Left arm folded, right arm stretched back, armed with a spear wedged against the hook-shaped appendage of his thruster, Matthieu Lacoste concentrates. With their large tails which can be made of goose or peacock feathers, the assegais are particularly sensitive to the wind which blows on the Vercors plateau and deflects them. “We will not break records today”, he notes, philosophically. And, suddenly, his arm relaxes like a spring, releasing his projectile mid-stroke which embeds itself in the body of a cave bear drawn on a target 20 meters away. It is indeed a sport, but a sport born from archaeological science.
Current European champion in shooting with prehistoric throwing weapons, which also includes the bow, Matthieu Lacoste is one of the thirty competitors who compete this March 31, near the Museum of Prehistory in Vassieux-en- Vercors (Drôme). Heritage conservation assistant and mediator in this establishment, Loïc Mathieu was hoping for around fifty participants, but the weather discouraged more than one, some of whom had planned to come dressed in animal skins. Several of the “stars” of the circuit nevertheless responded. Kuno Bay came from German-speaking Switzerland, Jurgen Junkmanns, archaeologist, author of a reference book, Bow and arrow. Manufacture and use in the Neolithic (Schwab Museum, 2006), arrived from Cologne (Germany) and Luis Angel Breton, a distant descendant of Armoricans, made the trip from La Rioja (Spain).
This unique championship, contested every year, always near a museum or a European archaeological site, is in its 34th year.e editing. For 2024, the official circuit has thirty-five stages distributed between France, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland and Austria.
Each round takes place over a weekend. Saturday afternoon is devoted to archery and Sunday morning to archery. To be classified, everyone must compete in a minimum of three. The test consists of completing a course on natural terrain and shooting once at each of the thirty targets decorated with drawings of animals from the Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic (hyena, grouse, musk ox, mammoth, etc.) or, failing that, , to complete the same course of ten targets three times, as was the case at Vassieux, where undergrowth and meadows alternated. The shooting distances vary from 8 to 26 meters, the counting of points is done according to concentric circles awarding one to five points, as on a classic target.
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