Hallo friends!
I'm not sure I should have posted this topic here, I was thinking about Other topics, but on the other hand I'm showing a warrior, so... Anyway I'm ready to move the thread if you don't like it here.
So, I'm pleased to show you my hypothetical reconstruction of a Picenian slinger, ca. 8th Century b.C.
Picenians lived in my Region at that time, and they were known for their skills as pirates and mercenaries. In fact, Rome hired them as allies first and auxiliaries later, and they were the only Italic population which the Romans had to deport in order to grant the pax Romana. Picenian nasty people  



The warrior I had in mind was not a rich member of his tribe, which is shown by the lack of metallic equipment.
He's armed with an iron short sword of Balcanic origins (check here: http://slinging.org/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1338743737/0 and http://etadelferro.forumfree.it/?t=62356992) and his simple sling, a weapon of which use we have some evidences dating from the 6th to the 5th Century.
He wear a war belt made of reinforced leather, which he fasten with a simple bronze pin.
This belt will protect his lower stomach, while the chest is protected by the kardiophilax (check here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_-N3bspk-Y).
A kardiophilax was a very primitive kind of protection consisting of a couple of discs or a squares made by various materials and covering the heart and the back. Since my warrior is not rich, his kardiophilax is made of some layers of linen and a sheet of leather, hardened with the use of salted boiling water. Richer warriors and warlords had bronze kardiophilax with iron reinforcements.
Both the belt and the kardiophilax were common among the Iron Age populations in Central Italy, and a type of kardiophilax was produced in my Region. It can be easily recognized by its decorations, therefore I used these decorations for my version.
The warrior is protecting his head with a light cap made of some layers of linen, glued and sewn together. This kind of cap was very common at that time for we have many evidences: bronze and pottery figures from Region Marche, Umbria and Sardinia, a bark example from Southern Germany and a copper one from Region Veneto (check here: http://slinging.org/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1358701012).
The linen tunic is a typical short one, as can be seen in many frescoes, pottery and bronze figures of the time. It didn't change until Greek first, and then Roman fashion took its place.
Shoes are not shown for I'm still gathering sources on them.

I will soon add a more detailed review on my forum, and will update this page too.
Any comment would be much appreciated  
Greetings,
Mauro.

Thank you Bill!
Actually, the only evidence I can rely on regarding how they bring their ammunition is an archaeological one: digging a 6th Century male grave near my town, a friend of mine found 13 rounded stones, perfectly polished and crowded together; around them the soil was darker and more greasy than normal. He told me that perhaps it was a leather pouch containing sling ammunition.
I am prone to think that they used some sort of pouch, but they could also have put their stones in the folds of their tunics, or they could have held them in hand.
Actually I already made two leather pouches for my stones, but have found much easier to hold them in hand and twist the sling around the belt once I run out of ammunition.
In this reconstruction, the slinger is going to use a few stones, 5 or 6, and then he goes for a close fight with his sword.
But this is only my personal opinion, because we know very little about that era's warfare: there were duels between chiefs, but also ambush - all this judging by the small sizes of protections and offensive weapons. But there's nothing sure yet.
We may also use Homerus's descriptions of battles to imagine similar ones in the Picenian context, and this would be a legitimate hypothesis too.
Will post a video of me slinging with that sword soon 
Greetings,
Mauro.

Well thank you Dan!
The sling is nothing sophisticated, just 2 strings and a leather pouch, Teg said it's scrap  Those you see are definitely the string's shadows.
For the dirt... I'm working on it  but you got it right, my warrior is a laborer in times of peace, a fisherman to be honest... I'm trying to cast the bronze harpoons but it's not easy 
Greetings,
Mauro.

Thanks Fundibularius, now that you make me think about it, you must be right, the cap can be an obstacle for the sling.
I really have to test the whole thing!
Greetings,
Mauro.

Yeah, that was the linothorax!
It was exported and used in Italy too, but I was unable to find any evidence of such armor used together with that cap.
Moreover, every source I've found show how this kind of cap was used both in peace and in war.
In peace, because we have the bark conic cap put in a woman's grave dating 8th Century and an unarmed male's pottery figure dating 5th C.
In war, because we have the copper conic cap found in Northern Italy with signs of damages, dating 7th C. and the famous Stele di Novilara (of which we've been discussing here) showing conical head protections together with shields, dating 5th C.
I can't become an archer because there're much less evidences of archery (2 graves) than slinging (a stele showing many slingers, a grave and multiple more recent lead glans).
I'm in a hurry now but will take up the discussion again later!
Greetings,
Mauro.

Here's a thought, could Caldou have just rediscovered how slingers actually threw at that time?  I think that it actually makes a great deal of sense and sounds quite logical, it lets the slinger throw while wearing the correct clothing of the time.  Possibly Mauro should write a paper about his findings.

If I'm not mistaken, no antique picture show people in a slinging motion. They're all readying their shots

And why choosing one style to specialise into and wearing some fancy protection over being able to sling using 10 differents style with a less deflecting protection ? I don't really know

Please keep in mind that I never wanted to say those people definitly use one of those style, only that it's possible to sling with those helmets on

Even an apache style would work (but not with the starting position they show on the greek side of the world)

Would not "stretching" the sling before a fig8 rather be in a vertical instead of a horizontal position? That's what I would do, anyway.

I don't want to say that fig8 or the other two styles didn't exist back then, but my opinion is that overhead was far more common due to a number of reasons. And, sorry, I don't mean what is usually called "Greek" style here by saying "overhead". Helicopter is the word (several rotations above your throwing shoulder, with variable angles).

Our gallery of antique slingers  http://slinging.org/index.php?mact=Album,m5,default,1&m5albumid=4&m5returnid=53&... shows some of them in full action. The only ones who wear "high" head gear are the Assyrians, all others have flat helmets or caps or hair nets on or even go bare-headed.