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The Antiquity of the Sling (Read 13073 times)
kentuckythrower
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The Antiquity of the Sling
Feb 3rd, 2012 at 4:09pm
 
I understand there is a growing body of evidence indicating slings were developed during the paleolithic. Can this be true? Given their simplicity of design and effectiveness, it makes perfect sense, but how can this be proved?
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Mauro Fiorentini
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Re: The Antiquity of the Sling
Reply #1 - Feb 3rd, 2012 at 5:56pm
 
I believe that the antiquity of the sling can only be alleged, unless we find some accurate wall painting or something similar (depot of stones for example; signs of stone impact on animal bones, whatever).

The problems are: how many Paleolithic evidences have been studied?
How many archaeologists know how does a sling works, and which traces it leaves on bones?
How many archaeologists know how a sling bullet looks like, so that they can recognize one with reasonable certainty?
And how many of them are currently analyzing Paleolithic evidences?

And so on... but I personally believe that the sling concretize such an elementary phisical concept that its creation during the Paleolithic can be assumed (at least I assume it without remorse  Smiley ).
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Re: The Antiquity of the Sling
Reply #2 - Feb 3rd, 2012 at 9:05pm
 
  The earliest concrete evidence I know of is at Bagor, India where spherical pecked stones were interpreted as slingstones. The article only says that they were found in phases I and II of the site, which date from 5000-2800BC and 2800-600BC. Clay projectiles at Hamoukar - in modern-day Syria - date to around 3500BC.

  That said, I agree that the technology would likely be around well before then, probably extending from the paleolithic.
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Re: The Antiquity of the Sling
Reply #3 - Feb 4th, 2012 at 11:49am
 
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Re: The Antiquity of the Sling
Reply #4 - Mar 9th, 2012 at 2:05am
 
Ye anciente slings and even modern ones aren't really built to last, at least not long enough for any archaeologist to discover it some few thousand years later. The sling may be much older than we can currently date it, but we'll never find those old, old slings that have long since frayed, broken, discarded, decayed etc.
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What old Archimedes actually said:&&"Give me a sling large enough and I can chuck the World!"&&&&His words. In perfect modern English, too!
 
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Mauro Fiorentini
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Re: The Antiquity of the Sling
Reply #5 - Mar 9th, 2012 at 7:30am
 
Rumors says that slings has been in use some 80'000 years ago, but I've been unable to contact that historician yet  Angry
Stay tuned for further information!
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Re: The Antiquity of the Sling
Reply #6 - Mar 9th, 2012 at 4:13pm
 
I am still fascinated by the history of the sling. In Guam, the sling was important to the Chamorro people. The official seal of the island is in the shape of a sling stone. If the Chamorro people are of Austronesian descent (southeast asia) and came to what is now Micronesia around 4000BC, did they develop the technology after they arrived, independent of any other culture or did they bring the technology with them? If they brought the technology with them, couldn't it stand to reason that the technonolgy was well in use in many parts of the world by many cultures like southeast asian cultures before 4000BC and long before projectiles found dating to 3500BC? Consider the use of slings throught the Americas. Cultures here developed totally independent of those areas where historical evidence has been discovered like in the middle east. It seems to me that the technology of the sling was developed at a common time, long, long ago, when the human population was much smaller, then spread out as the people spread out. Asian, European, African, American, Islander cultures all used slings.
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Re: The Antiquity of the Sling
Reply #7 - Mar 9th, 2012 at 4:39pm
 
IMO slings have been around for a lot longer than we may think. Prehistoric men were just that...prehistoric. They had all the mental faculties we do and were not stupid by any stretch of the imagination. The mere fact they were able to survive and thrive without our "modern conveniences" speaks volumes about their capabilities. If someone discover's the remnants of a sling that was made 80,000 years ago, it wouldn't suprise me in the least.
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Re: The Antiquity of the Sling
Reply #8 - Mar 9th, 2012 at 8:00pm
 
The fascinating thing about slings is that they appear quite literally all over the world. It seems every culture in every location at some point had slings. If we're gonna go by the standard-accepted "Out of Africa" theory, then slings were probably invented by early humans before they crossed into the deserts of Northern African and the Middle East. Hell, maybe having a decent hunting implement was what let them spread so fast and so far.
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What old Archimedes actually said:&&"Give me a sling large enough and I can chuck the World!"&&&&His words. In perfect modern English, too!
 
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Re: The Antiquity of the Sling
Reply #9 - Mar 10th, 2012 at 9:03am
 
It occured to me the other day (while tramping up and down the defensive trench around a 3000 year old hillfort actually) that technology really started with the use and invention of manufactured cordage.
And the sling will have been created fairly shortly there-after.

But none of the old slings will have survived - the ancients were well ahead of the game in that all their slings would have been 100% biodegradable Smiley
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Re: The Antiquity of the Sling
Reply #10 - Mar 10th, 2012 at 2:40pm
 
I would love to know what was going through the mind of the first sling maker when the idea of making a sling came about. How would you like to be responsible for creating something so universal and long lasting. Something that would be used for hunting, shepherding and war for thousands of years afterwards.
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Re: The Antiquity of the Sling
Reply #11 - Mar 10th, 2012 at 2:57pm
 
Morphy wrote on Mar 10th, 2012 at 2:40pm:
I would love to know what was going through the mind of the first sling maker when the idea of making a sling came about. How would you like to be responsible for creating something so universal and long lasting. Something that would be used for hunting, shepherding and war for thousands of years afterwards.  


He was being nagged by his wife who demanded better food fare. He might have been thinking, "I hope this finally shuts her up..."
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Re: The Antiquity of the Sling
Reply #12 - Mar 10th, 2012 at 10:33pm
 
Quote:
Morphy wrote on Mar 10th, 2012 at 2:40pm:
I would love to know what was going through the mind of the first sling maker when the idea of making a sling came about. How would you like to be responsible for creating something so universal and long lasting. Something that would be used for hunting, shepherding and war for thousands of years afterwards.  


He was being nagged by his wife who demanded better food fare. He might have been thinking, "I hope this finally shuts her up..."

Didn't every home have an emergency "wife-club" laying about the house for such scenarios?

Maybe the poor fella just got sick of throwing rocks by hand.
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What old Archimedes actually said:&&"Give me a sling large enough and I can chuck the World!"&&&&His words. In perfect modern English, too!
 
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Re: The Antiquity of the Sling
Reply #13 - Mar 11th, 2012 at 5:16am
 
There was this theory around here about tying cords to stones to aid in throwing them, but since cordage was complicated technology someone invented a way to retain the cord when the stone was slung away so it could be used with many stones instead of just one.
timann
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Re: The Antiquity of the Sling
Reply #14 - Mar 11th, 2012 at 2:28pm
 
timann wrote on Mar 11th, 2012 at 5:16am:
There was this theory around here about tying cords to stones to aid in throwing them, but since cordage was complicated technology someone invented a way to retain the cord when the stone was slung away so it could be used with many stones instead of just one.
timann


I'm no expert by any stretch of the imagination but I would think that early man, able to use a simple stone flake to butcher an animal would also be able to cut strips of hide and make single strand cordage. The act of twisting and weaving strands of material of course would have come later. I would also think that even hair and sinew would have been some of the first types of cordage used and readily available. At least hair would even if it was your own.
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