Home › Forums › Campfire Forum › German storks, African arrows › Reply To: German storks, African arrows
Wow, Jim, that’s truly fascinating. (I had lots of time to read when I was in the military too, while others were shooting pool or playing Ping-Pong.)
First, I wonder if the town name Klutz has anything to do with the origin of that slang term for a clumsy person?
Second and more interesting, I am guessing that’s an atlatl dart/spear, not an arrow. First there’s no fletching. And even if we overlook the length, the diameter and overall mass seem too great for an arrow. Nor do I see a string notch, though it could be there. But arrow or dart, it does demonstrate some feature that harken back to the Paleolithic, or old stone age, namely the detachable foreshaft, so that the shaft can be retrieved from an animal and quickly fitted with a new foreshaft (to which the broadhead is fitted), saving labor in making a new shaft, the need to carry multiple complete darts or spears, and allowing for “speed loading” during an active hunt. Second, the broadhead appears to be stone and of a shape amazingly similar to heads an anthropologist friend (and fellow trad bowhunter) is digging up in Ethiopia, dating to the Mesolithic (middle stone age), some 40,000 years ago. He thinks they could be arrowheads, as they’re too small (smaller than this one) to be dart points. Maybe …
Finally … poor damn bird. I hate it when we don’t get it right.