Quotes: Atlatl

Carved atlatl at the National Museum of Anthropology and History in Mexico City.

To go with the article Ancient Technology: Atlatl, Super Weapon

Quote from Atlatl.com, “The great innovation of Atlatl weights in the evolution of this technology bears the mark of true genius.”

Now that’s the right way to use the word Evolution!  It comes about by the application of intelligence.  In biology, Infinite Genius took no time at all to arrive at the best possible solution to the desired result.

Quote from Ingenium: Atlatl, “It seems that archaeologists had concluded that the atlatl really wasn’t a very good weapon. But when Bob started actually working with them he learned that by using a flexible dart instead of the rigid darts that the professional archaeologists had been using, the atlatl was revealed to be a very efficient weapon indeed.”

Once more we see that Evolutionary, ‘we’re the best there’s ever been,’ thinking turns out to be backwards.  The “primitives” were way smarter than Darwinian archeology gave them credit for.

Quotes from Dons Maps: Atlatl, “It launches projectiles at high speeds, kills at 40 metres and can even be fitted with a silencer. Kurt Kleiner reveals the surprising sophistication of a 25 000 year old weapon.”

Does it surprise you?  It doesn’t surprise me!  Check out what the same article says about modern engineers,

“he is one of a group of people who have been studying the mechanics of this primitive weapon and found it to be surprisingly sophisticated. Using modern engineering concepts and experimental techniques, they are rediscovering ancient construction methods that make subtle but important improvements to the weapon’s performance.”

I suppose this would have to be classified as “Paleo”mimicry?

Again from Dons Maps,

“According to archaeological evidence, the atlatl first made its appearance between 25 000 and 40 000 years ago in the region that today encompasses Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.”

But the World Atlatl site says that there is no proof of Atlatl use in Africa.  And Daryl Hrdlicka of the Jeffers Petroglyphs Historic Site says,

” While it was used extensively in North and South America, Australia, and Indonesia, the rest of the world seems to have missed it. Except for a few artifacts found in France, it’s not found in Europe; except for some Siberian Aleuts, it’s not found in Asia; and except for some references in Sumerian, it’s not found in Africa. These cultures seemed to go directly from spears to the bow.”

I think I’ll pass this on to my Ice Age collecting colleague, because many sites say the same thing as Dons Maps!

Also from Dons Maps,

“‘The physics and math is all in here,’ Perkins says, weighing an atlatl in his hand at a recent workshop on primitive technology held near Phoenix, Arizona. ‘It really impresses me, the ability of these ancient people to be able to do this. They certainly didn’t have calculus. Wave mechanics, they didn’t know that. But they knew intuitively.'”

Prove they didn’t know it! Which is easier, wave mechanics or earth wobble geometry? They knew how to measure the earth, build ocean going vessels and make accurate world maps, why not wave calculus?

I ran into a technical article on how precise you have to be in the size and length of dart points and shafts to keep your weapon effective.  Here is Bob Perkin’s closing statement, “A complete understanding  of this impressively complex weapon must be achieved before any single component can be properly analyzed. So long as it is thought of and referred  to a “spear thrower” that will never happen.”

This same guy had this to say about these people,

“I’ve made the study of atlatls and the technology they represent my life work.  Every time I think that I have learned or discovered nearly all there is to know about the physics of this most ancient of weapon systems, something new arises and I am humbled again by the obvious sophistication of the ancient mind.  Ancient people were every bit as intelligent as we are today. In fact H we were able to go back in time we would find a species as capable and intelligent as ourselves. Simply because we live in an age of super computers doesn’t mean that we possess the license to label primitive technology as crude or to claim that every idea we come up with today is original.”

Woo hoo! Whose Worldview is being proven accurate this time?

Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands?
Woe unto him that saith unto his father, What begettest thou? or to the woman, What hast thou brought forth?
Thus saith the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me.
I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded.  Isaiah 45:9-12