Inventions & Discoveries · Weapons and war
Spear-thrower
A spear-thrower, or atlatl, is a lever, usually about as long as the user's arm or forearm, with a cup or spur that holds the butt of a dart or javelin and throws it faster than the arm alone could. It is believed to have been used by Homo sapiens since the Upper Paleolithic, and the earliest known example is a Solutrean spear-thrower of reindeer antler, 17,500 years old, from Combe Saunière in the Dordogne, France. Ice Age hunters used it against megafauna; in Europe the bow and arrow supplemented it, while it stayed in use in the Americas, where Teotihuacan's warriors carried it, and in Australia as the woomera.
On the inventions tree
- First known
- c. 17,500 years ago
- Where
- Combe Saunière, Dordogne, France
NoteIt may be older: it is believed to have been in use from around 30,000 years ago, and the arthritic right elbow of Mungo Man, of 42,000 BP, has been read as 'atlatl elbow'.
Mentioned in 4 profiles
See also
Cite this entry
- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). Spear-thrower. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/spear-thrower
- MLA
- “Spear-thrower.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/spear-thrower. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “Spear-thrower.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/spear-thrower.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Spear-thrower’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/spear-thrower (Accessed: ).
Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻