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Thursday, April 26, 2007

By TESS NACELEWICZ

Staff Writer

When Kevin Clark practices his hobby, people take notice.

"If you're throwing near a busy road, people pull over to the side of the road and ask what's going on," he said. "I've had the police come to investigate what I'm doing."

Clark explained to the police officer that throwing a 7-foot spear at a target is a hobby akin to archery. He said the officer's comment was: "That looks like fun."

Spear throwing is an ancient tradition, but it's still practiced today in Maine and around the nation. And Clark, an archaeology student at the University of Southern Maine, recently gave a demonstration at USM's Gorham campus on the use of the age-old weapon.

His demonstration took place earlier this month at USM's second annual Knap-In.

The family-friendly event -- which drew about 200 people -- is a celebration of ancient technologies, including flint knapping -- the art of crafting tools from stone -- fire-making and spear throwing.

To throw a spear, Clark makes use of an atlatl.

An atlatl, sometimes spelled atl-atl, is a wooden device used to throw a spear farther than it would go just by hand.

"The atlatl has been around for over 10,000 years and is found pretty much throughout all the cultures of the world," said Clark, a member of USM's Geography-Anthropology Student Association, which hosts the annual Knap-In.

Nathan Hamilton, a USM associate professor of archaeology, said an atlatl, which is about 18 inches long with a hook at the end, "acts like an extension of your arm and allows you to throw with greater velocity and with greater accuracy." He said the word is an Aztec one. The Aztecs were one of the peoples who used the atlatl, Hamilton said.

He said the bow and arrow is a relatively recent invention -- bows and arrows have been used only about 3,000 years -- compared to the spear and atlatl.

Hamilton said demonstrations at the Knap-In such as flint knapping and spear throwing -- which members of the public also got to try their hands at -- are good ways to learn about the value of archaeology.

He said it also underscores the importance of preserving archaeological sites, because finds such as arrowheads yield more information if they can be studied in their historical context.

"Experiential learning, hands-on stuff, people remember a lot of that," Hamilton said.

Clark said that although throwing a spear 20 yards or so away looks like it might be dangerous, "you have a lot of control over where it goes it's really safe."

He said he learned about atlatls and spears in class and thought they would be fun to try. Clark said he's been throwing for about two years.

He bought his spears -- he has about 30 of them -- and atlatls over the Internet at www.thunderbirdatlatl.com. He recommends the site as a source of information that also provides links to atlatl associations around the country and in Europe.

Clark said he and his wife, fellow archaeology student Ann Wittman, practice throwing spears on soccer fields and other open areas around Biddeford, where they live.

And in September, Clark plans to participate in a national atlatl competition in Danvers, Mass.

"It's really just an atlatl accuracy contest," he said. "It's just like an archery contest or any sharp-shooting contest. You stand a certain distance away from a target, in our case 15 meters."

He said such competitions draw all kinds of people, ranging from archaeologists to amateur archaeologists to people who just enjoy outdoor sports.

"It's laid back, where people just have fun," Clark said.

"It's hard to be serious when you're throwing a 7-foot-long spear over your head."

Staff Writer Tess Nacelewicz can be contacted at 791-6367 or at: