Weapon Type
Slings & Thrown
Slings, javelins, throwing axes.
Slings & Thrown Weapons
Ranged Weapons — Subcategory
Overview
Before the bow, before the crossbow, and before firearms, humans threw things — rocks, darts, and bladed weapons — to kill at a distance. This category covers the oldest human ranged weapons and the specialized tools developed to extend throwing range and power. While technologically simpler than the bow, the best-trained slingers and atlatl hunters could be astonishingly effective.
The Atlatl (Spear-Thrower)
The atlatl is a tool that extends the effective arm length, dramatically increasing the force and range of a thrown spear:
- A rigid stick 30–75 cm long with a hook or cup at one end
- The spear (dart) rests in the cup; the atlatl acts as a lever extension of the arm
- Effective range: 40–100 meters; some estimates higher
- Dominant human ranged weapon from roughly 30,000 BCE until the bow displaced it
- Still used by Aboriginal Australians (woomera) and recreationally in modern atlatl sport
The Sling
The sling is a woven or leather pouch on two cords, used to whirl a stone and release it at speed:
- A trained slinger could achieve projectile velocities of 100+ km/h
- Effective range: 200–400 meters for skilled slingers
- Ammunition: river stones or purpose-made lead sling bullets (glandes)
- Lead glandes — Cast lead bullets, often inscribed with curses or the name of the unit; shaped like a lemon; stable in flight; heavy enough to injure through light armor
Ancient Slingers
- Balearic slingers — The most feared slingers of antiquity; from the Balearic Islands (Mallorca, Menorca); hired as mercenaries across the Mediterranean; reportedly practiced from childhood, required to sling for their food
- Roman use — Roman armies used auxiliary slingers (often Balearic) to complement archers
- Greek use — Both sides at Syracuse (415–413 BCE) used slingers; Xenophon's Anabasis records the effectiveness of Persian slingers against Greek archers
Thrown Weapons
Javelin
A javelin is a lightweight spear designed for throwing:
- Shorter and lighter than a thrusting spear; balance point more forward
- Roman pilum — The definitive military javelin; heavy iron shank that bent on impact; see Spears & Lances
- Greek akontism — Throwing the javelin with a leather throwing strap (ankyle) to impart spin and range
Throwing Axes
- Francisca — Frankish throwing axe (5th–7th century); heavy recurved axe head on a short handle; thrown in a rotation to strike at leg level or face; could also be used in hand
- Tomahawk — Native American; thrown and hand-use; adopted by European colonists
- Chinese flying claw — Weighted iron claw on a rope; thrown to ensnare and pull
Shuriken (Throwing Stars)
- Japanese small thrown weapons; flat metal plates in star shapes or straight rods (bō shuriken)
- Used for distraction and harassment rather than killing
- Associated with ninja; actually used by samurai as supplementary weapons
Bola
- Multiple weighted balls on cords; thrown to tangle legs of animals or humans
- Widespread across indigenous cultures from Patagonia to the Great Plains
This article is a stub. Contributions covering specific thrown weapons, cultures, and techniques are welcome.
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Atlatl
The atlatl is a spear-thrower: a hand-held lever, usually of wood or antler, that hooks the butt of a light spear or dart and effectively lengthens the thrower's arm. The extra leverage roughly doubles a dart's range and multiplies its striking energy, and for tens of thousands of years — long before the bow reached most of the world — it was humanity's premier ranged weapon, used on every inhabited continent from Ice Age Europe to Aztec Mexico.
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Clovis Point
The Clovis point is the signature stone weapon of the first widespread culture in North America, produced for a few centuries around 13,000 years ago. Knapped from fine stone with a distinctive channel — the flute — driven up each face from the base, it tipped thrusting spears and atlatl darts used against the continent's last mammoths and mastodons. Finds from Alaska to Central America make it one of the most widely distributed weapon designs of the entire Stone Age.
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Roman Pilum
The pilum was the Roman legionary's heavy javelin: a barbed iron head on a long, thin iron shank socketed into a wooden shaft, thrown in a devastating volley seconds before the charge. Its genius was what happened after impact — the slender shank bent or snapped so the weapon could not be picked up and thrown back by the enemy, and a pilum lodged fast in a shield dragged it down and out of the fight. Every legionary carried two.
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Tomahawk
The tomahawk is the light axe of the North American frontier: an Algonquian name, a Native American weapon concept, and a European-forged iron head, fused by the fur trade into the continent's universal sidearm. Warriors, rangers, and frontiersmen all carried it for two centuries as tool, weapon, and diplomatic symbol — the pipe tomahawk smoked for peace and swung for war — and American soldiers, four centuries later, still buy, issue, and carry its direct descendants.