US DOLLAR
EURO
AUSTRALIAN DOLLAR
CANADIAN DOLLAR
POUND STERLING
Product Description
SEE MORE PRE-COLUMBIAN WEAPONS AND TOOLS
This is a well-provenanced set of TWO Pre-Columbian West Mexico Shaft-Tomb Culture BIFACIAL ATLATL POINTS. They both display a design where they would have been wrapped and hafted onto a shaft. Each was masterfully fashioned out of CHERT, a substance RARE from this region and the only TWO examples of a large collection found in the Lake Sayula Region of Jalisco, Mexico. The hand-written find location and date notes from Dr. Heflin are still intact on the reverse sides. This set comes from the famous Dr. Allen Heflin Collection, formed from his work in Mexico from 1946 into the 1970's.
HISTORY
The Atlatl or Spear (Dart) Thrower was a weapon used to hurl darts called "tlacochtli" with greater force and from greater range than they could be thrown by hand. This weapon was considered by the Aztecs to be suited only for royalty and the most elite warriors in the army, and was usually depicted as being the weapon of the Gods. Murals at Teotihuacan show warriors using this effective weapon and it is characteristic of the Mesoamerican cultures of central Mexico. Warriors at the front lines of the army would carry the atlatl and about three to five throwing darts which they would launch after waves of arrows and sling projectiles as they advanced into battle before engaging into melee combat. The "darts" launched from an Atlatl were more like big arrows about 5.9 feet long. Tipped with obsidian, chert, bone or copper heads.
