Probably some of you know about this, but many of the records pertaining to Howard Carter's excavation of Tutankhamun's tomb are available on line, thanks to the Griffith Institute. Tutankhamun was buried with a wide range of weapons, including composite and self bows, throwing sticks, and slings. Some limited information about the slings (with photo) can be found at:

http://www.ashmol.ox.ac.uk/perl/gi-ca-qmakesumm.pl?sid=149.169.152.78-1094669253&qno=1&curr=585y

I hope this link works--I haven't figured out how to embed this using the forum tools....

Best, Ian

Thanks a lot for the link, Ian, I´ve looked for this picture many times without succes. The specimens are very interesting, well woven and decorative. I´ll try to digitaly unfold one of them.

The slings would be more or less like this:


http://perso.wanadoo.es/hondero/Album/HondaTutankamon.jpg

Hondero, this is very impressive. What do you use to unfold the image?

Anyway, now I want to compare this 18th Dyn. sling to the one replicated by Graham Cole, based on what I think is a less ancient prototype, also from Egypt. The weaving looks quite similar, except that Tutankhamun's example incorporates a kind of chevron pattern...

Again, good job.

Ian

This sling, although Egyptian, is quite different from the one from Lahun, which Graham Cole photographed.  The latter was made from woven flax, while this is plaited linen.  I couldn't tell you the exact difference other than it is a different material.  

Chris

wrote on Sep 8^th, 2004 at 6:08pm:

Hondero, this is very impressive. What do you use to unfold the image? Ian

It has been rather easy, as the pouchs are symmetrical and in the original photo we have a quarter of the sling enough outspread, than can be replicated in diferent positions with a simple photoeditor. I´m not sure about the central dark drawing, that could be rhombic or a simple dark stain.

I find this sling most interesting because of its antiquity, almost 500 years before the Lahun sling, and its fine plait, just for a young Pharaoh. Also the shape is different. I imaging the dark zones are colorful and would be great to have a color photo of the sling.

It has been questioned sometimes the egyptian origin of the Lahun sling, that could have belonged to a mercenary in the Egyptian army, an even theese of Tutankhamun could have been plaited by a foreing artisan... who knows... all this is mainly based on the fact that Egyptians seemingly didn´t use the sling. Maybe an study on design would show if it is genuinely egyptian.

I was recently in Luxor Museum and made some pics of this sling. The pics are bad quality 'couse I couldn't use flashlamp, so they are very blur. But maybe they can help. I'm thinking how to braid it since I've saw that sling.
http://img308.imageshack.us/img308/3253/p81203761024x7683fc.th.jpg
http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/6193/p81203731280x10249tg.th.jpg

Thank you, Wolfshade,
But would you be willing and able to share the pictures at their larged format? What we did get was enough to make be beg for more.
Please!!!

Willeke

Willeke, you can click on the thumbnail images to get to the larger image.

The most interesting thing about re-reading this page is that Tutankhamun was buried with both a sling and bow.  If the sling wasn't a revered weapon, why would it be in his tomb?  

Chris

Another item of note is that this sling is now the oldest preserved sling on record, predating the sling recovered in Lahun, Egypt from by over half a millennia (c.800 B.C. vs. 1323 B.C. - when Tutankhamun died)

Here are slightly cleaned up versions of wolfs shade's images:

http://www.slinging.org/images/chris/tutSling1.jpg

http://www.slinging.org/images/chris/tutSling2.jpg

Chris

Chris,  Good question.....the sling was obviously important to it's owner.  Perhaps it was to be used in the 'afterlife' for plinking at ethereal game animals.   Or perhaps the sling as a metaphor to celestial mechanics, of which the Shepherd kings in ancient Egypt seem to have acquired much knowledge, served an even greater symbolic purpose.

Given that they were intimately acquainted with the effect we call gravity, and were able to overcome it in various ways and in grand fashion, ie. the Great Pyramid.....

Perhaps the lowly sling indeed may have served a higher purpose as a key to knowledge than in it's role as a warrior's tool.


Peace,


TS

Wow, those are amazing pouches.  Going back to the first pouch, how would you make that?  I'm looking at it from a weaver's warp/weft point of view and wondering how you get the warp to curve in an arc like that on either side...  your edges would end up being far apart and the center compacted together...  You of course stated it was Plaited linen... how do you plait something like that?

I wonder what the strength/durability of linen is.  I've been toying with the idea of using some Cambodian silk I can buy in the markets here to make a sling out of to test the durability and feel.

Barak

JustBarak,
You can make the warp going round in a curve like that by adding extra warp strands in the middle of your work,
and taking them out of the way when they have done their work. Add and take away by one or two at a time.

For a 'loom' think in card weaving or a simple backstrap loom without a reed.

Adding is simple, just fold the new string and loop it over the last weft, taking out is a little harder, you have to finish the ends by using them as weft or just drop them and finish them later.

I have done something like this in my woven strings, where I also have taken the dropped strings in a braid.

Willeke

http://www.slinging.org/images/vanDerHam/sling-4c.jpg
http://www.slinging.org/images/vanDerHam/sling-3.jpg

That is ONE gorgeous sling!

Actually flax and linen are the same material.  


wrote on Sep 9^th, 2004 at 12:38am:

The latter was made from woven flax, while this is plaited linen.  I couldn't tell you the exact difference other than it is a different material.

This is one cool thread!

I would take my slings to the grave too!

Beautiful sling Willeke!

Thanks, Guys

Willeke

That is an exquisite sling. I'd offer to buy one, but I think the shipping would kill me. :o

Wow, forget buying, I'd love some instructions!  :P
Willeke, I know it's a lot of work to put instructions together, but if you could at some point maybe it would be awesome! If not, maybe a few hints would help me figure it out.
I must say that is one amazing sling!

    >> Julian

Sorry guys,
I will not have any time till Christmas at least.

Willeke

another interesting thread from the archives.

Sure a lot of you current members will be interested in tutankhamens sling :-)
And info from willeke should never be wasted either :-)

Excellent!

Thanks for bumping this up.

I never realized till reading just now that the pouches of Willeke's slings were tablet woven. They certainly came out real pretty. It makes me want to get out my tablet weaving equipment again.

-Timothy Potter

Yahweh Bless you in Yeshua wrote on Oct 6^th, 2005 at 1:41am:

That is ONE gorgeous sling!

Ditto.  That's one impressive sling, Willeke.

:o  No joke, I have never seen the likes of that one...  did Willeke ever post instructions?

Probably - have a look in the older sections :-)

Ye cats! That's a nice (and colorful) sling!