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Question: Best/most effective Historical slinging culture

Balearics    
  6 (66.7%)
greeks    
  1 (11.1%)
Micronesians/Polynesians    
  1 (11.1%)
Tibetans/Andeans    
  1 (11.1%)




Total votes: 9
« Created by: Curious Aardvark on: Oct 11th, 2020 at 1:18pm »

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Who were the "best slingers" of the ancient times. (Read 4509 times)
Sarosh
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Re: Who were the "best slingers" of the ancient times.
Reply #15 - Oct 14th, 2020 at 2:44am
 
vrod wrote on Oct 13th, 2020 at 5:01pm:
So would you say those are the top slingers then? And do any of those groups of people still use a sling like the people from Mallorca in the Balearic Islands or no?


As I said Quote:
that's like asking in 2000 years which team played the best football today. PR will play a bigger role than actual skill.
those are the cultures with the best marketing/public relations of the time that got to be written in books.
I believe stone age and bronze age had a lot of slinger-raider cultures we just dont have writtings.

I don't know about Tibetians and Andeans, but from the rest only Balearics seem to have kept the tradition. Didn't the balearics revived it recently?(question to anyone who knows)
Guam revived it recently(?) I don't know the details
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Kick
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Re: Who were the "best slingers" of the ancient times.
Reply #16 - Oct 14th, 2020 at 11:35am
 
Tibetans still sling. The Amdocraft ones are made by Tibetan shepherds that still use them everyday.
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You are a great guy Kick but also slightly scary at times. - Morphy
"Nothing matters, but it’s perhaps more comfortable to keep calm and not interfere with other people." - H.P. Lovecraft, in a letter to Frank Belknap Long, 7 October, 1923
 
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Thearos
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Re: Who were the "best slingers" of the ancient times.
Reply #17 - Oct 15th, 2020 at 12:45am
 
There are various ethnic groups in the "Classical" (anc Med) world mentioned as slingers: Baleares (attested from C4th to C1st BCE), Rhodians (only attested once, in 400 BCE), Achaians (attested C2nd BCE), Akarnanians (429 BCE). The most famous and consistently celebrated are the Baleares. But it's like a very widespread skill in the ancient world (notably for hunting and herding).

I think the pre-Columbian populations (Aztecs, Incas) were also famous slingers, with a tradition that continues until now.
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Slyngorm
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Re: Who were the "best slingers" of the ancient times.
Reply #18 - Oct 16th, 2020 at 12:15pm
 
Sarosh wrote on Oct 14th, 2020 at 2:44am:
the cultures with the best marketing/public relations of the time that got to be written in books.

And for that reason I think it the best to take note of the skills of slinging cultures when their unique abilities are compared to other slinging cultures. Say, anyone could write that Greek slingers could hit an ant at a distance of 2000000 kilometres with a rock the size of a mountain. Instead I find highlighting the specific skills of a certain culture compared to another a much better indication of the actual skill set of that culture. Also I find it unlikely that any slinging culture was objectively better than any other.

PR still played a role for certain but it makes at least a little more sense.


Thearos wrote on Oct 15th, 2020 at 12:45am:
There are various ethnic groups in the "Classical" (anc Med) world mentioned as slingers: Baleares (attested from C4th to C1st BCE), Rhodians (only attested once, in 400 BCE), Achaians (attested C2nd BCE), Akarnanians (429 BCE). The most famous and consistently celebrated are the Baleares. But it's like a very widespread skill in the ancient world (notably for hunting and herding).

Sarosh wrote on Oct 14th, 2020 at 2:44am:
I believe stone age and bronze age had a lot of slinger-raider cultures we just dont have writtings.


I think that slinging existed in almost all cultures but it was often looked down upon as a peasants weapon (for obvious reasons) so for example the Romans didn't care too much to train slingers to a professional level.
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Thearos
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Re: Who were the "best slingers" of the ancient times.
Reply #19 - Oct 17th, 2020 at 4:12pm
 
The best evidence for Rome is in the late treatise from Vegetius, mentioning how legionaries were trained in stone throwing by hand and with a sling. Slinging also occasionally turns up in the training regimens of citizen militas in Hellenistic cities (say ca. 200 BCE). But true it's not very highly regarded.
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Slyngorm
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Re: Who were the "best slingers" of the ancient times.
Reply #20 - Oct 19th, 2020 at 4:14pm
 
According to this wiki page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercenaries_of_the_ancient_Iberian_Peninsula

Balerian slingers were utilized by the Romans as late as the 4th century. That is the same time that Vegetius lived. If Balearians were in no short supply I wonder for what reason they began training their own. 
Also does anyone know when slinging died out on the islands?
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Thearos
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Re: Who were the "best slingers" of the ancient times.
Reply #21 - Oct 25th, 2020 at 9:42pm
 
I don't think that's correct, namely I don't think there is any evidence for Balearic slingers used after Caesar's time. There were no slinger units in the imperial army, so if Baleares served it was a regular infantry. (See e.g. Cheesman, The Auxilia of the Roman Imperial Army, 1915, 131-2). The wiki page is inaccurate (and loosely phrased).

In any case, slinging still continues as a living tradition in the Balearic islands.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dhHR_gGBi8



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Curious Aardvark
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Re: Who were the "best slingers" of the ancient times.
Reply #22 - Oct 28th, 2020 at 12:50pm
 
I remember that carpark Smiley
Slung there a couple times.

That scrubland, just behind the targets is an actual footpath, and occasionally people appear and wander across the kill line.

The compund on the left is some sort of rubbish/recycling centre - not sure what they make of the occasional stone that crosses the fence whistle
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Do All things with Honour and Generosity: Regret Nothing, Envy None, Apologise Seldom and Bow your head to No One  - works for me Smiley
 
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Re: Who were the "best slingers" of the ancient times.
Reply #23 - Oct 28th, 2020 at 3:31pm
 
Most people hated slinging there. Sun in your eyes, slinging uphill which pretty much no-one was used to, then it got freezing cold once the sun went down. I did terrible there. I think I hit the target ONCE. Much better in the centre of Palma.
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You are a great guy Kick but also slightly scary at times. - Morphy
"Nothing matters, but it’s perhaps more comfortable to keep calm and not interfere with other people." - H.P. Lovecraft, in a letter to Frank Belknap Long, 7 October, 1923
 
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