Dart (missile)
Some of the earliest evidence of advanced tool use includes remnants of an early type of dart, which can be considered the ancestor of arrows as well as bows.
This is held by friction onto a thin, flexible main shaft a few metres in length, with fletching and a (usually socket-like) nock at the opposite end.
As throwing begins, a dart of this type is designed to flex in compression between the accelerating force at its nock and the inertia of its weighted point, storing energy.
Late in this throw, as the point moves faster and so offers less resistance, the dart releases most of this energy by springing away from the thrower.
The best written source for these tactical weapons is Vegetius's treatise known as De Re Militari (1.17): In Europe, the spear-thrower was supplemented by the bow and arrow in the Epipaleolithic period.
By the Iron Age, the amentum, a strap attached to the shaft, was the standard European mechanism for throwing lighter javelins.
In archery, the bulk of elastic energy is stored in the throwing device, rather than the projectile; arrow shafts can therefore be much smaller, and have looser tolerances for spring constant and weight distribution than spear-thrower darts.
For example, stone dart points from the same set tend to vary in mass by no more than a few percent, and computer simulations show that this is necessary for efficient operation.
While some do this in the context of anthropology or mechanical engineering, many view the practice as a sport, and throw competitively for distance and/or for accuracy.
[3] In some legions, five of these were carried inside each soldier's shield; reconstructions show a range of 70 m (230 ft) or more when thrown overhand in the fashion of a German stick grenade.
It is possible no examples have survived, presumably due to their fragility or the deterioration of their fletching making them indistinguishable from spears, but they appear in multiple illustrations from the 15th and 16th century.
[5] Depictions show them as being four to seven feet long, with arrow-like feather fletching, barbed points and thick shafts comparable to conventional polearms, presumably able to serve for both throwing and hand-held striking.
It meets the definition above because it flies freely when no tension is applied to the rope, has a point and – in the form of a square of cloth – even has fletching.
For competitive purposes, a dart cannot weigh more than 50 g (1.8 oz) including the shaft and flight and cannot exceed a total length of 30 cm (12 in).
These are launched from a dart gun using compressed gas, a tuft of fibers at the back of the missile serving as both fletching and wadding.
