Turning back the clock: UTC Anthropology hosts paleo skills workshop

A student wearing a maroon UTC Field Crew shirt winds up to throw a tennis ball using a corded sling during an outdoor primitive-skills demonstration, with campus buildings and fall trees in the background.

Anthropology major Chase Heistand displays his sling skills during a paleo skills workshop on Chamberlain Field. Photo by Clara Paulson.

For a few hours on a recent Saturday afternoon, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga students and professors set aside their phones and laptops, opting for another type of technology. They gathered on Chamberlain Field to participate in Paleolithic skills and try their hand at atlatls, slings, friction fires, grinding corn and flint knapping.

UTC’s 7th annual Paleo Skills Workshop took place on Saturday, Nov. 8. The event, hosted by the Department of Anthropology, brought indigenous tools from students’ textbooks to the tables lining Chamberlain.

“The goal is to get students involved in what we’re learning about in class,” said Dr. Brooke Persons, director of the Jeffrey L. Brown Institute of Archeology. “Everybody everywhere made certain tools. Everybody everywhere learned how to do agriculture. Everybody everywhere started making things like spear throwers, atlatls, darts or projectile points. So the goal is to provide students with a fun way to learn about indigenous technologies and global prehistory.”

It’s one thing to read about history and another to step into it. The workshop allowed students to turn back the clock, hitting targets and working with tools many people never get the chance to see.

“I think it’s important to see how it’s done and experience it,” said anthropology major and third-year atlatl instructor Chase Heistand. “It’s cool to see how people were killing mammoths 25,000 years ago with two sticks and a sharp point.”

The paleo workshop, initially designed for anthropology, archaeology and history majors, caught the attention of numerous passersby. The event was open to all students and community members. Persons hoped anyone who stopped by Chamberlain during the workshop could walk away with a new understanding of Paleolithic tools.

“A lot of people look at traditional technologies and think they’re somehow not as sophisticated or important as what people do today,” Persons said, “but in reality, a lot of what we’re looking at is highly sophisticated, very specialized hunting technology and beautiful craftsmanship. I think that sometimes we forget that there’s artistry involved in it, so it’s important for us to learn by doing.”

Heistand, who spoke passionately about the art of atlatl throwing and teaching the skill to others, did not know what atlatls were before attending UTC. Like Persons, he teaches students how to use paleo tools with the hope they might discover a new passion or new knowledge, just as he did.

“Maybe people will take more interest in archeology. Maybe this could spark an interest in anthropology. They might go to a museum and see an atlatl and know what that is now,” he said. “It’s kind of a niche thing, so this event broadens students’ horizons.”