While the Clovis points needed frequent sharpening and broke easily, the hunters were surprised at how well they functioned as butchering tools. They gained a greater appreciation for the ingenuity of their Stone Age counterparts and were listed as co-authors on a paper published earlier this year describing the results of the experiment.
Target practice
Most of Eren’s students (and the occasional visiting journalist) get the chance at some point to throw point-tipped spears at a hunting target outside on campus, using an attached atlatl or spear-thrower. This ingenious handheld rod-shaped device employs leverage to launch a dart or spear. Versions have been developed by several different ancient cultures, including Aztec, Maya, Greek, Roman, and Australian aboriginal designs.
And as Eren’s colleague Michelle Bebber—an expert in ceramics and pottery (who also participated in the frozen feces study)—discovered in 2023, the atlatl is essentially the great equalizer between women and men. She noticed that her male students struggled more than female students to pick up the crucial whip action required because they were so accustomed to relying on strength and turned it into a blind test. She found that, unlike the javelin, the atlatl equalizes the velocity of female- and male-launched projectiles. It’s not even exclusively a gender difference, according to Bebber, since children, older men, or injured men would also have benefited from its use.
Although throws made with the atlatl are faster, the javelin has more kinetic energy because of its higher mass. Eren also experimented with throwing from different heights, renting a scissor lift for the purpose. “We wanted to understand how much more velocity and kinetic energy does gravity lend to these projectile weapons as you get higher,” said Eren.
Jennifer Ouellette
Eren’s lab regularly makes replica spears for target practice. Jennifer Ouellette
Jennifer Ouellette
A handy target. Jennifer Ouellette
Jennifer Ouellette
Eren demonstrates proper form when throwing a spear with an atlatl. Jennifer Ouellette
A handy target. Jennifer Ouellette
Eren demonstrates proper form when throwing a spear with an atlatl. Jennifer Ouellette
Jennifer Ouellette
Jennifer Ouellette
Jennifer Ouellette
Jennifer Ouellette
He found that the javelin increased not only in velocity but kinetic energy—almost a 200 percent increase in impact energy by 9 meters in height. But the atlatl decreased as the height increased. “If you are throwing down, the lever is deactivated,” Eren explained. “And because the darts are so light, they have higher velocity when traveling horizontally, but once the lever is deactivated, the wind can make it go sideways, producing more drag. That had never occurred to us, that the atlatl actually has a major cost if you are firing downward.”
https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/01/inside-the-hands-on-lab-of-an-experimental-archaeologist/