Atlatl Dating and Violence in Rock Art in the American Southwest

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Global “Impact” of Projectile Technologies: Updating Methods and Regional Overviews of the Invention and Transmission of the Spear-Thrower and the Bow and Arrow" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Atlatl-related motifs are prominent in a limited area of the prehistoric American Southwest. The motifs include atlatls and darts and images relating to hunting and violence, all socially and symbolically important. While recognizing difficulties in dating rock art, the atlatl-related images are closely associated with styles and motifs dated to the Formative, early horticultural Basketmaker II cultures of the Colorado Plateau before about AD 700. They do not co-occur with bow-and-arrow depictions, and the few apparently narrative scenes of violence suggest small-scale social conflicts, rather than larger group warfare. Later cultural systems changed as regional populations grew, became more dependent on agriculture, and adopted the bow and arrow.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)   •
• The Global “Impact” of Projectile Technologies: Updating Methods and Regional Overviews of the Invention and Transmission of the Spear-Thrower and the Bow and Arrow

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38473.0