Dr. James Fitzsimmons

And the other was for battle, for a weapon of war.

They were using it in battle.

And if you ever have thrown one of these things or sort of... So if you have a dog...

Tennis ball thrower.

Yeah, tennis ball thrower, sad descendant of the spear thrower.

That's what it is.

It's the exact same principle.

You just put a, don't do this, do not try this at home.

They put a spear on the other end of it and basically it does the exact same thing.

So it produces sort of this, gives you like an extra limb with a bigger arm, you know, just to throw, right?

And, uh,

So I've been doing this for 21 years.

It was, for a long time, sort of the symbol of Central Mexican dominance.

When the Teotihuacanos came in and went into the Maya area, they brought these things with them.

If you had to point out one weapon for Mexico that would symbolize Mexico in the pre-Columbian times, it would be the spear thrower.

That is like, oh, folks from Central Mexico are here.

Can we get a picture of the atlatl?

Yeah.

That's what it is.

It's like, oh, they're here.