As I understand it, the atlatl enabled much more efficient and powerful throwing without much loss of accuracy. A brief search for figures says it can hit a grapefruit at 40m range
“For an experienced atlatl thrower, the mechanical advantage of the atlatl over throwing with the arm alone is about 6:1. Thus, if you can throw a dart 15 meters with your arm alone, you could throw it about 91 meters with the atlatl.”
PugJesus@lemmy.world 1 month ago
The atlatl darts used in this research were much lighter than the spears, as is usual for atlatl darts. So you can carry more of them. Also, atlatl are darts faster and more accurate - the difference demonstrated here is of energy on impact, which is more important when hunting big game - and of relative differences in performance when elevated vs. even ground.
InverseParallax@lemmy.world 1 month ago
So, if you’re an atlatl expert I see it.
But this is why we transitioned to crossbows from longbows, takes a lifetime of training to make a good longbowman.
Then again, not like they had anything better to do.