Quote:The possibility that you, in your current incarnation, have seen an ancient slinger: nil.
lol true true.
But I have done an awful lot of slinging. And have a better than average idea what was involved.
The man is facing away from the direction the sling missile will eventually go. If you strike that position with your front leg bent and your back leg straight all the weight is on the front leg. This is wrong.
It's not the same position as the balearic as this guy is plainly not loading his sling he's supposed to be preparing to throw - you load the sling looking forward, not behind your back with your head screwed all the way round. So stance is wrong for that.
I'll give you the arrows, dodgy looking as they are
. (actually looking at the photo - all the arrows in the photo are narrow headed so even the arrows on the cup bear no actual resemblance to those in that picture, which presumably were contemporary to the cup.)
So On the evidence you've presented I'm sticking with my conclusion that those are not realistic arrows either
And you said yourself - made for aristocrats - who will rarely see a slinger up close - so wouldn't necessarily know the intricate subtleties of slinging (I happen to know them very well).
It's a nice piece but it's just not a picture you can draw concrete conclusions from about slinging styles or practices. It just ain't
It might be meant to show how crap the slingers were on the other team: 'hey look at this idiot on my cup, hasn't got a clue - no wonder we stuffed those boys last year.'
This is an equally valid inference to draw as yours - probably better as it fits the facts.