Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T08:50:38.321Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

THE AZTEC ATLATL IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 August 2015

John C. Whittaker
John C. Whittaker*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa 50112
*
E-mail correspondence to: whittake@grinnell.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The British Museum's Aztec atlatl is one of their most famous Mesoamerican objects, yet it has not been studied as a weapon in light of current knowledge of spear-throwers, and the details necessary to do so have not been published. Close examination and experimental replication shows that although it is ornately decorated, it is a serviceable spear-thrower. While evidence of actual use of this specimen is ambiguous, we can at least accept the form as an example of working weapons of Contact period Mesoamerica. The actual effects and circumstances of atlatl use against the Spanish and others are difficult to judge from surviving accounts. The iconography of the decoration, as in other instances, associated this atlatl with elite warfare and deities of war and sacrifice.

Type
Research Article
Information
Ancient Mesoamerica , Volume 26 , Issue 1 , Spring 2015 , pp. 69 - 79
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Aguirre, Alejandra, and Chávez, Ximena 2012 Personified Knives, Aztecs at Mexicolore webpage. Electronic document, http://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/artefacts/personified-knives, accessed May 15, 2013.Google Scholar
Bacon, Jack 1995 World Record Set at Delaney Farm. Aurora Sentinel 19 July: 15–16.Google Scholar
Bandelier, Adolf F. A. 1877 On the Art of War and Mode of Warfare of the Ancient Mexicans. Reports of the Peabody Museum 10:95–161. Harvard University, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Beyer, Hermann 1965 Sobre una representación del dios Mixcoatl en el atlatl Mexicano del Museo Britanico. Mito y Symbolismo del Mexico Antiguo 10:326–329.Google Scholar
Blinkenberg, Christopher 1911 The Thunderweapon in Religion and Folklore: A Study in Comparative Archaeology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Boone, Elizabeth H. 2008 Aztec Writing and History. In The Aztec World, edited by Brumfiel, Elizabeth M. and Feinman, Gary M., pp. 178–194. Abrams, New York.Google Scholar
Museum, British 1912 A Short Guide to the American Antiquities in the British Museum. British Museum, London.Google Scholar
Bushnell, David I. 1905 Two Ancient Mexican Atlatls. American Anthropologist 7:218–221.Google Scholar
Bushnell, David I. 1906 North American Ethnographical Material in Italian Collections. American Anthropologist 8:243–255.Google Scholar
Cahill, Tim 1987 Perfecting Stone Age Technology: The Atlatl, A Great Leap Backward. Mother Earth News, July. BPS Engineering web page. Electronic document, http://www.atlatl.com, accessed January 12, 2002.Google Scholar
Cattelain, Pierre 1986 Traces macroscopiques d'utilisation sur les propulseurs Paléolithiques. Helinium 26:193–205.Google Scholar
Chastain, Dennis 2008 Peter Lindsay: Primitive Technologist. South Carolina Wildlife November–December:4–9.Google Scholar
Coggins, Clemency C., and Ladd, John M. 1992 Wooden Artifacts. In Artifacts from the Cenote of Sacrifice, Chichen Itza, Yucatan: Textiles, Basketry, Stone, Bone, Shell, Ceramics, Wood, Copal, Rubber, Other Organic Materials, and Mammalian Remains, edited by Coggins, Clemency C., pp. 235–344. Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Coggins, Clemency C., and Shane, Orrin C. 1984 Cenote of Sacrifice: Maya Treasures from the Sacred Well at Chichen Itza. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Cook de Leonard, Carmen 1956 Dos atlatl de la epoca Teotihuacana. In Estudios Antropológicos publicados en homenaje al Doctor Manuel Gamio, pp. 183–200. Dirección General de Publicaciones, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Crosby, Alfred W. 2002 Throwing Fire: Projectile Technology Through History. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Cushing, Frank H. 1895 The Arrow. The American Anthropologist 8:307–349.Google Scholar
Daniels, V., and Oddy, W. A. 1993 Analysis of Red Pigment from Aztec Spear Thrower. The British Museum Department of Conservation, Conservation Research Section. Electronic document, http://www.britishmuseum.org/csrmellondpfs/AR1993-26_u.pdf, accessed April 12, 2009.Google Scholar
Díaz, Gisele, and Rodgers, Alan 1993 The Codex Borgia: A Full-Color Restoration of the Ancient Mexican Manuscript. Dover Publications, New York.Google Scholar
Channel, Discovery 2011 Weapon Masters. DVD. Discovery Communications LLC, Silver Spring, MD.Google Scholar
Ekholm, Gordon F. 1962 U-Shaped “Ornaments” Identified as Finger-Loops from Atlatls. American Antiquity 28:181–185.Google Scholar
Hassig, Ross 1988 Aztec Warfare: Imperial Expansion and Political Control. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Lansac, Jean Pierre 2001 Discussion d'un cadre chronologique pour l'utilization du propulseur et de l'arc. Unpublished Master's thesis, University of Bordeaux, Talence, France. Electronic document, http://perso.wanadoo.fr/archeries/MEMOIRE.htm, accessed August 20, 2001.Google Scholar
Lockhart, James 1993 We People Here: Nahuatl Accounts of the Conquest of Mexico. University of California Press, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
López Luján, Leonardo 2005 The Offerings of the Templo Major of Tenochtitlan. 2nd ed. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.Google Scholar
McEwan, Colin 2009 Ancient American Art in Detail. Harvard University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
McEwan, Colin, and López Luján, Lenoardo (editors) 2009 Moctezuma: Aztec Ruler. British Museum Press, London.Google Scholar
Mason, Otis T. 1885 Throwing Sticks in the National Museum. In Report of the United States National Museum for 1884, Vol. 2, pp. 279–290, Plates 1–16. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Maudslay, Alfred Percival 1908 The True History of the Conquest of New Spain, by Bernal Diaz del Castillo, One of its Conquerors, From the Only Exact Copy Made of the Original Manuscript, Edited and Published in Mexico by Genaro García, Translated into English, with Introduction and Notes, by Edward Percival Maudslay. 5 vols. Hakluyt Society Works, 2nd Series, No. XXIII, London.Google Scholar
Meeks, Nigel 1992 Report on the Scientific Examination of the Gilding on an Aztec Spear Thrower. British Museum Department of Scientific Research report, File No. 6318, London.Google Scholar
Minelli, Laura Laurencich 1993 I due antichi atlatl messicani del Museo Nazionale di Antropologia e Etnologia di Firenze. Archivio per l'antropologia e la etnologia 123:391–403.Google Scholar
Nuttall, Zelia 1891 The Atlatl or Spear-Thrower of the Ancient Mexicans. Archaeological and Ethnographic Papers of the Peabody Museum, Vol. 1, No. 3. Harvard University, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Nuttall, Zelia and Miller, Arthur G. 1975 The Codex Nuttall: A Picture Manuscript from Ancient Mexico. Dover Publications, New York.Google Scholar
Pastrana, Alejandro, and Hirth, Kenneth G. 2002 Biface Production and Craft Specialization: A View from Sierra de las Navajas, Hidalgo. In Mesoamerican Lithic Technology: Experimentation and Interpretation, edited by Hirth, Kenneth G., pp. 197–207. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Parsons, Jeffery R. 2008 Environment and Rural Economy. In The Aztec World, edited by Brumfiel, Elizabeth M. and Feinman, Gary M., pp. 22–52. Abrams, New York.Google Scholar
Pasztory, Esther 1983 Aztec Art. Abrams, New York.Google Scholar
Sahagún, Fray Bernardino de 1975 General History of the Things of New Spain: Florentine Codex, Book 12: The Conquest of Mexico. Translated by Anderson, Arthur J. O. and Dibble, Charles E.. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Saville, Marshall H. 1925 The Wood-Carver's Art in Ancient Mexico. Contributions of the Museum of the American Indian, Vol. 9. The Heye Foundation, New York.Google Scholar
Schwaller, John F. 2009 Broken Spears or Broken Bones: Evolution of the Most Famous Line in Nahuatl. The Americas 66:241–252.Google Scholar
Seler, Eduard 1890 Altmexicanische Wurfbretter. Internationales Archiv fur Ethnographie Band III:137–148.Google Scholar
Sheets, Payson D., Ladd, John M., and Bathgate, David 1992 Chipped-Stone Artifacts. In Artifacts from the Cenote of Sacrifice, Chichen Itza, Yucatan: Textiles, Basketry, Stone, Bone, Shell, Ceramics, Wood, Copal, Rubber, Other Organic Materials, and Mammalian Remains, edited by Coggins, Clemency C., pp. 153–189. Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Slater, Donald A. 2011 Power Materialized: The Dart-Thrower as a Pan-Mesoamerican Status Marker. Ancient Mesoamerica 22:371–388.Google Scholar
Smith, Michael E. 1996 The Aztecs. Blackwell Publishers Ltd, Oxford.Google Scholar
Starr, Frederick 1898 Some North American Spear-Throwers. Archives Internationales d'Ethnographie 11:233–235, Plate XV.Google Scholar
Starr, Frederick 1901 Notes Upon the Ethnography of Southern Mexico. Proceedings of the Davenport Academy of Sciences 8:102–198.Google Scholar
Stirling, Matthew W. 1960 The Use of the Atlatl on Lake Patzcuaro, Michoacan. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 173:265–268. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Stolpe, Hjalmar 1890 Ueber altmexikanische und südamerikanische wurfbretter. Internationales Archiv fur Ethnographie 3:234–238.Google Scholar
Swanton, John R. 1938 Historic Use of the Spear-Thrower in Southeastern North America. American Antiquity 3:356–358.Google Scholar
Uhle, Max 1887 Ueber die wurfhölzer der Indianer Amerikas. Mitteilungen der Anthropologischen Gesellschaft in Wien 17:109–114.Google Scholar
Urcid, Javier 2006 Antigüedad y distribución de la danza de los Voladores: Águilas que descienden, corazones que ascienden. Arqueología Mexicana 14:70–74.Google Scholar
Urcid, Javier 2010 Dart Thrower. In Ancient Mexican Art at Dumbarton Oaks: Central Highlands, Southwestern Highlands, Gulf Lowlands, edited by Evans, Susan Toby, pp. 210–220. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Whittaker, John C. 2009 Annotated Atlatl Bibliography. Electronic document, http://web.grinnell.edu/anthropology/Faculty/JohnWhittaker/Articles/Annotated%20Atlatl%20Bibliography2009.doc, accessed May 15, 2013.Google Scholar
Whittaker, John C. 2010 Weapon Trials: The Atlatl and Experiments in Hunting Technology. In Designing Experimental Research in Archaeology: Examining Technology Through Production and Use, edited by Ferguson, Jeff, pp. 195–224. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.Google Scholar
Whittaker, John C. 2011 Cushing's Key Marco Atlatls: Reconstructions and Experiments. Ethnoarchaeology 3:139–162.Google Scholar
Whittaker, John C. 2015 Levers, Not Springs: How a Spearthrower Works and Why it Matters. In Multidisciplinary Scientific Approaches to the Study of Stone-Age Weaponry, edited by Iovita, Radu and Sano, Katsuhiro. Springer Verlag. In press.Google Scholar
Wiltens, Jim 1990 The Amazing Atlatl. Black Belt (August):66–69.Google Scholar