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General >> Project Goliath - The History of The Sling >> Sling stone embedded in shield
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Message started by David Morningstar on Mar 4th, 2011 at 12:50pm

Title: Sling stone embedded in shield
Post by David Morningstar on Mar 4th, 2011 at 12:50pm
http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/future_exhibitions/shields_from_the_pacific.aspx

Click on the number 12 picture, you will see "Detail of a sling stone in a war shield, late 1800s, Karkar Island, Madang Province, Papua New Guinea"

Title: Re: Sling stone embedded in shield
Post by jlasud on Mar 6th, 2011 at 12:07pm
Really cool picture DM! I would have never found this one if you don't post it,thanks.

Title: Re: Sling stone embedded in shield
Post by bigkahuna on Mar 6th, 2011 at 10:00pm
This is a great find. We don't get many pictures like that. Thanks.

Title: Re: Sling stone embedded in shield
Post by starhiker on Mar 8th, 2011 at 11:44pm
Makes me wish I knew the scale and that I could examine the construction of the sheild.

Title: Re: Sling stone embedded in shield
Post by darksidedsam on Mar 15th, 2011 at 5:25am
I think that the obvious deadly shot is the face or the head.
I dont know if a body shot would kill someone

thats embedded in there pretty well lol

Title: Re: Sling stone embedded in shield
Post by curious_aardvark on Mar 16th, 2011 at 8:14am


A body shot could cause internal bleeding, broken ribs and other injuries.

It doesn't have to kill you to take you out of the fight.

Title: Re: Sling stone embedded in shield
Post by kuggur slingdog on Mar 19th, 2011 at 7:19am
Yeah, quite an impact, it destroyed the braided fiber work of the surface (and I bet thatīs pretty tough stuff) and hed enough energy left to imbed itself in the shield. Not a hit Iīd like to endure anywhere on my body....Cool find CA.

Title: Re: Sling stone embedded in shield
Post by kentuckythrower on Jan 21st, 2012 at 5:06pm
I shattered a plank of an old tobacco barn with a stone, and whoever was carrying this shield, ought to consider himself lucky!!!

Title: Re: Sling stone embedded in shield
Post by IronGoober on Jul 19th, 2022 at 4:52pm
I cannot find the picture anymore The link is dead and my searching skills on the britishmuseum website are terrible. Perhaps Archaic Arms or AncientCraftwork could assist?

I just remembered this image and wanted to look at it again and discuss given some things I've learned recently.

Title: Re: Sling stone embedded in shield
Post by IronGoober on Jul 19th, 2022 at 4:59pm
Nevermind!

I found it. 
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_Oc1922-1115-1

The description is :"Rectangular wooden shield in three pieces, completely bound with red, yellow and black rattan and fibre forming a design on triangles down the central portion; a sling-stone is embedded in the shield."

How fast do you think that stone had to be traveling to embed that deep? I mean...it obliterated the rattan wrapping. That isn't weak stuff.

The shield is stated to be 29cm wide, so that means the stone is 1.35 cm x 1.8 cm, or about 14 cubic cm, at 2.7 g/cc that is about a 40g stone. The max speed I've ever slung a stone that size (so far) was 74 m/s. BUT... I'm not sure that even 74 m/s would do this to a shield .... so how fast do you think it was going?   
SlingStoneInShield.png (1780 KB | 61 )

Title: Re: Sling stone embedded in shield
Post by MMF on Jul 19th, 2022 at 11:11pm
I wish there was more information on its construction. Was the shield originally made with three pieces? I assume not.

The rattan here might not be as strong as you think. The good stuff that's expensive in The States is processed quite a bit to remove defects. Plus it looks really thin. And no idea what kind of fiber or wood was used.

New Guinea appears to have several species of trees found nowhere else.

I do think it's possible that you would be able to do that kind of damage.

Title: Re: Sling stone embedded in shield
Post by Archaic Arms on Jul 20th, 2022 at 8:11am
The stone hit right at the seam between the two pieces of wood. I assume the braid has strands that go through to the other side, so there is also a gap between the wood (which can be seen on both sides). This is significant, as it requires a lot less force to wedge a stone into a gap, than it does to embed it in solid wood.

That being said, it still had to be moving fast to have that impact. Assuming this is a battle relic, the shield would have had some give being held in the hand, and the stone would have been launched from a distance. The damage is a lot more impressive in this context than if the shield was put up against a tree and slung at from close range. Lots of variables.
If someone put that shield up to protect themselves from a slinger 100m away, then that could mean quite high release velocity.

Title: Re: Sling stone embedded in shield
Post by MMF on Jul 20th, 2022 at 8:08pm
You can see two seams in the shield. One near each braid just inboard of the braids. I think these divisions are what the description is referring to when stating that there are three pieces.

The stone hit about 1 cm away from the closest seam. If there were strands that went throught the shield, they would have probably carved or drilled out some wood so there wasn't a gap. Still, I don't think that would be an improvement over just using a single piece of wood. It's not a very big shield and a single piece would be more reliable.

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