Details

LOT 1843

Greek Lead Slingshot with Inscriptions

4TH-3RD CENTURY B.C.

1 1/8 in. (25.5 grams, 28 mm).

Lenticular type with casting seam to the rim, raised 'Μ...ΝΗΣ' legend.

Provenance

Ex German art market, 2000s.
Acquired from an EU collector living in London.
From the collection of a Surrey, UK, gentleman.

Literature

Cf. for similar bullets (different inscription) Tsaravopoulos, A., ‘Evidence of war in a Pirates’City of the Hellenistic Period (Island Antikythera/Aigilia Greece)’ in Sirbu, V., Schuster, C., Hortopan, D., Warriors and their weapons in bronze and iron ages, Proceedings of the 21st International Colloquium of Funerary Archaeology 25th-28th May, 2023, Târgu Jiu, Gorj County (Romania), Braila, 2023, pp.301-320, figs.15-18.

Footnotes

The leaden bullets, which were thrown from slings, were called in Greek Molivdainai (μολύβδαιναι), and in Latin glandes; the former indicating the material ‘lead’, the latter the shape ‘acorns’. These bullets were cast in a mould and bore letters or devices, or both, on two sides or on only one. In form, they were more like an almond than an acorn, but many are pointed at both ends; in size, they are generally about one and a half inches in maximum length, and under one inch in maximum width.