The Atlatl Motif in Rock Art

Summary

This is an abstract from the "From the Plains to the Plateau: Papers in Honor of James D. Keyser" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Rock art researchers often claim that an oval with a vertical line through it represents an atlatl, but many of these depictions are not very convincing examples of atlatls. A better way to identify atlatls is to find examples that show anthropomorphs holding an atlatl while throwing a dart or holding an atlatl in a proper position. These examples are rare, but significant, because they can unequivocally demonstrate a pre-bow-and-arrow time frame and in turn have implications for research into warfare and the distribution of various rock art motifs.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• From the Plains to the Plateau: Papers in Honor of James D. Keyser

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 29880