This video focuses on what an atlatl, or spearthrower, is in Mesoamerica. To introduce this important weapon technology and how artists showed it, we look to the Toltec Atlantids at Tula in Central Mexico and a wooden atlatl made by the Mixtecs.

Speaker: Dr. Lauren Kilroy-Ewbank

CHAPTERS

0:00 The Atlantids at Tula and their iconography

0:39 What is an atlatl?

1:31 A Mixtec atlatl made of wood

1:58 Decoration on the atlatl

Learn more

• Learn more about Mesoamerica: https://www.artsq.org/mesoamerica-introduction

• Check out our entire glossary of art history: https://www.artsq.org/about-key-terms-ideas-art-history