Hi Everyone,
My name is John, I live in Sydney, Australia but help Greek archaeologists organise digs in Kythera & Antikythera in July & August.
I took this video, I'm the guy with the Aussie accent you can hear behind the camera.
I'm not an archaeologist but learn a lot from helping organise digs.
It's probably easiest to explain in point form...
Background
* Antikythera is a small island, strategically located in Mediterranean shipping lanes; North/South from Greece (technically Europe) to Africa & the Middle East, and East/West from modern day Turkey as far as Gibraltar. Type Antikythera into Google Earth to see.
* Due to its strategic location it was the home to pirates from perhaps around 400BC, to about 90BC.
It definitely functioned during Alexander the Great's time. It is thought that the Persians were involved, but their actual role is yet to be proven.
At this stage the hypothesis is that Antikythera operated as a Pirate's Lair and/or Persian Naval base. The Persian influence is thought to have diminished after the initial phase of establishing the fortress.
* The fortress has a circumference of about 1000m, with walls that stood up to 9 metres in height. This would have been very expensive to build, another signal re. a tie with the Persians (perhaps financing construction, at a minimum).
* The pirates who occupied Antikythera for several hundred years are thought to have come from/retained ties with Phalasarna in North Western Crete.
* The main business model of such pirates was a bit like the way the Somalians work today, capturing ships for ransom.
* Lots of evidence of conflict has been found by the archaeologists.
They believe that the population was wiped out in approx 89BC when the Romans attacked them to stamp out piracy in the Med. There is also evidence that the Rhodeans also attacked - most likely in retaliation for shipping losses etc. as they were a significant shipping power during the period.
* Lots of lead sling bullets, arrow heads, catapult stones (a headless statue was once found and the archaeologists told me it's head was probably used as a catapult missile at some stage) etc.
Sling bullet references
* I don't know where Aris, the archaeologist interviewed in the video got the figure of piercing armour at 160m. Will ask him when I speak to him in a couple of weeks.
Don't forget though, soldiers/pirates using sling bullets at the time were professionals, perhaps with skill levels that are very rare today. And it's almond shaped lead projectiles that we're talking about.
* One of the references in the interview was to Ovid, the Latin poet, saying in a poem that someone's heart was likened to the heat of a sling bullet thrown by a Balearic slinger.
* The reference to a Vasseleos (sp?) means a king... that some sling bullets found in Antikythera & other places have had king's names inscribed on them.
* They have found sling bullets in Antikythera with inscriptions on them, saying something along the lines of "from the Phalasarnanians"
* In Cyprus, a sling bullet has been found with an inscription that roughly translates to "we are entering (screwing) you, become pregnant". A bit like how pilots write on bombs with chalk.
* They found and excavated a grave in Antikythera, were a sling bullet was found next to the buried person's skeleton. The assumption is that this sling bullet was lodged in the guys body when he was buried.
* Velocity wasn't the only thing that made lead sling bullets lethal, heat was too. Have heard a couple of different explanations from engineers & archaeologists but they agree, heat affects the destructive force upon impact. Don't quote me on this, I'm not an expert.
Other
I had an interesting chat with some Australian re-enactors, who simulated the advance of Hoplites into Persian arrow fire during the Battle of Marathon - which helped produce a little qualitative data that being showered with arrows, probably didn't produce many fatalities.
Slings bullets, if used instead (which isn't the case) would have had the potential to inflict greater damage.
I'm no expert but after trying on replica Corinthian helmets, I get the impression a sling bullet hit to the head in full flight would have caused a pretty major concussion, if not much worse.
Antikythera Field Research
Never know, if anyone from this forum is keen enough, there might be opportunities to volunteer to go and dig with the archaeologists in Antikythera in August - perhaps helping Greek archaeologists find more ancient sling bullets from in the dirt.
Below is a link to a research paper in Greek re. sling bullets in Antikythera.
Sorry my written Greek isn't good enough to translate it.
http://www.krg.org.au/antikythera-horos.pdfCheers,
John