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strip sling (Read 20128 times)
Zwiebeltuete
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strip sling
Apr 11th, 2006 at 9:22am
 
I have read the article

Thomas Völling: Funditores im Römischen Heer. Saalburg-Jahrb. 45, 1990, 24-58.

which gives very interesting information about the sling in roman times, esp. the usage in the roman army. Older sources show thin slings. There are some very nice etruscan pieces showing braided slings with split pouches (the pouch made from three strings). The newer roman sources show at least mostly slings which I would call "strip slings". (Although this name could be confused with future developed slings which can be used to strip people.) The sling consts of a strip of some material which has no real pouch, but is maybe a bit wider in the middle than at the ends.

I know no other sources showing slings like that. Therefore I assume that these slings have lower performance than the thin ones. I tried to make a sling like that from an old bed sheet - one knot for the release, one knot for the finger loop - but the fabric does coil up. So it is not anymore a real strip sling. With that sling is my slinging at the moment as bad as with all my other slings. So that coiled up sling might not be that bad, but I do not know for sure. Leather might be more suitable to make a copy of the ancient slings as it does probably not coil up.

Zwiebeltuete
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Leeds_Lobber
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Re: strip sling
Reply #1 - Apr 11th, 2006 at 10:19am
 
Images on Trajan's column show slings like this- they look just like strips of material as you say.

The problem with Later Roman art is that the Artists use 'conventions'. A lot of monuments show soldiers wearing all-in one breatplates, and Helms of the Attic Style. Such helmets went out of date hundreds of years before that. But if an artist wanted a picture that said 'Soldier' that's what he would draw.

It's a bit like the pictures of 'Soldier' you get in Kid's books - Toy Soldiers wear red & have bearskin Hats like 19th century English Soldiers. That ain't what MY toy soldiers look like, but when I see the picture I know what the artist means.

I wonder if the same thing happened with slings? All the carving needed to show a braided sling would be tricky - if the artistic convention was to show a sling as 'strip of cloth' it would save a lot of Chisel-time!

Pat
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Re: strip sling
Reply #2 - Apr 11th, 2006 at 11:39am
 
Zwiebeltuete - "onion bag."  Interesting stuff.  I can tell you that I made a sling this way out of bark.  It, frankly, is not very good.  I can post a pic of it as soon as my camera gets back from Turkey.
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Zwiebeltuete
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Re: strip sling
Reply #3 - Apr 11th, 2006 at 11:56am
 
@Leeds_Lobber

Older art works show mostly only lines and a stone for a sling, e.g. on coins. (The detail of the etruscan slings is lucky for us.) So the people of past 1 AD had simple prior art to copy, but they invented a new style. Titus Livius names two types of slings, the not so good balearic and the good archaeic. That can be a hint that thin and wide slings existet around that time, but his description is not that good to identify them reliably.

@english

Would be interesting to see how a sling can be made from bark.

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Re: strip sling
Reply #4 - Apr 11th, 2006 at 1:51pm
 
Well, I have a pic in the gallery of a frankly rather rubbish sling I made from bark.  It is braided quite simply, and works ok, but it's not the same style as just a flat piece as you describe.
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Re: strip sling
Reply #5 - Apr 11th, 2006 at 5:54pm
 
If you can find it, there is a reprint of Bellafortis of Konrad Keyser, from the 1400's. In it,it shows both a sling and fustibal similar to the strap description.
  There are many other things, also. A paddleboat, war tanks and floating bridges. How much of this is theoretical, and how much was made, is unknown at this time.
  However, it does show that they were thinking people.
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Re: strip sling
Reply #6 - Apr 12th, 2006 at 7:01am
 
What are the differences between the Etruscan, Archaeic, and Balearic slings? 

Cheers,
Adam C.
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Re: strip sling
Reply #7 - Apr 12th, 2006 at 7:47am
 
Livius writes (original translation in German):

Therefore they (the Archaeics) threw the projectile (made from stone) further than the Balearic slingers and had a more secure and harder throw. And their sling was not a simple strap as these of the Balears and other peoples, but a tripple sling leather, which is hardened through multiple seams, so that the sling bullet is not whirled away with a soft strap, but when it gained momentum has a secure grip it is shot like from a sinew. (Liv. 38, 29, 5-6)

That is what the article tells about Archaeic and Balearic slings. That is probably all we can get.

Further there are pictures of slings. Most show no details, e.g. older representations show only thin lines. But where we can see details we can distinguish between two types:

1) A thin braided sling (braiding is shown) like they are made today (http://www.slinging.org/20.html), but with a different pouch. There the pouch is made of three strings. The middle string is thinner than the release and retention cords, maybe halve. The two outer strings are as thick as the release/retention cords. These detailed slings are depicted on Etruscan sources.

2) The strip sling where not much details are shown besides that they are a lot wider - maybe 5cm - than the sling in item #1. These are shown on later Roman sources.

Voelling now assumes that #1 is the Archaeic sling and #2 is the Balearic sling. That could be the case, but I am not really convinced. #2 is probably not as good as #1, but the descriptions of Livius do not fit that well. I think the probability is higher that both people made slings with the appearance of #1 but with different material, e.g. the Balearic simple linnen braided slings and the Archaeic more complex leather braided slings. That would also better fit what Strabo wrote about the material of the Balearic sling. If I remember correctly he wrote also they used hair and making strip slings from hair is probably to much of work.

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Re: strip sling
Reply #8 - Apr 12th, 2006 at 12:07pm
 
DAMN, ya got me all excited. I thought we had a new game like strip poker only with a sling Embarrassed
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Re: strip sling
Reply #9 - Apr 12th, 2006 at 3:55pm
 
LOL Cheesy every shot you miss you lose a pice of clothing CheesyLovely
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Re: strip sling
Reply #10 - Apr 12th, 2006 at 4:05pm
 
Zwiebeltuete,

Thanks for the awesome response!  So the archaeic sling is just like the split pouch, but with an extra strip in the middle? Seems like a lot of sense to me, as it would grab the rock better than just a simple split pouch.  I have to go make one of these now.  

Thanks,
Adam C.

P.S.  Were the Greeks using woven pouch, and leather pouch with other material cord, slings?  Or was everyone just using split pouch styles or strap slings?  Anything about the Acarnanians other than they were supposedly good slingers?  If you know where I can do some reading on all of this, I'd really appreciate getting pointed in the right direction.
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Re: strip sling
Reply #11 - Apr 12th, 2006 at 4:36pm
 
taiki: that is exactly what i thought. Grin

i must say though, that with the way most of us sling, we would all be lacking clothing very quickly. Embarrassed
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Re: strip sling
Reply #12 - Apr 12th, 2006 at 6:04pm
 
Quote:
taiki: that is exactly what i thought. Grin

i must say though, that with the way most of us sling, we would all be lacking clothing very quickly. Embarrassed


i fail to see how this is a bad thing when being private Grin
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Re: strip sling
Reply #13 - Apr 12th, 2006 at 6:42pm
 
If I remember correctly, the slinger from catal huyuk wasn't wearing any clothes either  Grin.
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Re: strip sling
Reply #14 - Apr 12th, 2006 at 6:56pm
 
maybe he got the idea of strip slinging before we did Cheesy
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