A Gaulish Throwing Stick Discovery in Normandy: Study and Throwing Experimentations

Abstract

In 2010 archaeological excavations on the pre-Roman site of Urville Nacqueville, Normandy (France) discovered a shaped unknown wooden implement. This boomerang shaped wooden artefact, dated from 120 to 80 BC, has been found in an enclosure trench of a Gaulish village close to a ritual deposit of whalebones. The careful study of this implement, aside from archaeological and ethnological comparison, shows that it has probably been used more like a bird-hunting throwing stick. To test this hypothesis, experimental crafting and throwing of a replica has been conducted, aiming to get more information about its functionality from the various flying trajectories obtained.

Keywords

• weapon
• reconstruction
• boomerang
• iron age
• france