ATLATLS with Angelo Robledo
5/29/202629 min
Spears! Sharp rocks! Ancient tools, bows and arrows and ...atlatls? What’s an atlatl? Experimental archaeologist and decades-long ancient tool enthusiast Angelo Robledo is as passionate as an ologist can get. You likely have never heard of an atlatl, but by the end of the episode you’ll be carving one out of old lumber. Also covered: the earliest stone tools, neanderthal hunting strategies, Indigenous traditions, ancient action figures, what to do if you find artifacts on a hike, and the physics of how far you can lob ancient weaponry.
Follow Angelo Robledo on Instagram
Check out the World Atlatl Association
A donation went to the Black Trowel Collective
Full-length (*not* G-rated) Experimental Archaeology episode + tons of science links
More kid-friendly Smologies episodes!
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Sound editing by Mercedes Maitland of Maitland Audio Productions, Jake Chaffee, Jarrett Sleeper of MindJam Media & Steven Ray Morris
Made possible by work from Noel Dilworth, Susan Hale, Kelly R. Dwyer, Aveline Malek and Erin Talbert
Smologies theme song by Harold Malcolm
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSpeaker 10:00
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Speaker 20:11
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Speaker 10:35
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Speaker 20:38
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Alie Ward· Host0:45
Oh, hey, it's that tattered Halloween wig you know is gonna come in handy someday. Ally Ward. Oh, hey, you have arrived. This is Smologies. These are shorter kid-friendly episodes of Ologies classics. We turned them down. We made them classroom safe. Okay for all ages. And this one, I had such a good time talking to this guest. I remember I was in a closet at my parents' house interviewing, and we just chatted on and on and on. It was really hard to cut this one down because we had a great long conversation, completely unexpected how absolutely fascinating this is. And also, this is a younger guest who is one of the world experts in what he does, despite being an undergrad when we chatted. I'm still pals with him. I literally just texted him today. So