Jousi

[PekuVee]

The famous Ati-Atihan festival will be held in the third week of January, every year in the town of Kalibo situated in Aklan province, on the Panay island, Philippines. The helmet and scaffold of the participant is made of bamboo related reed (pls. see picture below). The man has also painted his face black, because the aboriginal people of that island were very dark skinned compared to the malay people who occupied the land in later times. The Ati-Ati festival is ancient although it was impregnated with christian motives much later. The Ati-Atihan festival mask is a very impressive example of the importance of bamboo-reed for the local culture, which comes in more than 200 different species in that area. Of Bamboo were made the houses, most of the household equipment, musical instruments, fishing- and hunting aids, rafts to move on water and so on.

I believe that the Atlat-thrower - or what ever they might have called it then - was born in such a society, the material culture of which was so heavily based on bamboo reeds (a reed culture, indeed). This argument is mainly based on the fact, that the dart of the atlatl thrower is a very unlikely invention as such. If we think that the spear (lance) was the progenitor for it, then it presupposes a very strong intuition of how such a device would work and how to prepare the parts. To be motivated enough to carve a hole in the back of a primitive spear in itself requests for a fully matured vision of the principle of a spear thower - atlatl - before you have even seen one. I think this kind of reasonig is very unlikely to happen. Bear in mind that the earlier spears were mostly very clumsy and heavy weapons to be thrusted on a target and which simply could not be thrown away just like that, for the simple reason that it would have left the primitive hunter unarmed.

The first time I made a dart of bamboo I suddenly realized, that it was already hollow - had the pit in its end. Nothing has to be carved out, this kind of straigt, lightweight and durable projectile seduces one to experiment different ways to use it. I believe, that the atlatl-mechanism was first invented like this, in some wet area with plenty of reeds, maybe already in Africa or later during our ancestors long voyage to Asia and Australia. (By the way: Jean-Jaqcues Annaud directed and Anthony Burgess wrote the manuscript of the famous movie "La Guerre du Feu" eng. "Quest for Fire" which features in my opinion a very good illustration of such an ancient reed culture, among others.)

Obviously the sheer killing power and advantage for the hunter gatherer - and the warrior - was so great that the working principle of the spear thrower was adopted and suitably modified in regions that have no reed plants (more northern areas). So instead of the already hollow bamboo projectile, men actually had to carve a hole on the other end of the wooden projectile to be launched by the spear thower. Made out of massive wood they must have been much heavier than the original bamboo darts and in time they were also equipped with feathers for better long range accuracy. Now, you might be interested to remember that when the paleo-Indians came to the American continet from Asia over the Beringian land, they did not yet know the principle of the bow and arrow, but were armed with atlatls only. It has been estimated that the bow and arrow was first taken into use around 2000 years ago in the New World. And , as far as I understand the Abos of Australia never invented the bow, but instead have been hunting with the Woomera or Amera (=atlatl) until the present times. The darts of New-Guinean atlatls were always without fletching clearly showing the archaic type.

Based on this I believe that the hunting bow was not a decendant of the atlat-type weapon at all, but rather a new adaptation of the fire making bow that the old cultures were familiar with. It is a simple fact, that when holding a stick with friction carved and hardened tip in the other hand and a ready made bow in the other (equipped with a string), so there is little psychological or practical hindrance to use it as a weapon now called the bow. Another argument to support this view is that the atlatl was never completely replaced by the bow, but instead they have been used in parallel (f.ex. Aztecs), the inuits have used spear thowers to hunt seals etc. in their kayaks, leaving one hand free to steer the vehicle and to act very fast. There may be other similar reasons for the survival of the spear thrower. - PV