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    Sling bullets

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    64 views14 pages

    Paunov Sling Bullets ArchBulg2000

    Uploaded by

    FevziŞahin
    Sling bullets

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
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    | Archaeologia Bulgarica IV 2000 | 3 J 44-57 | Sofia NEW DATA ON THE USE OF WAR SLING IN THRACE (4th-Ist century BC)" EVGENI PAUNOV/ DIMITAR Y. DIMITROV The subject of the present work are the more than one hundred and fifty lead sling missiles that have recently become known. They were disco- vered by chance along the valleys of the Middle Mesta, and the Upper and Middle Strouma rivers (see the map). The greater part of these finds dates from the Hellenistic Age. As an element of the ancient weaponry, they have not so far been tho- roughly studied by Bulgarian scholars. Their find spots in or near some of the fortresses or settle- ments in the region, as well as their date, give de- cisive evidence of the important role of sling troops in ancient Thrace. I. Origin and spread of the war sling Plinius the Elder ascribed the invention of the sling to the Phoenicians (Nat. Hist. VII. 57). Strabo states that it was discovered by the inha- bitants of the Balearic islands (Geogr. III. 5, 1), which points to the same origin because of the Phoenician colonisation there. Strabo wrote in his Geographica (VIII. 3, 33) that the sling was im- ported in Greece by the Aetolians, when they left Elis. Although the Old Greek term for sling (o¢evdévn) is only twice mentioned in The Iliad (I. XII. 599-600 and XIII. 716 sq.), these verses may have been later interpolations. The lyric poet Archilochus from Paros first mentioned a sling around 700 BC, opposing it to the spear and the sword (Archil. frg. 3). The early use of the sling, however, is attested by the numerous round po- lished stone bullets, discovered in Troy by H. Schliemann (Schliemann 1890, 549, No 659 sq.), as well as by the slinger depicted on a silver vase from Mycenae. Only one original sling has sur- vived from the ancient world. It was excavated from E] Lahun in the Fayum, Egypt and dates from about 800 BC (Petrie 1917, 36, V.14, pl. LI). Clay missiles in large numbers have been found in the layers of Neolithic and Eneolithic tells, for example: Gulubnik, Sapareva Banya, Slatino (all South-western Bulgaria), Novi Pazar, Smyadovo (North-eastern Bulgaria), etc. According to Herodotus (Hist. VII. 158), the tyrant of Syracuse, Gelon sent the Hellenes 20 000 men to help against the Persians, 2000 or 1/ 10 of whom were slingers. Thucydides mentions 700 Rhodean slingers together with 5 000 hoplites and 480 archers in the Syracusian expedition of the Athenians in 415 BC (Thuc. VI. 22, 25, 43). The inhabitants of the highlands of Greece were the most famous slingers in Classical time: those from Akarnania, Aetolia, Thessaly, Achaia and Boeotia. The slingers from the island of Rhodes were the best in the Greek world, mentioned by Thucydides (VI. 43 sq.) and included by Xeno- phon among the Ten Thousand who marched in Persia (Anab. III. 3-4; IV. 3, 18; most recently Garlan 1972, 126-127). The Thracians also used the war sling widely. Polyaenus tells how Iphicrates, campaigning in Thrace in 490 BC, was harassed by Odrysian ar- chers and slingers; he discouraged them by placing bound Odrysian prisoners in his front ranks, which persuaded their compatriots to cease their fire! (Strateg., IIT. 9, 62). Later, Appian, when talking about Pompey's preparations for his fight against Caesar in Greece in 49 BC, mentioned Thracian slingers: “He [Pompey] had auxiliaries also from Tonia, Macedonia, Peloponnesus, and Boeotia, Cretan archers, Thracian slingers, and Pontic jave- lin-throwers (Bella civilia, II. VIII, 49). IL. Construction and Use The simplest ancient sling consisted of a sin- gle strap, widened in the middle to bear the bul- let, or of a leather pocket-like piece. It was fas- tened to two strings (Kw@Aa, habena), to flax strings, or to metal bands. After bullet was placed in the pocket, both strings had to meet in the right, * ‘This article was prepared and read as a brief paper at the First International Symposium ‘The Warfare in ancient Thrace’, in Shumen, 21-26 October 1995. The organizers will not publish the proceedings ofthe confezence. Here iis significantly expanded and supplemented version of the paper. The authors are most grateful to the late Dr M. Domaradzski, to Prof. Dr. M. Woerrle (Kommisssion fuer Alte Geschichte und Epigraphik, Munchen), to Dr K. Hallof (Inscriptiones Graecae Institut, Berlin) and to Mr C. F. Webber (Sydney, Australia). 44 New Data on the Use of War Sling in Thrace (4th-1st century BC) (Oa 09ST-mp) cow, ur siapINg Buys peay jo uonnqLnsip amp Jo dey, vas YU aqnueqg Geuays ecuey * i @ (ssn) F 45 Evgeni Paunov/ Dimitar ¥. Dimitrov or shooting hand, of the shooter. The pocket was held up with the other hand till it reached the eye- level (fig. 1), so the aim could be sighted, then the right hand whirled it round and let the bullet fly with centrifugal force on loosing one of the strings. The moment of letting the missile fly horizontal whirl’) is depicted on the obverse of the silver staters of the city of Aspendos in Pamphylia in the 4th-3rd century BC (B.M.C. 56; SNG von Aulock 1963, IV/18, No. 4562 (fig. 2). ‘The Roman military tactician Vegetius advised the skilled soldiers to make just one whirl instead of three, (Vegetius, De reb. milit. Il. 23; TIL. 14), Slingers (ogevdovntan) fought in the light units with the so-called ‘naked’ (yiAo0) together with archers (toEota11) and the spearmen ("orxo— vmotai). Both Greek and Roman military tactics assigned slingers to the auxiliary troops (auxilia) to prepare for attack by the heavier infantry, de- ranging the enemy line with their shooting. They continued to throw bullets at the enemy from dif- ferent positions during the battle itself, Slingers were used most effectively at sieges when they disturbed the line of the defenders and made easier the assault of the fortress. That is why a great num- ber of sling missiles is being discovered in and in front of besieged and captured strongholds. There are numerous examples available, but one cannot miss such cities and battlefields as Marathon, Priene, Eleusina, Corinth, the Athe- nian acropolis, Pirea. In the first place is Olynthos on the Chalkis, where 500 lead bullets were dis- covered, 100 of which incribed with the names of king Philip II (13 items), of his generals Arche- damos, Archias, Hypponicos, etc., who took the city in 348 BC (Robinson 1941, 418, pl. 130-134, Nos 2176-2380). According to Robinson, one of the reasons why Philip of Macedon succeeded in capturing Olynthos was that his missiles were about 1/3 heavier than those of the Chalkide Un- ion, or his artillery was heavier (Robinson 1941, 419 and 433). Some ten lead bullets have been discovered in another city on the Chalkis, Torone, on the Hill II above the city, dating from the mid- 4th century BC (Apz010. MoxxeBoviat 1988, 229, No 171). TIL. Ancient sling missiles Initially, stone pieces of different size were used as bullets. The Persians, for example, used 46 1. A Greek slinger on ared figured amphora from Nola, Sth ¢. nc (after Daremberg-Saglio 1896), first-sized stones in the 5" century BC according to Xenophon (Anab. Ill, 3, 16-17), while the Balearians used the weight of one Greek mina (436 g). Bullets were also manufactured of baked clay, like those known from the pre-historic tells and sites in Bulgaria, The greatest progress was marked by the invention of the cast lead bullets in the Sth century BC, The Hellenes were credited with this innovation and the first such missiles are found on the battlefield near Marathon (490 BC). The lead bullets (woAvpdrdec, woAvBdaaver, glandes plumbea) are of relatively small weight and of a shape most adequate to their function (Fougéres 1896, col. 1608 sq.). These improved missiles gave the sling better ballistic qualities than those of the bow, the spear and even the sling with stone bullets. Beside the long flight, they had the advantage of being invisible to the soldiers who could not keep themselves out of their reach. It is worth noting that the ancients immediately adopted the shape and the size, re-discovered in the 19" century by modem ballistics, that would give the bullets the maximum dynamic force. The shape of an almond, acorn, large olive, or plum was preferred toa sphere in the ancient weaponry Xenophon’s data are instructive in this respect. New Data on the Use of War Sling in Thrace (4th-Ist century BC) Fig, 2. A Slinger. Reverse of a silver stater of Aspendos in Pamphylia, 4th-3rd century BC (after SNG von Aulock 1963, 4519). The reach of the Persian archers was up to 5 pletra (=154 m) in the early 4th century BC. At the same time, the Rhodian slingers reached twice as long a distance with their lead bullets as did the Persian slingers with their stone bullets (yetporAn Geis A101) the Persian slingers achie- ved. Thus, the Rhodians were able to hit the Persi- an slingers, while they themselves remained safe. Vegetius defines a distance of 600 feet, i.e. about 177 m, for the bullet flight (Epitoma rei. milit. 1, 23). From an historical point of view, there is no perceptible difference between Greek and Roman bullets: their shape was uniform and their weight similar as a whole. The ancients also noticed that beside serious injuries, the lead missiles, on reaching the target, suddenly heated up the ar- mour of the soldier hit. Ancient science assumed that the quick flight of the bullet melted the lead, (Arist. De caelo II. 7) and this “miracle” was cel- ebrated in verse by Lucretius, Vergilius and Ovid. In terms of the striking force of the missiles, the Roman philosopher Celsus (Ist century AD) Table 1: Sling bullets ranges (after Richardson 1998, 47). wrote a treatise on the injuries caused by lead balls (Cels., De Medicina, VII. 5, 2). The ano- nymous biographer of the Em- peror Septimius Severus nar- rates that the emperor fainted, as if dead, from ictu plum- beae, ive. from being hit by a lead bullet in the battle with Clodius Albinus near Lugdu- num (the present-day Lyon) in 197 ap (Hist. Aug. Spartian., Vita Severi, c. II). T. Richardson has recently made practical observations showing that a slingshot travelling over a range of 90 mata velocity of 30 m/s takes about 3 sec- onds to reach its target, while a bullet over a range of 145 m at the same speed takes 5 seconds (Ta- ble 2, Richardson 1998, 48). According to his ex- periments, a good cast is accompanied usually by a whirring noise, from all types of projectile, as it spins in the air. TV. Manufacture of the missiles and types of inscriptions ‘Ancient lead missiles were cast in clay, lead or bronze moulds. Several such moulds are known. One made of lead is from Phanagoreia in the State Hermitage in St.-Petersburg a second was discovered in Olynthos (Robinson 1941, 420, fig. 23), a bronze one (fig. 3), is known from the Paul Canellopoulos’ collection in Greece (Empe- reur 1981, 555, fig. 29), and a fourth was recenly found at Late Republican site near Paris (Poux/ Guyard 1999, 29-30). The technology of manu- facture was rather simple: the lead was poured in a mould of two parts, resembling a tree with big fruits; it passed through the “trunk” and the “bran- ches” of the “tree” to fill up the “fruits”, ie. the bullets. 7 Inscriptions and symbols, made in Slingshot Average Best range | st on the two conver sides ofthe Lead slingshot 40 g 145m 150m bullets, are a major source of infor- Lead slingshot 85 g 120m 150m mation and so instrumenta domestica Lead ball 38 g | iém USm ofa significant documentary and his- Lead ball 100 g 107m pao torical value. Often there is no in- Stones 45-75 g 90m 106 m scription or image; sometimes only Stones 80-85 g 84m fom on one side of the missile is in- Stones 85-160 g 82m 115 m eerbed, 4 Evgeni Paunov/ Dimitar ¥. Dimitrov Symbols vary, such as: a palm, a horse, a bucranium, a star, an eagle with a thunderbolt, a winged thunderbolt, a trident, a dagger, a scor- pion, and a snake. Sometimes the images are worn beyond recognition, or were damaged by hitting a solid object. The most interesting missles, however, are the inscribed missiles (glandes plumbeae inscriptae). They are of different types, but can generally be grouped, as follows: 1. The name/monogram of the leader of the slingers, in nominative or genitive; 2. The name of the army commander or of the ruler, in the genitive; 3. An invocation to the gods for good luck (most often to the winged Nike); 4. An exhortation or an advise to the slinger, for example: 'Ev oxavov (“throw accurately!”); 5. A message to the enemy - tpaywhtov ("/ this is for a/ dessert!”), tp@ye (“crack your teeth!") mpooeze (“hold!”), dear, Aape (“catch!”), ‘cagypov Sé5pov (“his is / an unple- asant gift!"), as well as not so decent wishes. The inscriptions demonstrate the humour and the iro- ny of the ancient slingers (Guarducci 1969, 516- 524). The shape and the weight of the missiles also vary. 02 “1 ' Fig. 3. Bronze matrice for lead sling bullets casting from collection Paul Canellopoulos (Paris). Possibly 4th-3rd c. Bc. signs, from the region of Assenovgrad. At that ti- me he noted that “when more sling missiles found in our lands are published, our knowledge about the significance of this type of weapon in Anti- quity, about the centers of its production in our ands, and its spread will be better” (Benexnkos 1952, 370). Forty years later, 4 more lead bullets bearing inscriptions were published in the monograph on Table 2: Sling bullets velocity - m/s (after Richardson 1998, 48). V. The State of the Studies -— ; in Bulgaria Slingshot type Lowest | Average | Highest The problems of the lead |85g lead slingshot ] 29.9 312 32.6 missiles and the use of the | 40glead slingshot | 29.3 30.6 32.5 sling in ancient Thrace have | 100 g lead ball 29.5 30.5 314 been poorly studied in Bulga- | 80-100 g stones 29.1 30.3 32.2 rian scholarly literature. The _ | staff sling 29.4 33.1 38.3 state of research is unsatisfac- tory, although the information offered by this type of artefact is reliable for the pre-Roman times. The published bullets can be counted on the fingers of one hand, while there is no complete study at all. The short 1952 article by the late Prof. Ivan Venedikov is worth noting (Benexuxos 1952, 368-370). There he studied 3 bullets bearing Greek inscriptions (2 of unknown provenance in Dr V. Avramov’s collection, ac- quired by the National Archaeological Museum in 1920, and 1 from the necropolis of Apollonia Pontica), as well as 3 more items, without any 48 emporium Pistiros (the village of Vetren, region of Pazardjik), (Jlomapazcxu 1994, 66, nos. 5-8; Bouzek et al. 1997), Beside publication, the late M. Domaradski commented on the limited infor- mation on their spread in Thrace. According to in- formation from him, more than 20 bullets have so far been found on this site. No sling missiles from large Thracian settle~ ments such as Seuthopolis, Cabyle and the for- tress near Sveshtari (Dausdava?) have been pub- lished, About twenty items were discovered in the Hellenistic layers of Cabyle; one of them bearing New Data on the Use of War Sling in Thrace (4th-Ist century BC) Fig. 4, Lead sling bullet from the village of Dubnitsa, munic. of Gotse Delchev. Possibly 4"-2™ c, BC , cat. No. 1. Photo: K. Georgiev. an unclear inscription in Greek. These are kept at the Museum of History, Yambol (informations of D. Draganov and K. Rabadjiev). A study of the lead bullets in the collection of the museum at Shoumen will soon be published (Araxacos/Tosopor 1999). This is a group of 14 missiles: ten with an almond-like shape, were found at the famous Thracian site in the locality of “Gradishteto”, near the village of Dragoevo (Atanacos/Toopos 1999, Table I/1-10); one from Branichevo, and three items of special in- terest are from the village of Voditsa, region of Varna, Two of these bullets bear the same in- scription in Greek - [II] YPBAKOY, and are dated to the 4th-3rd century BC (ATaHacop/ Togopos 1999, table I/12-13). Besides these, a Jead bullet with an inscription was recently dis- covered in the sanctuary at Babyak Mount, re- gion of Blagoevgrad (now in the city museum at Belitsa); another comes from the cave Samara near Krumovgrad in the Eastern Rhodopi, dated 2™.1"'c, BC (fig. 4, information of G. Nehrizov). One more item is to be found in the museum of Vratsa: there is no specific information on its provenance. There are said to be a number of bul- lets in the Museum at the town of Dulgopol, re- gion of Varna (ancient Odessos). Itis highly prob- able that there are more such items in other muse- tums or collections, but their apparent “insignifi- cance” makes them unattractive to their owners. Whatever the case, it is obvious that this is a fragmentary picture of their use in what is now Bulgaria. Thus, any analysis and conclusions on sling missiles are somewhat hypothetical and in- secure This preliminary work aims at putting in scholarly circulation 169 sling lead missiles, cer- tainly a small part of the number to be found in south-western Bulgaria. They do represent, how- ever, the most extensive collection of a complete type of weapon. VI. Analysis of the Distribution The 169 sling missiles discussed here origi- nate from eight different sites in the South-west- er Thrace (Map). These are sanctuaries, settle- ments and fortresses - some with urban functions = that developed during the period of Antiquity. The bullets originate from the Hellenistic period of these sites (late 4th-Ist century BC). Thirty five bullets bear seven types of symbols and inscriptions in Greek and Latin, which assign them a special historical value. For the symbols and inscriptions on the items from the village of Dubnitsa (cat. No. 1, figs. 4,5), it can be assumed that they marked the different units of slingers, while the inscriptions are probably the names of the military commanders. The sling missile from the village of Sestrino, region of Petrich (cat, No. 3, fig. 9), bears a Latin inscription. This may be the earliest written ar- chaeological evidence for the Roman military presence in the Thracian lands. It could be related to the numerous campaigns of the governors of the province of Macedonia in the neighbouring strategy Medike, waged to suppress the warlike Thracians between the Ist c. BC and Ist c. ab (@ox 1975, 69-71), A satisfactory explanation of the Greek in- scription on a bullet from the village of Ilindentsi, region of Blagoevgrad, cannot so far be offered (cat. No. 6, fig. 7). The word ’o6vv7 means “throes of childbirth” in Old Greek, but also pain in general, including that from a strike. Probably it is the latter implied in the bullet inscription. 49 Evgeni Paunov/ Dimitar ¥. Dimitrov SO QO DO SP SO ©) SO D0 EO Go) So Fig. 5 (a-f). Table of lead sling bullets from the village of Dubnitsa, munic. of Gotse Delchev. Possibly 4th- 2nd ¢. Bc, cat. No. 1. The two larger and quite identical missiles from the locality of hill Kojuh, near the village of Muletarovo (cat. No. 2, fig. 8) find their closest parallels in Macedonian lands. If the identifica- tion of ancient Petra with that site is correct, these would have belonged to Macedonian military units. Attestations of their presence along the Middle Strouma valley are numerous for the en- tire 3rd century BC until 167 BC when Macedo- nia became a Roman province. They are most evi- dent for 181 BC, when king Philip V launched his campaign against the Medae and captured the same city of Petra (Liv., XLII. 21). Despite their plain appearence (figs. 10, 11), the bullets from the locality of Gradishte on the Goumno Mount, near the village of Noevtsi, re- gion of Pernik, are the most important in our opi- nion (cat. No 7). They originate from an area whose Thracian identity has been well demon- strated archaeologically. Our cautious hypothesis 50 is that they could be related to the Agrianians (Ayptorvec), mentioned in ancient texts. This Thracian tribe has been studied exhaustvely in modern literature, but its location is still under discussion (cf. Gerov 1961, 231-235; Fol 1975, 65-69). According to passages by Arrian in his Alexander’s Anabasis (Arr. Anab. IV. 30, 6 sqq. et passim), 2000 light infantrymen (...’ Aypiaves Tovs yiAovs...), most of whom were archers and slingers, took part in the Persian expedition. They continued as mercenaries in the Hellenistic ar- mies (Leuney 1987°, 405-406) untill mid-2nd century BC, when they finally disappeared from the literary texts (Tepos 1961, 234-235). This is actually the only indirect evidence from the an- cient sources, testifying to the use of the war sling in Thrace. We believe it highly probable that the sling missiles from Thracian fortified sanctuaries, such as that near the village of Noevtsi, belonged to units of Agrianian slingers in the Hellenistic New Data on the Use of War Sling in Thrace (4th-Ist century BC) oor doquinu [e}0J, aoBIy, ugaysam-tyn0g Feurey eA ftur9]09, "00 Da"9 [-Z I 3ror I ‘euas vues, |-g A1YSTPRID, *20] pumnons 29 1-% vol 3 cp-ce~ Ol ‘TSIAQON |“ seddn ‘TH 249 1g z osI-pr1 .O1@IYSEB], *0] S 4 ‘“iswuepuyyt |-9 ny z 3 6E-8E a qwyeg |°¢ — sSedg 3S, ‘20] O89 T-g 6 3 6S-1¢~ ce ‘onareysey] | “p oa'o [-¢ 1 BPL co! outnsag | -¢

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