Mauro Fiorentini
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Forge your future with the hammer of your mind!
Posts: 3442
Ancona, Italy.
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Well, I don't really know if those are reproductions, I didn't put too much attention on this at that time. Judging by the pictures, those slings seem to be quite aged, but I don't think those are 500 years old. Should wood, cordage and leather have mantained so well, that would be a miracle, considering Italian's typical soil. On the other side, we've got archaeological sites that have given un 5000 years old cordage. Plus, we don't know how did these slings eventually get to the Museum, because there was nothing explaining their lives (where they part of a collection? Or what?). Finally, as I said, the Museum stores many other items, whose originality has proven. And, by the way, no slingers have been documented in Central Italy in the past, say, 200 years, nor anybody that I know of has ever shown some interest in this weapon, so who created those slings and put them there?
Perhaps it will be of some help to know that the Republic of San Marino is a tiny Nation created around 3 Rennaissance Age fortresses, built on earlier Medieval castles. Those fortresses having never been conquered, it may be that the slings were part of the garrison's equipment, and that they have been conserved during the years as trophys of a past power. Such a behavior is documented in my town, in which many Medieval ballistas and crossbows, and galleys parts, were stored until the Church conquest (so they lasted at least 200 years), and in the nearby town of Osimo, in which a 15th Century cannon, one of the first in the Region made out of iron, is still conserved.
Still, take these statements only as suppositions, for I don't know the true history of these slings. Greetings, Mauro.
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