I've always firmly believed that MOST inscriptions on Greek sling bullets are pretty boring, i.e. usually names of officers, rulers, or states. A lot of the picturesque ones are fakes ("Blood", "watch out", etc) or pretty insecurely attested. For instance "ouch" (papai) is probably "Papa", from the name Papas, a Thracian name. KALA is not "fine", but "(Unit of the officer / governor) Kalas".

"Take that" is well attested (DEXAI); "Candy" (TRWGALION).

Recently I noticed a bunch of bullets in a dealer (so please note, dear forumites: we do not know where these are actually from-- this is a good example of the damage looting does-- nor can we be absolutely sure when they were produced)

http://www.coinarchives.com/a/lotviewer.php?LotID=535321&AucID=950&Lot=2802&Val=0c82990dd436bcdb93c7b44f64e47f94

The inscription on one, THLE, is a poetic adverb for "afar". It could be part of a name, but it seems to me that this is another one to put in the meagre dossier of picturesque inscriptions. For what does a sling bullet do, if not go very far ?

:) nice. What does the other one mean? do you know?
I dislike when they don't show,how much they weight or at least dimensions,but probably 30-40g  

Cannot read it-- perhaps the ending of a name ?

You're completely right on weight !

jlasud wrote on Jan 6^th, 2013 at 4:26pm:

[...]I dislike when they don't show,how much they weight or at least dimensions,but probably 30-40g

That always annoys me as well  >:(

Not to derail the throad too much, but does anyone know of some good links for antique glandes?

My view: don't buy them, you're only fuelling the antiquities trade.

These ancient sling bullets, found casually or in unexcavated digs, are sold without any guarantee of authenticity: do you really want to pay money for a fake, modern or, especially, C19th ? Lots of them around. And their being sold this way removes any information about provenance: we don't know for sure where it's from or when it dates to.

Thearos wrote on Feb 1^st, 2013 at 4:52am:

My view: don't buy them, you're only fuelling the antiquities trade. These ancient sling bullets, found casually or in unexcavated digs, are sold without any guarantee of authenticity: do you really want to pay money for a fake, modern or, especially, C19th ? Lots of them around. And their being sold this way removes any information about provenance: we don't know for sure where it's from or when it dates to.

Good point. :(

Wasn't someone making modern copies?  You could get some of those, and you could also test them.