Thunder Chief wrote on Mar 16^th, 2010 at 8:38pm:


Is there any other image or proof other than these reliefs of the "Etruscan" sling being the one with the three strand pouch? If not, I have the suspicion that here we might have a confusion of cause and effect. Which means: The reliefs on the pillars once were interpreted as slings (no matter if they are or not), which is why everybody since then believes that Etruscans (exclusively) made three strand slings.

Jaegoor showed me a drawing of a Balearic sling variation with - a three strand pouch. They probably exist(ed) in many parts of the world, maybe even among the Etruscans , but I doubt that they were the "typical" Etruscan sling before I see more evidence for it.

I have nothing against the use of the term "Etruscan sling". It sounds good and vivid, and it's justified by its common use on this forum. But it's like the terms "Apache sling" or "Byzantine style". The Apache were neither the inventors nor the only users of the certain type of sling which we describe as Apache, and not everybody using the Byzantine style automatically had to be a subject of the Emperor of Constantinople. At the same time, the Apache as perfect pragmatics surely also used other types of slings, and I strongly believe it was not forbidden among Byzantine troops to use another throwing style than "Byzantine", if necessary.