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New book on Slingstones in Oceania & Americas (Read 11073 times)
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Re: New book on Slingstones in Oceania & Americas
Reply #15 - Jan 25th, 2012 at 8:58pm
 
Grin Finally! I'm pleased to announce that our book is now available, at least thru our publisher, the Kent State University Press. You will find it shown as their featured new publication and it may be ordered at: www.kentstateuniversitypress.com . I do not see that it is shown as yet available on other vendors sites, e.g., Amazon, but that should happen quickly now.  
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The_Peltast
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Re: New book on Slingstones in Oceania & Americas
Reply #16 - Jan 26th, 2012 at 2:33pm
 
Excellent, thanks for the update.
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ArchaeoMan
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Re: New book on Slingstones in Oceania & Americas
Reply #17 - Feb 3rd, 2012 at 2:12pm
 
Book appeared today on Amazon as well!
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David Morningstar
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Re: New book on Slingstones in Oceania & Americas
Reply #18 - Mar 31st, 2012 at 6:09am
 

I have the book. I am very impressed so far, havent finished it yet. I will do a full review later.

Thearos, even though it isnt your area you should buy it anyway.

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Bill Skinner
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Re: New book on Slingstones in Oceania & Americas
Reply #19 - Apr 4th, 2012 at 9:19pm
 
I got my copy today, so far, I like it.
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Re: New book on Slingstones in Oceania & Americas
Reply #20 - Apr 5th, 2012 at 11:51am
 

I'm not going to have time to do a full review for a while, so this is the short version:

Slings - not much here. A bit of a disappointment

Slinging - not a great deal, some good descriptions from the past. No experiments.

Slingstones - this is what its all about. Biconical slingstones made of fired clay or worked stone. Lots from the Pacific islands, all measured and weighed. But the real standout is the biconical slingstones of North America which I have never ever heard of before.

Did you know the Lovelock cave sling was found with two biconical slingstones? Neither did I, but there they are, in photos and sketches. There are many biconicals found in different places across the US but they are rarely identified as such.

I would advise caution for some of these - I dont accept the Poverty Point Objects as slingstones, I think they are for tying onto cordage, maybe as weights for a throwing net. Also, large biconical stone objects can be tomahawk heads. If it is grooved, it is definitely a tomahawk head.

Its much more an academic than a popular text but there are lots and lots of references for further study, if you have access to them.

A good work, a big step forward in academic slingstone study especially for North America. Not for average sling enthusiasts but for academics this is a must-have.

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Re: New book on Slingstones in Oceania & Americas
Reply #21 - Apr 5th, 2012 at 4:39pm
 
I think I'll just wait for the movie.

Seriously, looks like a very interesting read and since Amazon has it on thier list of available books it looks like I'll have my own copy soon.
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Atlatlista
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Re: New book on Slingstones in Oceania & Americas
Reply #22 - Apr 5th, 2012 at 11:09pm
 
Is the cover picture really the same as "Sling Braiding of the Andes" or is that an amazon mistake?  Anyway, I'll have to pick a copy of this up, as I'm intensely interested in slingstone finds and the dates for the artifacts.  I think slings are definitely neglected in archaeological literature and that they represent a sort of "low-hanging fruit" in the study of the development of projectile weapons systems.

As a sort of side note, I've always found slings to be a terribly vexing weapon, as they don't leave much in the way of archaeological remains behind.  You have to figure that slinging greatly predates specially-manufactured biconical slingstones, but unmodified stones are impossible to track, and slings are organic, so there's no way to prove just how old.  I think one alternative way forward might be to do experimental work and look at expected injury patterns from sling use, in the hopes of finding injuries which are "consistent" with the use of the sling.  Alternatively a look at bone plasticity might help, if slinging differs substantially from ordinary throwing in the loads it places on the body.  Of course, I'm not sure the latter is true, or that sling wounds are distinguishable from club wounds when you get right down to the damage done to bones.
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Re: New book on Slingstones in Oceania & Americas
Reply #23 - Apr 11th, 2012 at 8:39am
 
"As a sort of side note, I've always found slings to be a terribly vexing weapon, as they don't leave much in the way of archaeological remains behind.  You have to figure that slinging greatly predates specially-manufactured biconical slingstones, but unmodified stones are impossible to track, and slings are organic, so there's no way to prove just how old.  I think one alternative way forward might be to do experimental work and look at expected injury patterns from sling use, in the hopes of finding injuries which are "consistent" with the use of the sling.  Alternatively a look at bone plasticity might help, if slinging differs substantially from ordinary throwing in the loads it places on the body.  Of course, I'm not sure the latter is true, or that sling wounds are distinguishable from club wounds when you get right down to the damage done to bones."

I've been hitting the same wall trying to do research on this stuff for the last 2 years. I would think that constant slinging would leave a skeletal signature - much like longbow use does - but I doubt that the average shepherd, hunter or warrior would use it enough to produce these signatures. The longbow signature appeared precisely because of the extensive practice and powerful bows used. I imagine there's a similar signature with powerful composite bow users. So while sling specialists like the Balearic auxilliary should have some sort of skeletal modification, I don't think that modification is likely to be a good indicator of lower levels of use.

Similarly, distinguishing slingstone impacts from other blunt trauma could be difficult. Wells (1962), looking at Peruvian burials for trauma evidence, does have a snippit about how many depressed skull fractures are the same size as the sling projectiles, but it seems like he's imagining weapons in general to be more standardized than they really were.

The problem is frustrating enough that I just went into the ethnographic records instead  Smiley
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Re: New book on Slingstones in Oceania & Americas
Reply #24 - Apr 11th, 2012 at 9:07am
 
it's dountful that slinging would cause any easily distuinguishable growth or skeletal adaptations.

Essentially it's the same movement and musculature used for throwing spears, rocks, clubs etc.
The only thing that could be considered would be increased elbow damage or strenghtening. Hard slinging (ir: with force and large rocks) puts a lot more stress on the elbow than any other joint.

Might be worth looking into. Essentially a lifelong slinger might be expected to exhibit similiar elbow injuries or strengthening as a modern professional baseball pitcher.  Hope that helps Smiley

Think I'll pass on the book - once you've seen a few thousand sling stones - you've seen them all  Wink
I can always borrow davids book Smiley
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Re: New book on Slingstones in Oceania & Americas
Reply #25 - Apr 11th, 2012 at 9:30am
 
"it's dountful that slinging would cause any easily distuinguishable growth or skeletal adaptations. 

Essentially it's the same movement and musculature used for throwing spears, rocks, clubs etc. "

That's where I'm at with it. However, the skeleton adapts in some subtle ways to how we live. I had a prof in forensic anthropology who once identified that someone habitually wore high heels based on the orientation of a muscle attachment area in the lower leg (90% sure it's on the tibia). So even if it's indistinguishable, if there's a few skeletons all with that throwing signature, maybe with some other supporting evidence one could argue they were slingers. It's probably not enough on its own. Though, I'm more on the archaeology side of things. It would be interesting to get a forensics-type to take a look at the problem.
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Re: New book on Slingstones in Oceania & Americas
Reply #26 - Aug 1st, 2012 at 10:48pm
 
Dangit must find book now wood you mind if I use wires from your book for my Summer thesis (Stupid private school I'm only in kindle school)?
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