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Funny little picture (Read 6460 times)
Ethan
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Funny little picture
Dec 23rd, 2007 at 3:14pm
 
I was browsing my old set of Encyclopedias (The World Book Encyclopedia, 1949), and I looked up slings, just for kicks.
It actually had a short article, quoted the Bible and reffered to slingshots and bolas. What caught my eye, however, was this sketch:
...
It was accompanied by a scetch of a kid with a slingshot and some fellows on horses with bolas, but anyways...
What do you think of his style? Is that a decent representation of a roman slinger, or just an uneducated generalization?
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"Young men go to war. Sometimes because they have to, sometimes because they want to. Always, they feel they are supposed to. This comes from the sad, layered stories of life, which over the centuries have seen courage confused with picking up arms, and cowardice confused with putting them down."&&--Mitch Albom, The Five People you meet in Heaven
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Re: Funny little picture
Reply #1 - Dec 23rd, 2007 at 6:22pm
 
uneducated generalisation - the sling looks like a bandana, and the circles that would represent the movement are drawn in a way that shows that the elbow is making far bigger path than the pouch.
and i don't like that dagger either.
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Ethan
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Re: Funny little picture
Reply #2 - Dec 23rd, 2007 at 7:08pm
 
The more I look at it, the more I agree.

Plus, I don't like the fact that he's either wearing a T-shirt or dual thin armbands... Either way, inaccurate attire for a slinger of the period...
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"Young men go to war. Sometimes because they have to, sometimes because they want to. Always, they feel they are supposed to. This comes from the sad, layered stories of life, which over the centuries have seen courage confused with picking up arms, and cowardice confused with putting them down."&&--Mitch Albom, The Five People you meet in Heaven
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Re: Funny little picture
Reply #3 - Dec 23rd, 2007 at 7:36pm
 
Clothes issues aside, the sling is way too short to require multiple rotations in a helicopter style. Simple overhand or underarm would be the go especially as the stone is very large and would be too heavy to be thrown with helicopter even if the sling was correct.

In the same vein have a look at the drawings in the Korfman article post. They also show a slinger with a very short sling and grapefruit sized stones. In addition he has extra stones in the folds of his tunic which seems barely ruffled by the weight. Maybe they just had tough cloth in those days.
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Re: Funny little picture
Reply #4 - Dec 26th, 2007 at 11:00am
 
The standardized Roman style was one circle of the sling, then an underhand release. The Romans quickly learned that if you are going to have groups of slingers together, a uniform launch is needed. If everyone did their own launch while in formation, it would be ugly.
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Re: Funny little picture
Reply #5 - Dec 26th, 2007 at 3:11pm
 
an uneducated generalization ... Weight already transfered to forward leg ....
weight should be on the trailing leg and transfer forward as part of the cast.
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Re: Funny little picture
Reply #6 - Dec 28th, 2007 at 1:57pm
 
Steven wrote on Dec 26th, 2007 at 3:11pm:
an uneducated generalization ... Weight already transfered to forward leg ....
weight should be on the trailing leg and transfer forward as part of the cast.



I was wondering when someone would mention this when I was reading this thread.
That is the first thing I noticed.
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funda_iucunda
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Re: Funny little picture
Reply #7 - Dec 29th, 2007 at 2:39pm
 
At first glance I thought it might be a copy of the slinger pictures from Trajan Column. But there is no such picture as far as I remember. Nothing of the details would fit to those: clothing weaponry and - at least concerning the right picture the rotation. It all looks a little bit like į product of pure phantasy. Is there any hint to the source of that picture?

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Re: Funny little picture
Reply #8 - Dec 30th, 2007 at 1:44am
 
that is a weird slinger.... or maybe it was the artist........
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Re: Funny little picture
Reply #9 - Dec 30th, 2007 at 5:59am
 
we've got some old encyclopaedias I used when I was a kid. never thought to look up slinging - I'll have a look later. Good idea that :-)

and yep the publishers artist was probably told 'find a pic of a slinger and make it quick'. ;-)
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Re: Funny little picture
Reply #10 - Dec 31st, 2007 at 11:12am
 
funda_iucunda wrote on Dec 29th, 2007 at 2:39pm:
At first glance I thought it might be a copy of the slinger pictures from Trajan Column. But there is no such picture as far as I remember. Nothing of the details would fit to those: clothing weaponry and - at least concerning the right picture the rotation. It all looks a little bit like į product of pure phantasy. Is there any hint to the source of that picture?

funda iucunda


I think the right hand picture is conjecture from the artist, or some other 'questionable' source. On the other hand, the illustration on the left bears a strong resemblence to the figure on Trajan's Column. This is shown at the bottom of this page:
http://www.slinging.org/historygallery2.html

The stance and atire seem very similar to me. The principle difference is the omission of the cloak with its stones and the shield. I would think that given the rather small number of sources for slinging illustrations the picture started out from Trajan's Column. Why the changes to the left arm etc? Perhaps the artist simply went for simplification, or did not understand the significance of the items.
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Re: Funny little picture
Reply #11 - Jan 6th, 2008 at 12:06pm
 
That picture from Trajans Column was exactly the one I had in mind. Perhaps it was the source. But the artist totally misunderstood the clothing. The cloak is a "sagum" a rectangular piece of textile with two ends fixed together on the right shoulder and covering the left shoulder.  On the other hand the position of the slinger on Trajans Column is not very well beanced either. Too much weight on the left leg, I think.

The picture above that one from Trajans Cloumn in the Historical pictures Galery is very interesting. It is from Aurelius Antonina Column (which I do not know) of 4. century. The explanation says it is a German slinger. As far as I know the Germans weren't that keen on slinging. Is it from the trousers? How sure is this opinion?

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Ethan
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Re: Funny little picture
Reply #12 - Jan 6th, 2008 at 12:19pm
 
I would guess that it comes mainly from his surroundings - other, more Germanic figures behind him. Also, assuming that it is indeed Aurelius Antonina, was a Germanic campaign his main exploit?
Also, the dude is bearded. That is a slight hint, I suppose... Or, it could be glaringly obvious and I'm just not seeing it. I'm very good at not noticing key details...
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"Young men go to war. Sometimes because they have to, sometimes because they want to. Always, they feel they are supposed to. This comes from the sad, layered stories of life, which over the centuries have seen courage confused with picking up arms, and cowardice confused with putting them down."&&--Mitch Albom, The Five People you meet in Heaven
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