Here we provide links to some of our slow motion videos that show atlatls and darts in action. These have helped us tremendously in understanding how the atlatl and dart operates.
~The Moche Toss is a recreation of an ancient Peruvian sport/ceremony in which participants use atlatls and darts to launch feathered objects into the air, and then try to ensnare them before they hit the ground. It is both highly entertaining and carries archaeological significance.
~Video 1 referenced in Devin Pettigrew’s 2015 thesis, “The Ballistics of Archaic Atlatls and Darts”. Three sequences of slow motion video are compiled to help explain 1) basic motions of launching a dart with an atlatl, 2) characteristics of darts in flight, and 3) the transverse wave effect that leads to oscillation in the dart.
~This video shows replica atlatls that are flexible in the act of launching darts, to show that neither the flex of the atlatl nor that of the dart adds spring action to the launch. This video goes with the article “Flexible Atlatls Caught in Slow Motion” in the General section.