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Estimated 135,000,000 Deer Killed In Pennsylvania With Atlatls, While Modern Hunting Implements Kill Only 23 Million

There is a rock shelter in southwestern Pennsylvania called Meadowcroft. There is evidence there of continuous habitation for at least 15,000 years. Let’s conservatively estimate the average amount of hunter/gatherers living in Pennsylvania at say 1000 people. If these people averaged 10 deer killed per person per year that would mean 135 million deer killed over the last 14, 500 years with atlatls.

The bow came into existence in PA about 1200 years ago. I’m going to estimate Native Americans may have killed 5 million deer during the next seven hundred years with bows and arrows. Five hundred years ago the first Europeans laid their eyes on what would become Pennsylvania but when William Penn got here in the late 1600s his people started to hunt and kill deer regularly. In 1721 the first game laws were promulgated. Deer became rare in PA by 1900 and hunting them trailed off until 1915 when deer started coming back into PA. I’m going to estimate that during that time another five million deer were taken.

It took a half century to harvest the first million deer using modern weapons.

Then from 1950 to 1970 another million and a half deer were killed. From 1970 to 1990 another 4 million deer were killed. Since 1990 another six and a half million deer were killed. A grand total of 23 million deer have been taken with bows and arrows and guns. By these extremely conservative figures, the atlatl is only ahead by 110 million deer kills in the state of Pennsylvania.

I got these figures from the Pennsylvania Game Commission and estimates of prehistoric habitation in Pennsylvania from a talk by Dr Adivasio at the Meadowcroft Rock shelter in 2003. So tell me now that the atlatl is not lethal enough to kill a deer.

Bob Berg

Split Ash Dart Shaft from Logs Using Stone, Antler and Wooden Tools

Split Ash Dart Shaft From Logs Using Stone, Antler and Wooden Tools

The following pictures show a progression from ash log to dart shafts in a project I did with students from Mercyhurst College in North East Pennsylvania. This method may yield 20 to 50 shafts from a small log about 6 inches in diameter. Ash is my favored dart material for hunting and fishing. This experiment was done with stone, antler and wooden tools to show that Native Americans had the technology to make dart shafts easily from trees. It took 2 hours to get to the point where we stopped because of darkness, but we had made several darts. I think two people working together could make a year’s supply of hunting darts in a few days using this method. If the shafts were stored in a lodge where they were dry and exposed to smoke they would become nicely seasoned in a matter of weeks. Fire hardening makes them ready for use immediately.
These are not exactly in order but I think you can see how it was done.

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Bob Berg

Atlatl Fishing on the Cumberland River

I just got back from an atlatl fishing expedition out in western Kentucky. The first night out, we went with Joe Ewing on his Super Galactic Chronosynclastic Magnatronic Fan Boat. It was a great experience mixing the high tech fishing boat with the atlatl. We went both forward and backward in time to capture living creatures of the deep in the Cumberland River.

Joe piloted the boat over the rippled surface of the dark water then would give us the signal: “ready?” When the lights went on, darts plunged into the water usually creating a piscatorial eruption and an instant tightening of the retrieval lines.
Soon there was only the little round red and white float attached to the end of the line in my left hand. When the fish was large enough or strong enough sometimes I had to release the float and retrieve it later after the fish was out of fight. The line made a zinging sound as the fish attempted to make a retreat for the bottom but the barbs of the harpoon did not release the hold until the catch was safely in the boat.
We landed Spoonbill Catfish, Asian Carp, and Buffalo Fish all edible species of top feeding, plankton nourished fish. The Spoonbill Catfish isn’t a catfish at all but an ancient fish probably more related to the shark than anything else. It has cartilage vertebrae and no bones. The slimy smooth skin like a catfish and lack of bones makes the Spoonbill far easier than a catfish to clean and prepare for the table. After gutting and removing the head, I sliced the meaty body like a fishy loaf of bread in pieces about an inch thick each. I grilled some of the steaks and deep fried some in olive oil. My favorite Cajon seasonings and a garnish of lemon brought dinner up to kingly status. Glasses of chardonnay rang like small bells over the table as we retold our hunting and fishing stories for the umpteenth time.
I reminisce with great satisfaction the many atlatl hunting and fishing trips I’ve gone on over the years with my friends from Kentucky. The Adams Family and Leggs White who survive my good friend Wendell (better known as Big Wooly) who passed on a couple of years ago form the core of the people I enjoy spending the weekend of the Kentucky Derby with. It’s a tradition I hate to miss.
Bob Berg

History of the Fingerless or “Y” Atlatl

Prior to 1990 or so I came up with a design for an atlatl that later turned into the “Wyalusing” It was the first atlatl ever recorded to have “rests”. I have looked for other examples that may have existed prior to this but has only found one type of atlatl that had any type of rest. That particular type of atlatl is from Indonesia. However that style of rest was used differently as the thumb was used to press the dart against the side of a protrusion coming out of the side of the atlatl, rather than the index finger and thumb or just the index finger holding the dart in a shallow groove.

In 1991 I went to Flint Ridge Ohio where I met Carl Fry who was also interested in atlatls. We started showing some flintknappers how atlatls worked and other people joined in. I proudly displayed my newly designed atlatl which was to eventually become the one named the “Wyalusing”. Among those who joined the group was none other than Ray Strischek. I remember well the day I taught Ray how to use the atlatl. I remember him because of his red hair and how he was so thrilled with the atlatl.

Another atlatlist from that time was Robert Stewart from Cincinatti Ohio. Bob Stewart made a version of my atlatl that changed the design of the “Wyalusing” a little so that no fingers were needed to hold the dart on the rest. Ray then went home and came up with the first “Y” atlatl. And on it went through a few other atlatlists including Chuck Butorjac and Terry Keefer. Many others made various versions of the “Y” atlatl but there needs to be no conjecture from whence it or any atlatl that has a rest on it, came from. You may check out this history through Ray and Bob Stewart.

At the time I had no idea that it was a unique idea but when I received as a gift a book called Zur Technologie der jungpalaeolithischen Sperschleuder by Ulrich Stodiek Pub. 1993 of Germany I looked for examples of atlatls with rests and found none. The book is an exhaustive treatise on atlatls from all over the world. Prior to my designing of precursors to what is now the modern atlatl I don’t believe there was anyone making atlatls that were not based on actual artifacts. So you really don’t have to be vague about the origins of these types of atlatls. All modern atlatls with rests on them are derivative works based originally on mine.

Incidentally, Cheryll and I went out to Flint Ridge almost every year in May and September from 1991 until recently. The atlatl contests that we enjoy today at Flint Ridge are the result of my constant effort over the years making, selling and teaching folks about the atlatl. Ray Strischek really pushed it too. It was sort of like lighting a fuse. The contest at Letchworth started because I ran the Eastern Seaboard contest a couple of years in Apalachin, NY after Gary Fogleman passed it on to me from its original beginnings in State College in Pennsylvania. I took it to Letchworth and ran it for most of the time it was at Trailside.

Gary took it back over recently as I have all I can do to run my atlatl business at the shows. Cheryll and I also brought the atlatl to Pennsic which was really a long shot but it paid off with the Aztec/Cortez connection with the late Middle Ages. Many of the atlatl events that are held around the country (especially in the east) owe their existance to the fact that I have either sold atlatls to tens of thousands of people or at least taught them about them.