Dueling with Basketmaker II Spearthrowers: What Can We Learn from Mock Combat?

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Advances in Perishable Weaponry Studies: Developing Perspectives from Dated Contexts to Experimental Analyses" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Changes in weapon technologies are likely to affect many social dimensions. Understanding a society’s weaponry is critical for making inferences not only about hunting but also how these groups engaged in conflict. The role of spearthrowers and darts in hunting is becoming better understood through a resurgence in their sporting use, as well as recent academic research into dart point efficacy. However, the combat dynamics of these weapons are still relatively unexplored. This research is largely phenomenological and experiential, and describes experiments in which Basketmaker II period (~4,000–1,500 BP) weapon replicas were used in simple but realistic mock combat by researchers dressed in personal protective equipment. This research will offer insights and help inform discussion related to the technological transition from spearthrower to bow, and the value of hands-on experience with the tools we research.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)   •
• Advances in Perishable Weaponry Studies: Developing Perspectives from Dated Contexts to Experimental Analyses

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Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 41508.0