Throwing-Stick

(also spear-thrower), a device for throwing spears that increases the range of the flight and the power and precision of the strike. Throwing-sticks were invented in the Paleolithic period and were made of bone. They were also used by the aborigines of Australia and Oceania, by a number of Indian tribes of North and South America, and by several peoples of Northeast Asia.

Throwing-sticks consisted of a wooden rod or board (rectangular or sword-shaped, measuring 5–12 cm wide and 30–150 cm long) with a groove and a rest for the shaft of the spear. They were decorated with carvings and incrustations; sometimes they were painted.