Bit of obscure knowlege I picked up recently: 'normans' had only been in france for a hundred years or so at the time of the invasion of england and were actually norsemen who'd settled in france (hence the name).
explains why they used slings.

Rat Man wrote on Jan 16^th, 2010 at 4:35pm:


well yeah, the roman legionarys plumbatae, but i'm guessing that was only when rome had a good emperor since they're expensive. a poor person i can imagine with a sling

also, in redwall the long patrol runners (basically like scouts- though a job before a soldier) are equipped with (following the book "The long Patrol") carried a dagger and a sling. doesn't have to do with real life though lol.

I've read a couple of historical novels (admittedly not the best source, but they were definitely on the better researched, extremely complicated kinds) making mention of Romanised Brits having a hovering pack of slingers working the perimeter of any mass troop movement to gather up some bunnies etc.

Sling is about the perfect technology for opportunistic use, apart from the ammo it is more or less weightless and in fact could have been used as a strap, retainer or part of another device or tool.  You might miss (I wouldn't rely on me to sling you up some supper, unless it was sitting very still and gave me a couple of goes to sight in ) but you've lost very little in the way of calories or bulk carrying and using it.

Only have to look at the "toggle rope" issued in vietnam to see just how many uses people can come up with for a metre or two of decent cordage. I suspect many "braided belts" used by ancient cultures have their roots in slings. Or vice versa. A braided belt with a loop is ideal for carrying all kinds of things, even a simple belt pouch or two and a dagger - worse kit to have when living off your wits.

I also wonder given the history of ancient cultures making hair string ...either for day to day use, or strictly ceremonial... this continues until the present in Australasia and was a big thing in southern US "gothic" funeral art... human hair coiled into flowers and ornamental edging for casket photos... has something to do with the tendency of well known ancient slinging cultures to have long braids on men. I know my hair is long enough (at  70cm or so) and my hairstring making ability is well up to the task to knock up something literally more or less out of nothing.

I couldn't tell you an "exact" era for their setting but from memory something like two or three generations after Roman settlement. Latinised names for local land features, etc.

Wish I could even remember what they were called, great read, straightlaced Roman favoured son helps slave to do a runner? It'll come to me.

Also made much mention of the significance of the boar spear and technical details of its use and construction.

Nice vid, history collapsing on itself like that does my head in (pleasantly so). A similar site here in Australia, you'd cop tens of thousands of dollars worth of fines for interfering with the stonework but at the same time, I'd have a lot of fun just about seeing some little peasant types lugging them all up there. Lot's of worked stone around here, probably at least a little older than those stones and it's always a priviledge to handle them, just for a moment.