ADDISON, Vt. (AP) — NEEDS EDIT — HOLD FOR PHOTOS AND VIDEO FROM AMANDA SWINHART, THEN MOVE SPOT

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Celine Thouin learned a lot as a student at Franklin Pierce University, and one of the skills she has held onto the longest is how to use an ancient spear-throwing tool.

She got to share that skill with fellow Vermonters on Saturday. Thouin, 38 and a veteran of the Franklin Pierce atlatl team, was one of a few dozen participants in the Northeast Open Atlatl Championship in Addison, Vermont.

Humans invented the atlatl thousands of years ago for use as a spear-throwing hunting tool. They were used to hunt massive animals such as woolly mammoths in the days long before recorded history.

Now, they are the passion of a group of hobbyists and anthropology lovers who see the atlatl as a way to

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