Main Discussion Area > Cave Men only "Oooga Booga"
more atlatl discussion
Marks:
Before I type let me say I know almost nothing about atlalts besides what I learned in school, and googling pics of bannerstones so this may be common sense, ridiculous or revolutionary. (I doubt its the last one)
With that being said, Some of the banner stone pics look like it was tied on back stationary as a counterweight of some sort. Some looked like a hole drilled thru the rock and slid onto the shaft of the atlatl. I'm referring to the ones with the hole drilled.
If the stone was left to slide up the shaft from your hand to the tip as you thru it would in not give you a lot more power on your swing??
swamp monkey:
I made two of these atlatls with winged bannerstones. One with a long shaft and one with a short shaft. My observations about bannerstones are the following:
* It makes throwing harder on my arm.
It does not improve my distance.
It may even decrease it.
It does dampen the swish during my throw in terms of volume and pitch.
It looks really cool and attracts attention down at buffalo wild wings ;)
Longer shafts make the weight harder to manage in a throw.
Shorter shafts cause less strain on my arm.
The further the weight is from the handle the harder it is to accelerate the system.
*
Regarding the sliding bannerstone, following are my opinions: :D
* If the bannerstone were to slide I am well certain the hook (which is glued on) would eventually be knocked off, unless there were a stop short of hitting it.
this would make throwing even harder.
If there was such a stop I am certain the repeated thump of the bannerstone would wear that down allowing it to move forward incrementally.
furthermore a slide with a sudden stop would make noise which no sane hunter wants.
*
Joec123able:
Maybe it was just there for looks 8)
swamp monkey:
Cahokia Mounds had their archeology day event yesterday. At the event was Larry Kinsella. Larry make all sorts of replicas including igneous celts, and banner stones. He recently had a paper published in Ethnoarcheology where he used biomechanical analysis to show that bannerstones on atlatls actually took stress off of certain muscle groups for one action only - holding the atlatl in the ready position. A balance function was suggested decades ago and here it is back in the headlines.
Let's say for the sake of argument he is right. Deer hunters think about this. If you need to hold this system steady, with no movement for extended periods; wouldn't you want this to happen without fatigue? I don't know if that article is on line but it caught my interest enough to find out.
Oh and Jackcrafty is right about the bannerstones being fragile. They break easily around the drilled hole area. Another good reason not to allow them to slide with force.
swamp monkey:
The journal is on line and costs to see the full article.
I am tight. Here is the abstract.
Abstract:
There are many hypotheses concerning the distinctive prehistoric ground-stone artifacts known to Americanist archaeologists as bannerstones or atlatl (spear-thrower) weights, but there is no consensus concerning the best explanation for their form and function. Based upon several decades of experience replicating and using atlatls, as well as observing white-tailed deer behavior in deciduous woodlands of eastern North America, I suggest a plausible function for bannerstones that differs from previous interpretations. For a hunter of white-tailed deer, waiting in ambush with atlatl and projectile in pre-launch position, a bannerstone attached to the atlatl works very well as a counterbalance. Focus upon detailed behavior of specific prey animals as well as on the hunting techniques and equipment of their human predators opens new lines of inquiry about atlatls and bannerstones.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version