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Originally Posted by colin henshaw
Interesting piece - thanks for posting. Like to see any more you have.
Regards.
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An entirely reasonable request, given there doesn't appear to be a whole lot of interest in this particular item and I don't want to bomb the forum with multiple threads of similar objects that may be of interest to relatively few forumites... so instead I'll post some more in this thread.
Below is one of the more enigmatic and artistically expressive forms of Native American arms-related items. This is one of several known forms of atlatl weights, known (for obvious reasons) as a 'birdstone.' This particular example (the only example I have kept in my collection) is of the popeyed variety (again, named so for obvious reasons
), and was dug in Cook County, Illinois in the 1920s. It measures about 8.5 cm in length. You will notice the drilled holes on the bottom of the front face (another is found on the bottom of the rear face) and again on the bottom. This would have been to secure the birdstone to the atlatl.
Unlike ritual items and jewelry, these various forms of atlatl weights are not confined to burials, and have been found scattered in fields (like other implements, tools, and weapons) as well as in context with atlatls themselves.
So how did these work? Experimentation has shown the use of such weights increased the moment of inertia of the atlatl, thereby allowing the atlatl to store more potential energy (think of a compressed leaf spring) and a resulting greater acceleration of the mass which is in turn imparts a greater force to the atlatl dart.