Almost.
Hurricanes notwithstanding, I've just been
RESTING...ahhhh...
I have steadfastly refused to venture out of the AC for about 4 weeks now (with the exception of quick runs to the mailbox to see if my Publisher's Clearing House bid came through) choosing instead to play around with Snapchat...
...and dream about the day the river levels come back down.
This is a photo of Heard Bridge in Wauchula, a place where I have launched my kayak many times. See all that water right up to the bridge?
Normally, the river wouldn't even be visible from this vantage point.
Peace River, you got some drainin' to do!
I have spent some of the summer catching up with my rock saw.
This is a piece of Pam's bounty from the Blue Forest this year. I cut and polished it for her.
Freakin' astounding!
I'm going to tell her I lost it coz I know she doesn't read my blog coz she's never left a comment. ;-)
Actually, I did venture out of the house a couple of times
to practice some ancient throwing skills.
This is me looking very serious as I'm being tutored in the throwing of the atlatl.
I will include some info on atlatls at the bottom of this blog but basically, it was a way for prehistoric peoples to hunt megafauna. Sometimes you might hear of a fossil hunter accidentally uncovering an "arrowhead" but a lot of these arrowheads where attached to long thin atlatl spears. The invention of the bow an arrow came later, after the megafauna (mammoths, ground sloths, etc.) became rare and finally extinct. The atlatl requires the hunter to have room for an approach and a large arm swing which worked ok for megafauna but not so well for smaller, quicker game such as deer or pigs. A deer would be long gone by the time a hunter wound up his atlatl throw but a bow and arrow allowed for greater stealth.
Looking at these long thin wobbly spears
made me think they would be impossible to throw but they were actually very easy to aim and a lot of fun. Tom and I briefly discussed getting a set to play with in our backyard but with the potential of a spear traveling 120 yards at 100 mph, this is a hobby best left to wide open spaces.
Here's Tom demonstrating fine atlatl form:
It was only a couple weeks later
that we undertook another, less ancient, throwing weapon:
Hatchets, baby!
Hatchets are more...forgiving...if you can use that word when discussing the throwing of sharpened metal objects. I feel secure in the knowledge that with a minimum of safety precautions ("Everyone stand BEHIND this line") and a decent sized backdrop,
I can freely imbibe in G&H's (Gin and Hatchets).
My success with the atlatl bled into my hatchet throws ("bled" might be the wrong word to use). I threw the hatchet 8 times and nailed the target 8 times.
Seacrest out!
So, as the waters slowly begin to recede,
I have been working on megalodon necklaces for my Etsy store, SolOpsArt. Check out my wares if you're looking for fossil-centric gifts.
I'll be back in the water ASAFP.
Thank you!
Here's some good ol' Wikipedia info for you on atlatl. You don't even have to click.
<<A spear-thrower or atlatl (/ˈɑːt.lɑːtəl/[1] /ˈæt.lætəl/; Nahuatl: ahtlatl Nahuatl pronunciation: [ˈaʔt͡ɬat͡ɬ]) is a toolthat uses leverage to achieve greater velocity in dart-throwing, and includes a bearing surface which allows the user to store energy during the throw.
It may consist of a shaft with a cup or a spur at the end that supports and propels the butt of the dart. The spear-thrower is held in one hand, gripped near the end farthest from the cup. The dart is thrown by the action of the upper arm and wrist. The throwing arm together with the atlatl acts as a lever. The spear-thrower is a low-mass, fast-moving extension of the throwing arm, increasing the length of the lever. This extra length allows the thrower to impart force to the dart over a longer distance, thus imparting more energy and ultimately higher speeds.[2]
Common modern ball throwers (molded plastic shafts used for throwing tennis balls for dogs to fetch) use the same principle.
A spear-thrower is a long-range weapon and can readily impart to a projectile speeds of over 150 km/h (93 mph).[3]
Spear-throwers appear very early in human history in several parts of the world, and have survived in use in traditional societies until the present day, as well as being revived in recent years for sporting purposes. In the United States the Nahuatl word atlatl is often used for revived uses of spear-throwers, and in Australia the Aboriginal word woomera.
The ancient Greeks and Romans used a leather thong or loop, known as an ankule or amentum, as a spear-throwing device.[4]
Wooden darts were known at least since the Middle Paleolithic (Schöningen, Torralba, Clacton-on-Sea and Kalambo Falls). While the spear-thrower is capable of casting a dart well over one hundred meters, it is most accurately used at distances of twenty meters or less. The spearthrower is believed to have been in use by Homo sapiens since the Upper Paleolithic (around 30,000 years ago).[7] Most stratified European finds come from the Magdalenian (late upper Palaeolithic). In this period, elaborate pieces, often in the form of animals, are common. The earliest secure data concerning atlatls have come from several caves in France dating to the Upper Paleolithic, about 21,000 to 17,000 years ago. The earliest known example is a 17,500-year-old Solutrean atlatl made of reindeer antler, found at Combe Saunière (Dordogne), France.[8]
In Europe, the spear-thrower was supplemented by the bow and arrow in the Epi-Paleolithic. Along with improved ease of use, the bow offered the advantage that the bulk of elastic energy is stored in the throwing device, rather than the projectile; arrow shafts can therefore be much smaller, and have looser tolerances for spring constant and weight distribution than atlatl darts. This allowed for more forgiving flint knapping: dart heads designed for a particular spear thrower tend to differ in mass by only a few percent. By the Iron Age, the amentum, a strap attached to the shaft, was the standard European mechanism for throwing lighter javelins. The amentum gives not only range, but also spin to the projectile.[9]
The spear-thrower was used by early Americans as well. It seems to have been introduced to America during the immigration across the Bering Land Bridge,[citation needed] and despite the later introduction of the bow and arrow,[citation needed] atlatl use was widespread at the time of first European contact. Complete wooden spear-throwers have been found on dry sites in the western USA, and in waterlogged environments in Florida and Washington. Several Amazonian tribes also used the atlatl for fishing and hunting. Some even preferred this weapon over the bow and arrow, and used it not only in combat but also in sports competitions. Such was the case with the Tarairiu, a Tapuya tribe of migratory foragers and raiders inhabiting the forested mountains and highland savannahs of Rio Grande do Norte in mid-17th-century Brazil.
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