POWER MATERIALIZED: THE DART-THROWER AS A PAN-MESOAMERICAN STATUS MARKER Donald A. Slater Department of Anthropology, Brandeis University, Brown 228, MS 006, 415 South Street, Waltham, MA 02453; Robert S. Peabody Museum of Archaeology, Phillips Academy, 175 Main Street, Andover, MA 01810 Abstract Throughout the deep history of Mesoamerica, the dart-thrower (a.k.a. atlatl) played a vital utilitarian and symbolic role. Although it was a highly effective tool exploited for practical purposes such as hunting and warfare, ample evidence exists which reveals its association with themes of authority, power, and prestige. The survival of ornamented dart-throwers, as well as the context in which the implement appears in Mesoamerican material culture and forms of graphic communication, reveal its role in the production and assertion of high social status. This argument will be supported by archaeological and ethnographic evidence which demonstrates that the dart-thrower served as a pan-Mesoamerican symbol of power beginning no later than the Middle to Late Formative period and continuing through the Conquest. Appearing during the Late Pleistocene epoch (Farmer 1994:680), the dart-thrower became an important component of the human tool kit. More powerful than a hand-launched spear, the dart-thrower greatly magnified the force with which a projectile could be pro- pelled (Howard 1974:102), and came to be used in regions as diverse as Europe, Oceania, and the Americas (Dickson 1985: 7–9; Raymond 1986:153). In Mesoamerica, dart-thrower utilization can be inferentially traced to the Paleoindian period and continued well into the twentieth century (Beyer 1969 [1927]; Saville 1925:52; Starr 1899:Plate XXI; Stirling 1960; von Winning 1958:96). In certain contexts the dart-thrower was more than a utilitarian tool for hunting and warfare. Great amounts of time and effort were invested into producing elaborately crafted dart-throwers. Such items served as symbolic, indexical, and iconic signs, which, when brandished, imbued their bearers with an aura of pres- tige, elevated status, and power. Despite its significance in Mesoamerica, the dart-thrower has received little scholarly attention in the region and is primarily men- tioned as a side-note in most publications, with some early excep- tions including Zelia Nuttall (1891), Eduard Seler (1990 [1904]), Marshall H. Saville (1925), and Eduardo Noguera (1945). To address this, the following paper demonstrates that the device was used as a pan-Mesoamerican symbol of power. This utilization was not consistent across temporal and spatial boundaries and will be traced using archaeological and historical data from a variety of Mesoamerican cultural groups. THE DART-THROWER A dart-thrower is a slender, usually wooden, implement which must include a small spur or notch at its distal end to facilitate contact with a flexible dart. The rear of the dart must consist of a small socket or tapered end depending on the setup of the dart-thrower. Darts are normally fletched. A typical dart-thrower is approximately 60 cm in length (Johnson 1971:191) with a diameter of roughly 2.5–5 cm. Aside from the above parameters, dart-throwers can be highly variable. They can be plain or elaborately decorated. The shaft can be round or flat and the handle can include some form of finger grips that are part of the structure of the shaft, or separate loops which are affixed to the implement with cordage. Conversely, some examples include no loops at all and were simply held in the hand. A dart-thrower is used by grasping its proximal end and mounting a dart onto the spur at the distal end of the implement. The projectile is then launched using a motion that is similar to an overhand baseball throw. The properties of the dart-thrower and dart, coupled with the exertion of human force, can result in the launching of the projectile at speeds greater than 160 km/h (Perkins 2008a). It seems clear that the advent of such a tool must have dramatically increased humans’ hunting efficiency and ability to protect themselves from predators. Based on the physics involved with its use, it is clear that the dart- thrower has several distinct advantages over a hand-thrust or -thrown spear. In many parts of the world during the Late Pleistocene, humans co-existed with a host of dangerous animals such as mammoths and saber tooth cats. Whether for sustenance or self-preservation, the dart- thrower allowed its user to maintain a greater distance from the target and hence minimize the chance of a potentially lethal close encounter. It also provided benefits in terms of hunting smaller, more skittish animals, enabling the stealthy ambush of such prey. Furthermore, the added force that the dart-thrower imparted on its projectile increased the likelihood of a successful kill by virtue of its far greater penetrating power. Later, as I demonstrate below, the dart- thrower was also used as a weapon of war. Terminology. In both scholarly and popular English language literature, the dart-thrower is not known by a single term. It is often referred to by its Nahuatl name, atlatl, but also has been called a “spear-thrower” and a “throwing-stick.” This implement is also known by a variety of regional names in different languages. 371 E-mail correspondence to: dslater@brandeis.edu Ancient Mesoamerica, 22 (2011), 371–388 Copyright © Cambridge University Press, 2011 doi:10.1017/S0956536111000277