from the book  1491, by Charles Mann.

   " The Inka heated stones in campfires until they were red hot, wrapped them in pitched soaked cotton, and hurled them at there targets. the cotton caught fire in mid-air. In a sudden onslaught the sky would rain burning missles. In 1536, the Inka used these missles to burn spanish occupied Qosqo to the ground."

     Seperated by continents, yet they had similar ideas to European slingers.

Hey thats really interesting.. thanks!

Hellfire asked about the spelling of Inka in a duplicate thread that I removed (sorry Hellfire, but this version had three responses ): Both Inca and Inka are used, though Inca seems to be mst commmon these days and in American literature.

Matthias

ha, and more importantly, how did they not cath themselves on fire 

it might have been the style that it seems david used against goliath for a fast cast

I wonder how the hot rocks were transported to a battle site. Building a fire to heat the rocks would take time and give away ones position.Toting around a bunch of hot rocks doesn't sound like a sound battlefield tactic.

All the book says is that they launched after 2 or 3 swings. My bet would be overhead, to keep the sling away from sensitive body parts.

But if the cotton was soaked like a "slowmatch" or something similar, and only ignited when it got hotter.....
Then... How did they make it hot enough??
The stone would rapidly lose it`s heat once removed from the fire...
If pitch soaked cotton was indeed wrapped around "red hot" stones, what was the mechanism for it to "burst into flame in mid-air"??
Also, that whole thing about red-hot stones seems pretty strange to me..

It makes for decent fantasies, and interesting "what-if's" but very little else..

Something tells me it`s time for us all to get our heads out of the skies, grab a handful of dirt, and snort it like a motherf*... *coughs*