,000 and 1,500 years ago is the time usually given for the introduction of the first arrowheads in western Canada. Future research will likely show variations in both atlatl and arrow point styles over space and through time.

Stone atlatl weights, attached to the underside of the throwing board, are found in several regions of North America - including a small area of southwestern British Columbia extending from Southern Vancouver Island up the Fraser River to the southern Interior (map). These items are poorly dated, but would seem to occur, at least, in the period around 1,700 to 2,000 years ago. Atlatls from southern North America were adorned with good luck charms, including nuts and quartz crystals. I speculate that some of the small stone weightlike artifacts found in British Columbia may also be power charms that were attached to the atlatl to bring the user luck in hunting.

Some archaeologists have claimed to be able to identify the bone pin attachments used to hold the end of the spear to the throwing board. Without a good sample of specimens attached to preserved atlatls to use for comparison, it is difficult to be certain that these are in fact atlatl spurs. The bone items suggested as atlatl spurs have been found with artifact assemblages dating from 3,000 to 1,500 years ago in southwestern British Columbia.

Complete wooden atlatls with attachments have been found in dry cave sites in Utah, Nevada and Oregon, USA, dating to about 8,000 to 1,600 years ago. Atlatls have also been preserved in waterlogged conditions in Florida, and one made of yew wood, dating to 1,700 years ago, was dredged from the Skagit River in northern Washington State. In British Columbia and the Yukon wooden atlatl and dart fragments have been found eroding out of melting glaciers. One of the dart fragments dated to 4,000 years ago. An antler specimen dating to 2,000 years ago was found at the bottom of the freshly drained Quiltanton Lake in the southern Interior of British Columbia, east of Ashcroft. These finds confirm the existence of at least one local type of flat, unspurred, prehistoric atlatl. We can now be optimistic that these and future finds will provide new insights into the role of this unique kind of technology in the history of British Columbia.

Here's a great link to see some photos of real historic Atlatl's from all around the world, kept at the Smithsonian Institute, Washington DC http://imageevent.com/margieandfrank/smithsonianatlatls

Article # 2, About The Bannerstone

TROWEL AND PEN THE NEWS LETTER OF THE KENTUCKY ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY
Volume 9 March 2004 - THE ARCHAIC ATLATL - NOT JUST FOR BREAKFAST ANYMORE!

These weights (also known as bannerstones, birdstones, and boatstones) are a purely North American invention. They have not been found anywhere else in the world. In Kentucky, prehistoric hunters used the atlatl or spearthrower as a weapon for over 7,000 years. It consisted of a wooden spear fitted with a chipped stone spear point, and the spear thrower it self: a handle and ahook made of wood, bone or antler, and a counter weight. This tool extended the range and accuracy of the un aided human arm, and it required skill to make and to use. Only those Archaic hunters living in the Mississippi River valley and North America’s Eastern Woodlands from about 7,000 to 4,000 years ago outfitted their spearthrowers with large, elaborate ground stone counter weights, called bannerstones. Note* (New finds accociated with Paleo artifacts have recently been recoverd.)

Until recently,archaeologists thought the spearpoint, with its variationsin shape and size, was the only part of this tool that heldany information about Archaic peoples in this region. Butre search carried out by a University of Kentucky graduate student on over 400 bannerstones from west-central Kentucky, southern Indiana, and southern Illinois has shown that these ground stone tools have their own stories to tell. Archaic bannerstone makers used many different kindsof rocks as the raw material for their counter weights,such as granite, banded slate, jasper, and quartz/quartzite.They made bannerstones in a variety of different sizes, shapes, and styles, too. Researchers have defined over16 different types in all, including rectangular, butterfly, winged, tubed, and bottle-shaped forms. Some types of bannerstones also were made in different varieties. For example, rectangular bannerstones can have diamond ortriangular cross-sections as well as other features, such as hooks, horns and central ridges. But this isn’t the whole story. Because even if using a counter weight improved the spearthrower’s elficiency slightly, this study shows that the bannerstone did muchmore than that. It appears that during the latter centuries of the Archaic period, around 5,500 to 4,000 years ago, the style and shape of a bannerstone, perhaps even its color, reflected important information about its maker andhis social group.

The regional distribution of bannerstones shows that distinct cultural traditions were beginning to develop at this time. Prehistoric groups living in Kentucky’s GreenRiver valley made only a few different kinds of bannerstones, and preferred rectangular bannerstones witha triangular cross-section. On the other hand, groups living in south-central Indiana along the Ohio River made many different kinds of bannerstones, some of which were quite fancy. Unlike the Kentucky groups, these groups were partial to rectangular bannerstones with a diamond cross-section. Afew groups in Kentucky and Indiana made rare bottle and butterfly types out of quartz.Thus, during the Late Archaic, bannerstones distinguished one group from another, like certain colors and symbolstoday identify different fraternities. These objects, just like spear points, held important information about their users and their communities that was immediately that it took more than a lot of patience and time to make a bannerstone? A Late Archaic Kentucky craftsman had to know what kind of stone he needed and where to find it. Some rock, like tough, black and white speckled granite, may have been locally available. But if he wanted to use glassy, yellow and red marbled quartzite, he traded for it. This kind of stone does not occur naturally in Kentucky. To make a bannerstone, he had to know all the techniques and possess the skill to make one that worked. The first step was to rough-out the basic shape. Using a hard, hand-sized hammerstone, the bannerstone maker chipped and/or pecked off the excess rock by hitting or tapping the bannerstone-to-be. Next he drilled a hole down the center of the rough piece. This is where the wooden atlatl handle would slip through. Working with a short length of dry, hollow river cane, he twisted it back and forth against the hard stone. Wetsand sprinkled into the hole worked as a pasty abrasive.The river cane, too, had its own scouring power. Then came the grinding to finish the tool. The bannerstonemaker used a variety of stones: sandstone rocks with DID YOU KNOW...different degrees of coarseness worked best. Back and forth, across every surface, he ground away all the bumpsand lumps. If a particular lump just wouldn’t smooth away, he got out a hammerstone again and pecked off the lump.Sometimes he polished the bannerstone to give it a smooth, shiny surface. The whole process took at least 40 hours for a single bannerstone. But if the tool maker was an artist as well as a craftsman, his finished tool was as beautiful as it was useful. This is why wecannot think of Archaic spearthrowers as “just forbreakfast" anymore.

Some examples of several differt bindings for bannerstones!

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