Aussie wrote on Jan 30
th, 2012 at 3:49pm:
kentuckythrower wrote on Jan 30
th, 2012 at 9:25am:
David, You're entirely correct that throwing from an elevation will increase the range of a sling. In surveying hillforts, at what distance from them will you generally begin to find slingstones? After the weather breaks over here I fully intend on running tests.
Conversely, slinging uphill reduces the range considerably. Assuming both the extension and reduction in range to be around 50 m, would mean that attackers would have to cross up to 100m under fire before getting close enough to return it.(?)
Considering that the stones thrown from ancient hilltop forts would have been radially dispersed over a large area, would it be possible to identify a stone as having been thrown from it with any degree of certainty?
At Maiden hill, the ammo dumps were made up of large, ideally sized and shaped stones from a river bed some ways off from the main site, so yes, they would be recognizable. But generally, I don't think Maiden Hill or the other Iron Age hillforts have produced this sort of archaeological record (dispersion of shot). There is one example where you can trace very precisely the distribution of shot (lead) in battle condition:
A. V. A. J. Bosman, Pouring Lead in the Pouring Rain:
Making Lead Slingshot under Battle Conditions, dans: C. van Driel-Murray (éd.), Roman
Military Equipment: Experiment and Reality, JRMES 6, 1995, 99–103.
And at Maiden Hill, the Romans used catapults (sharp-throwers) to target the defenders-- you can actually trace ranging shots, and one particularly good gunner, from the pattern of distribution of the bolt heads in the chalky soil on the hillfort.