Thruster (weapon)
The thruster, spear-thrower, dart-thrower, stolic, or atlatl is a projection weapon that allows the impulsion of spears or assegayas. The oldest remains have been found in Europe and dated to the Upper Paleolithic.
It is a tool that uses leverage to achieve greater speed when throwing darts, spears or javelins, and includes a support surface that allows the user to store energy during the throw.
May consist of a shaft with a receptacle or spur on the end that supports and drives the butt of the dart. The drive is held in one hand, grasping it near the far end of the receptacle. The dart is ejected thanks to the action of the arm and wrist. The throwing arm, together with the atlatl or propeller, acts as a lever. The dart launcher acts as a low-mass, fast-moving extension of the throwing arm, increasing the length of the stick. This additional length allows the thrower to impart force to the dart over a greater distance, thus imparting more energy and ultimately higher velocities. The most common modern ball launchers (molded plastic arms used to throw balls of tennis) use the same principle.
A spear thruster is a long-range weapon and can easily impart a projectile with speeds of over 150 km/h.
Spear thrusters appeared very early in human history in various parts of the world, and have survived in traditional societies to this day, as well as being revived in recent decades for sporting purposes. In the United States, the Nahuatl word átlatl is often used to refer to the renewed use of spear thrusters (as is the Mayan word hul'che); in Australia, the Dharug language word woomera is used instead.
The ancient Greeks and Romans used a leather strap or loop, known as an ankule or amentum, as a spear-throwing device. The Swiss arrow is a weapon that it functions similarly to the amentum. In the Andean cultural area they were used mainly as a hunting weapon, although sumptuous ceremonial specimens reserved for the elites were produced.
Features
It consists of a short stick of wood or other material, which is held at one end with the hand that will be thrown, and at whose opposite end it has a pointed projection and at a marked angle, which will be housed in the hole made in the rear end of the dart to be thrown. A spear is placed in its upper part and it is fired by pushing hard, providing a greater impulse due to the elongation of the natural lever of the arm.
Wood, bone, ivory or antler thrusters have been preserved, some highly decorated.
History
In the Stone Age, people used sharpened bones, carved stones, and chunks of rock as weapons and tools. Such items remained in use throughout human civilization, along with new materials used over time. As archaeological artifacts such objects are classified as stone points, without specifying whether they were intended to be projected by an arc or by other means of launching.
Such artifacts can be found all over the world. Those that have survived are generally made of stone, mostly flint, obsidian, or chaillé, but bone, wood, and metal arrowheads have been found in many excavations.
In August 2010, a report on lithic stone points, dating back 64,000 years, excavated from ancient sediment layers at Sibudu Cave in South Africa by a team of scientists from the University of Witwatersrand, was published. Examinations led by a team from the University of Johannesburg found traces of blood and bone residue, and adhesive made from a plant-based resin used to attach the tip to a wooden rod. This indicated "cognitive demanding behaviour" needed to make glue.
"Hunting with a bow and arrow requires complex multiple stages of planning, material gathering, preparation tool and involves a series of innovative social and communication skills".
In Europe there are vestiges of the use of the propeller since the arrival of Homo sapiens in the Upper Paleolithic, being displaced by the use of the bow.
In the Andean world, the first thrusters appeared during the Initial Period. However, cave paintings in the Toquepala caves suggest that its use dates back to the Lithic. It was a widespread weapon on the coast. The propeller reached its heyday during the Early Intermediate, particularly in the Nazca and Mochica civilizations. The latter used it profusely, along with maces, in deer and sea lion hunts. However, the use of the propellant entered a progressive decline from the Middle Horizon. By the Late Intermediate, it had fallen into almost total neglect. The Inca Empire did not even have a Quechua word to describe it. The propellant only subsisted in the territories of the Ecuadorian coast, being used by societies such as the Huancavilcas. By contrast, among the tribes of the Amazon it was still widely used.
In Mesoamerica, it was called atlatl: in Nahuatl: "extended arm". The appearance of the bow displaced it from hunting activities, but some groups continued to use it for warfare until the time of the Spanish conquest.
In Australia the aborigines still use it and call it woomera.
Sports use
Currently there are sports associations that practice the use of propellant in organized contests. In July 1995, Dave Ingvall, in the American town of Aurora, Colorado, obtained the world record for throwing a distance of 258 meters. For this he used a carbon fiber propeller and an aluminum spear.