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Aerial Insults: The Tradition of Inscribing Lead Sling-Bullets in Antiquity”
By Brandon Olson
MILITARY HISTORY BLOGFebruary 12, 2008
Typically, when one ponders the use of the sling in antiquity the first image that comes to mind is the story of how David slew Goliath. The exact origins of the sling, however, are not precisely known. Classical authors such as Strabo, Vegetius, Thucydides, and Pliny attribute the invention of the sling to several groups including the Aetolians, Baleares, Acarnanians, and Phoenicians.[1] The most renowned slingers attested to in the ancient Mediterranean include those from Acarnania, Aetolia, Thessaly, the Balearic Islands, and Rhodes. The earliest archaeological evidence for the sling came from the fourteenth-century tomb of Tutankhamen.[2] Based on the historical and archaeological evidence, it appears that the sling became a popular weapon as early as the Neolithic period.[3] It functioned throughout antiquity and was particularly popular beginning in the late Bronze Age through the Roman periods.
One interesting phenomenon regarding the use of the sling in antiquity concerns the presence of inscriptions on sling-bullets. . . . .
Continued at:
http://militaryhistoryblog.wordpress.com/2008/02/12/aerial-insults-the-tradition...The Tradition of Inscribing Lead Sling-Bullets