[William P]

more spcifically, how much evidence do we have reagrding, what slings loked like in different periods and different cultures.

for examples the aztecs, greeks celts, egyptians, and byzantinesto name a few used slings but would a sling used by a byzantine skirmisher. be the same design and materials as one used by the ancient israelites or the celts of iron age europe

or is there simply not much evidence either way.
and lastly, what evidence is there of use of the sling as a battlefield weapon by the saxons and vikings,

im thinking of making a sling for use in reenactment projectile combat, my period and clture is the varangian guards. but we also include a native byzantine and native rus element, meanng some people have the kit of a byzantine infantryman as well

but i was wondering what slings of the byzantines looked like. mine uses a weaved rope cup instead of a piece of leather.

[Dan Howard]

Thom Richardson studied an Egyptian sling found at El Lahun in Fayum, dating to the eighth century B.C. It is currently in the Petrie Museum in University College London (no. UC.6921). The sling is not complete, only the cradle and one cord are intact. Both are made from braided flax. The cradle is 125 x 70 mm, and the remaining cord is 570 mm long.

Source: T. Richardson, "The ballistics of the sling," Royal Armouries Yearbook, Vol. 3, (Leeds: Royal Armouries, 1998) 44

He also made some reconstructions and tested them with various types of shot.

If anyone is interested I'll have a book coming out later this year with this sort of stuff in it. It concentrates on the Bronze Age but creeps into the Iron Age occasionally. The book is on Amazon for pre-order but I don't think that their current image will be the final cover.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bronze-Age-Military-E...6432714-21

[William P]

interesting. ill give it a look andjust to clarify this book on bronze age equiptment will include a decent amount on armour as well?

and it appears that the sling found in tutankhamuns tomb was of similar design to what you described.

but how many other examples of slings do we have. not just egyptian.
more specifically how many examples of partially or fully intact slings do we have from most of ancient and medieval history

[Sean Flynt]

For what it's worth...check the slinger at lower right

http://www.myArmoury.com/view.html?features/p...iers06.jpg

[Scott Hrouda]

William P.,

A good starting point is Hurling a Shower of Great Stones: The History of Slings in Europe by Brian Engler. This secondary (tertiary) resource will get you pointed in the right direction. Brian neatly presents his research in 46 short pages and then provides 86 references for you to explore on your own!

This booklet is issue number 146 (CA0146) of The Compleat Anachronist series available here for only $4.50 USD.

Good Slinging!

[Eric Meulemans]

Being basic as it is in design, the sling is remarkably consistent in construction and material across culture and time. There are of course variations in pouch shape and methods of fabrication, but there remain a limited number of options that were employed. A braided, split-pouch type sling would be hard to pin down to a particular time or place, and would be suitable for what you're looking for, as would the familiar leather pouch and cord arrangement.

For more information than you could want, head over to Slinging.org (if you haven't already).

[Scott Hrouda]

The thing that surprised me the most was not the sling design, but the ammunition design. Slings are admittedly out of my realm, but the fact that aerodynamically shaped biconal bullets (think little American footballs) were molded of clay and then baked amazed me. These bullets were design to fly true like a well-thrown pass, concentrate the force of impact on a small point, and then shatter on impact sending shrapnel into the ranks. Of course the bullets cast in lead just hurt, a lot!

[William P]

[Colt Reeves]

Supposedly the Romans had special tongs for removing the lead bullets from the body, which tells you something about how nasty these things were.

So if someone's chucking some at me, I'd like to be behind a tower shield or pavise of some kind, preferably loading a crossbow in response.

[Matthew Amt]

Sling bullets could apparently penetrate exposed flesh at 100 yards, and while not quite invisible in flight they are much harder to see than an arrow. Volume 6, 1995 of Journal of Roman Military Equipment Studies has a wonderful article called "Pouring Lead in the Pouring Rain":

http://www.armatura.connectfree.co.uk/jrmes/vol06.htm

Sorry, that's just a table of contents, not the whole text. The article details the various types of lead shot found around the fort at Velsen (?), and concludes that as several waves of attackers approached and ammo ran short, more and more shortcuts were made for cranking out sling bullets in a hurry. At the end, the men were sticking their fingers in the sand to make holes and pouring the molten lead in, so those bullets look like fingertips, complete with nails! I've made a few myself. The authors of the article tested all the different types and found that they all worked pretty well!

Matthew

[Dan Howard]

[William P]

[Philip Melhop]

Thought there was a good image of a pole sling being used to throw a firepot/grenade in the Maciejowski Bible, but I'm unable to find it. Drat!!!

Ah ha Google images of The Battle of Sandwich, excellent image there

[William P]

i see it, thats a good image, also slinging.org shows i think the example your thinking of http://slinging.org/index.php?mact=Album,m5,d...mp;page=53 t shows 4 images but the firstthree are very clearly a retelling of the battle of david and golioth.

[Philip Melhop]

images 2 and 14 have pole/staff slings .
Phil