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General >> Project Goliath - The History of The Sling >> Sling bullets dating to 7000 years bp. DONE!
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Message started by Mauro Fiorentini on Feb 7th, 2012 at 3:38am

Title: Sling bullets dating to 7000 years bp. DONE!
Post by Mauro Fiorentini on Feb 7th, 2012 at 3:38am
Hallo there!
I was looking for slinging evidences to help one of our friends here, and I found this picture ("Guida della preistoria Italiana", M. Radmilli, published by Sansoni, 1975):



It represents the most typical aspects of an Early Neolithic culture, the so-called "Masseria La Quercia culture".
It was widespread in the province of Foggia (Region Puglia, Southern Italy), and dates back to 7000 - 6540 years before present.
Bullets were made of clay and they are of two different shapes, as you can see from the picture.
It's one of the most ancient clear evidence of sling's use that I know of.
Hope you like it!
Mauro.

Title: Re: Sling bullets dating to 7000 years bp.
Post by Mauro Fiorentini on Feb 7th, 2012 at 3:42am
Please note that even if the Masseria La Quercia culture is generally identified as a Neolithic one (the adoption of pottery generally dates to that period in Italy), there're no lithic tools made with the "neo-lithic" process, that is by knapping and polishing them.
It somehow makes the culture a little more ancient than what the old book says.
Greetings,
Mauro.

Title: Re: Sling bullets dating to 7000 years bp.
Post by kentuckythrower on Feb 8th, 2012 at 8:13pm
Did the article mention the scale of the drawing? I'm curios about the size of those clay bullets.

Title: Re: Sling bullets dating to 7000 years bp.
Post by Mauro Fiorentini on Feb 9th, 2012 at 1:02pm
It does not, but I've found some bibliography about this culture:

J. Bradford, "Siticulosa Apulia", Antiquity, 1946;
A. Manfredini, S. Tinč, "Atti XIV Riun. I.I.P.P.", 1970;
A. Manfredini, "Il villaggio trincerato di Monte Aquilone nel quadro del neolitico dell'Italia meridionale", Origini 6, 1972;
A. M. Radmilli, "Die Neolithisierung Italiens", inside "Die Anfage des Neolithikus von Orient bis Nordeuropa", Teil 7, 1972.

Damn... the most recent text has been written 40 years ago  >:(
There must be most recent ones, plus every text here talks about Neolithic, but the "Guida della preistoria Italiana" clearly says that some lithic artefacts are of Upper Paleolithic technique.
So I believe they misunderstood the dating in the 70ies; it's a curious thing to examine  ;)
Greetings,
Mauro.

Title: Re: Sling bullets dating to 7000 years bp.
Post by Mauro Fiorentini on Apr 6th, 2012 at 8:31am
In order to prepare stuff for the incoming event I'll partecipate to, I made some replicas of these clay bullets:



Modeled and cooked on the ground.
I notice that I made conical ones as big as spherical ones, while according to the drawings these should be bigger (if the scale is correct).
But that's it, I'll explain it to the public  :)
Greetings,
Mauro.

Title: Re: Sling bullets dating to 7000 years bp. DONE!
Post by Atlatlista on Apr 6th, 2012 at 10:14am
What's the sort of beehive-looking object labeled #21 in the book?  It looks like a sling bullet to me.

Title: Re: Sling bullets dating to 7000 years bp. DONE!
Post by Mauro Fiorentini on Apr 6th, 2012 at 2:23pm
That's a glass bead pendant  :-[ They still had to discover glass at that time  :D
Greetings,
Mauro.

Title: Re: Sling bullets dating to 7000 years bp. DONE!
Post by Atlatlista on Apr 6th, 2012 at 3:16pm

Mauro Fiorentini wrote on Apr 6th, 2012 at 2:23pm:
That's a glass bead pendant  :-[ They still had to discover glass at that time  :D
Greetings,
Mauro.


Are those to-scale then?  Because those are either very small sling bullets or that's a very big pendant.

Title: Re: Sling bullets dating to 7000 years bp. DONE!
Post by Mauro Fiorentini on Apr 6th, 2012 at 5:35pm
Nope, they are not. These drawings are completely incorrect in scale.
For example, # 10 should be about 50cms (19 inches more or less) tall, while # 19 is the top view of a village  :o
It seems that the concept of "scale" was unknown in the early 70ies...
Greetings,
Mauro.

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