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Were ancient Balearic war slings tapered ? (Read 12842 times)
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Re: Were ancient Balearic war slings tapered ?
Reply #15 - Oct 14th, 2009 at 6:31pm
 
JerrySlinger wrote on Oct 14th, 2009 at 5:23pm:
I have been looking for hemp and I can't find it anywhere..only jute and sisal. I wanted to make my next one out of hemp but made it out of mason line instead. I don't know if it is all in my head but I can throw a lot harder and further with my mason line sling then I can with my sisal ones which are all the same demensions.  I didn't taper the mason line sling because it the nylon is so slippery I don't think it will stay clean for long. But back to tapered fiber slings not being strong.. I hung one of my tapered sisal slings through the finger loop from my chinning bar the other day and was able to hang and swing from it and everything. I am 150lbs so it is pretty strong..In my search to find if their slings were tapered I read that the first ever armored boat was made because the Balearic slingers were able to sink boats from the shore with their slings. That's pretty amazing http://periodictable.com/Items/082.58/index.html


Unlike many of people, I can understand why they had to armor their ships from sling bullets.
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Re: Were ancient Balearic war slings tapered ?
Reply #16 - Oct 14th, 2009 at 6:45pm
 
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Re: Were ancient Balearic war slings tapered ?
Reply #17 - Oct 14th, 2009 at 10:51pm
 
Thearos wrote on Oct 14th, 2009 at 6:45pm:


Thats a totally different thing. Besides, why were animal hides used as protection from sling bullets? As if its guaranteed to stop a sling bullet.
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Re: Were ancient Balearic war slings tapered ?
Reply #18 - Oct 15th, 2009 at 12:29am
 
Actually they would be very effective at stopping sling stones that weren't too sharp. It works on the judo principle of yielding and dispersing the force slowly. Try hanging up a piece of old carpet or something like that and slinging at it. Provided it's not stretched tightly it will just move back and absorb the energy. The same stone slung at your typical, unyielding, deserted factory wall will smash a hole in it because the impact happens over a much shorter time so the force is much greater.
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Re: Were ancient Balearic war slings tapered ?
Reply #19 - Oct 15th, 2009 at 12:47am
 
according to this http://periodictable.com/Items/082.58/index.html ; they were  using lead football shaped projectiles to sink boats.
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Re: Were ancient Balearic war slings tapered ?
Reply #20 - Oct 15th, 2009 at 1:02am
 
Big "maybe" to that one. The English had trouble sinking Spanish ships with cannon balls. Perhaps the enemy were zipping around in Zodiacs.
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Re: Were ancient Balearic war slings tapered ?
Reply #21 - Oct 15th, 2009 at 4:51am
 
JerrySlinger: that's not a source, that's just someone posting a misunderstood or misrembered thing. How does the author of your reference know that the Balearic slingers sank war galleys with slings ? He doesn't give an ancient source. Don't take with caution-- don't take at all.

I have given you a (I think the only) ancient source: the ancient author Strabo. He talks of leather screens across the decks: stones (rather than lead, I think ? Not sure what the situation is in the C2nd BC, but Diod describes the balearic slingers throwing stones) raining on the ships, at fairly long range, and bouncing off the screens.
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Re: Were ancient Balearic war slings tapered ?
Reply #22 - Oct 15th, 2009 at 4:59am
 
The source is obviously Strabo, just not quoted: te giveaway is a mention of the goatskin on the arm. In Strabo, this is not a "bag", but a skin to act as a shield-- your reference has distorted this into a bag. So the reference to "armoured" ships is to the stretched leather screens (I haven;t got the Greek, but it must be something like parapetasmata) to protect the decks.

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Re: Were ancient Balearic war slings tapered ?
Reply #23 - Sep 16th, 2019 at 10:28am
 
You said : " war sling... sling"
Is there a difference between a war sling and a peace sling ?
And which ?
I think : this question isn't soo easy !
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Re: Were ancient Balearic war slings tapered ?
Reply #24 - Sep 16th, 2019 at 4:26pm
 
war slings would be longer.

'peace' slinging in the balearic islands mainly consists of target shooting at 20&30 metres.

War slinging would have mainly been at much longer distances, so the slings would have been longere.

It's said that a balearic slinger would carry three different length slings, for different distance slinging.

The longer slings would most likely have been for smaller ammo as well.
Plenty evidence that they used lead glandes (I have an historic lead glande from ibiza) so the pouches would have had to be smaller and the slings more flexible.

So, yeah - not a hard question to answer Smiley
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Re: Were ancient Balearic war slings tapered ?
Reply #25 - Sep 17th, 2019 at 11:25am
 
Yes,
You said : "It's said that a balearic slinger would carry three different length slings, for different distance slinging".
So, why the longer for war and not the two others ?
Is absolutely necessary to shoot at a great distance in a battle ? I think not. During the fray, some shoots can help the infantry. Undecided
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Re: Were ancient Balearic war slings tapered ?
Reply #26 - Sep 17th, 2019 at 2:27pm
 
obviously all three would be available for war.

different missiles and different distances.
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Re: Were ancient Balearic war slings tapered ?
Reply #27 - Sep 18th, 2019 at 10:14am
 
Ok with you, Curious Aardvark. The most important is the missile. Only after, you can choice the best sling for a good shoot.
You can choice big stones to break wooden shields or lead to injure infantry for exemple. But I think they used their usual slingstones. Perhaps another for a specific usual.
So, they adapted to combine with their habits and the tactics.
I am not sure the balearic slings of today are the same. Perhaps but 2000 years do a big difference.
Just my idea because I don't know the past.
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Re: Were ancient Balearic war slings tapered ?
Reply #28 - Oct 3rd, 2019 at 9:24am
 
I do not think that they were tapered, at least not to a degree as they are nowadays. The closest depiction concerning culture, space and time difference is a sling of the Etruscans that is concerning the overall shape similar to the Balearic construction style nowadays, with three threads in the pouch, and also seems not to be tapered, but has a small pommel at the end.
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