Abstract

The javelin throw was part of the ancient Greeks’ athletic festivals, specifically as an event in the pentathlon. Recent scholarship has shown that the use of a leather thong, called an ankyle, increases the distance that a facsimile of an ancient Greek javelin could be thrown, on average, by some 58 percent; however, in that study athletic men were used, throwing from a standing position, and not highly trained throwers using a run-up and a well- trained throwing technique. Would the ankyle provide the same advantage to highly trained throwers? Also, how far did the ancient Greeks throw the javelin? To our knowledge, only one ancient source, Statius, even refers to the distance of a javelin throw in antiquity, and it is an indirect reference to the length of a chariot race course and thus is not precise. The modern secondary literature on the subject is unsupported, or when referenced, uses sources that may be in question. We found that highly trained collegiate throwers, using a run-up and proper throwing technique, threw a facsimile of an ancient Greek javelin farther with the use of an ankyle, and that a throw of up to 66 meters was possible. Our results confirm that the ankyle increases the distance that the javelin can be thrown, but that contemporary scholars overestimate the probable distance that the javelin was thrown by the ancient Greeks because of fallacies in the literature. Verf.-Referat