I just want everybody to know about a new site I just found. The American Museum of Natural History in New York has a number of slings in their collection. You can see them at:http://anthro.amnh.org/anthropology/databases/common/query_result.cfm

wrote on Apr 4^th, 2006 at 12:29am:

I just want everybody to know about a new site I just found. The American Museum of Natural History in New York has a number of slings in their collection. You can see them at:http://anthro.amnh.org/anthropology/databases/common/query_result.cfm

                                                                                                     
 Hello again, bigkahuna! Slinging people! Bigkahuna has hit slingers gold! For some reason the link did not work for me so I tried googling "american museum of natural history slings" and hit paydirt. I got back in by googling "Plantation cache charmstones" or even
"Chuuk sling." Both the projectiles and the sling are beautiful work.
I wonder what the Chuuk sling is made of? Also, it is a braided sling with a split pouch but the pouch appears to be in FOUR braids as near as I can determine from the photograph?? Maybe one of you who is good at braiding could "reverse engineer" one of these slings!? The article can be downloaded as a PDF.

Thanks bigkahuna! ;D

this makes me want to cry!  i went to the american museum of natural history in new york at the end of last school year.  i wish i had known of slings then i surely would have looked and then i would have seen!  oh well. i plan on returning someday.

That is a nice sling :o

Any time any of you guys go to a museum, you should check to see if they have an Anthropology Dept. If they do ,then ask if they have any slings in their collections. ;)

Anthropology is just intrinsically interesting anyway, so even if they have no slings, go along anyway.
 Some of the slings in the collections are from the Plains - a Gros Ventre sling, for instance, and a Lakota one.  However, they appear to have been collected late - I assume they aren't traditional objects, but introduced later.
 The leather work on some of these slings is exceptional.  The south western slings are really nice.
 However, my favourite one is a Nootka sling collected in 1897 of "plant fibre."  Knowing the climate in the region, I'd say it could be of two main plants; willow bark or nettle fibre.  It looks a lot like willow bark to me.  I've made a willow bark sling, but it's a heck of a lot crappier than that one.  I'll try and make a replica when the sap starts really flowing again.

Oh, btw, I searched the collection for "bow" and on the third page, there was an Inuit crossbow stock, exactly like Chinese tribal crossbows!  It's fascinating.  It was collected in 1894 and so it is almost certainly due to new, shared information with the outside world, and the shape of the stock undoubtedly copies a gunstock, but even so... it's quite amazing.

Like Yogi Berra said, "you see alot by looking".

Indeed. Lol. :)

 I've actually found some other little native American crossbows, and the bows are very beautiful.  Thanks for showing us the site.

My pleasure.

Bumping this up for the Benfit of the newer Members

Marc Adkins

There are some interesting pouches there. I notice a lot of them have a line of nicks or notches cut into the fold line. I'll try something like that soon no doubt :)

Sling-man-Dan

Having lived  'next door' by Pacific island standards (on Kwajalein in the RMI), I saw a fair amount of braided 'fiber art' done by the Micronesians, of which the Chuukese are a part.  My best guess is that that sling is made from split strands of coconut leaf shaft.  It could be from Breadfruit or Pandanus, but coconut fiber cord is the general purpose twine, and  pieces long enough to make that sling could easily be turned out in an hour or so in the shade of the palm that the leaves came from.  What those folks can do with coconut palm leaves in just a short time is flat amazing.  I wish now I'd spent more time on the yearly Manit Day (local crafts demos) watching the twine/rope makers.

siguy wrote on Apr 4^th, 2006 at 4:33pm:

this makes me want to cry!  i went to the american museum of natural history in new york at the end of last school year.  i wish i had known of slings then i surely would have looked and then i would have seen!  oh well. i plan on returning someday.

Just be happy that you ever got to go to that museum.  It is something that every person should do before they die - the place is that much of a wonderful jewel.
I haven't been there in years, but my dad used to occasionally take me and my siblings.  I still remember standing under that giant prehistoric shark jaw and staring up in amazement.  :o

Used to go to the natural history museum in london when i was a kid.
Loved the dinosaur skeletons and the blue whale.
The royal society famously held a meeting within the model blue whale when it was made :-) (few years ago now)

Don't go to enough museums these says :-(

I have rediscovered this site today, it is truly amazing!

Go here: http://anthro.amnh.org/anthro_coll.shtml

Click on the 'cross collection search' button in the corner of the map and search for 'sling'. There are twelve pages of slings from all over the world with good clear photos.

Lots of interesting slings on that site.  And sling stones. Thanks, David.
timann

Some beautiful woollen woven (or knitted ??) ones from Eastern Turkey, with different colours in the pouch. (can anyone tell me how to weave or braid a pouch like this ?)

Some real nice slings there, BTW was I the only one who noticed the Apache sling and how it looks nothing like the one described in LKF's article?????

Marc Adkins




David Morningstar wrote on Apr 9^th, 2009 at 5:36am:

I have rediscovered this site today, it is truly amazing! Go here: http://anthro.amnh.org/anthro_coll.shtml Click on the 'cross collection search' button in the corner of the map and search for 'sling'. There are twelve pages of slings from all over the world with good clear photos.

No, winkleried, I saw that one too.  I also saw a all-leather sling(!), with a sewn-on leather pouch like "our" Apache slings, from Mexico.  
It is a very interesting site.
timann  

Hadn't quite gotten that far Timann, But the Mexican Tepehuane slings do look an awful lot like the Lovelock Slings.

Marc Adkins



timann wrote on Apr 11^th, 2009 at 8:48am:

No, winkleried, I saw that one too.  I also saw a all-leather sling(!), with a sewn-on leather pouch like "our" Apache slings, from Mexico.   It is a very interesting site. timann