LOT 1851

Greek Lead Slingshot with Macedonian Star

4TH-3RD CENTURY B.C.

1 1/8 in. (27.8 grams, 28 mm).

Biconical in profile with casting seam and the Macedonian Star on one side.

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

Cf. Manov, M., Torbov, N. ‘Inscribed Lead Sling Bullets with the name of Alexander the Great and with other Names and Symbols found in Thrace’ in Archaeologia Bulgarica XX, 2 (2016), pp.29-43, fig.14, for a bullet with a similar symbol.

In Greek warfare, slingers appear as psiloi, lightly equipped troops who skirmished ahead of a phalanx or alongside peltasts. Some city-states likely trained their own slingers; others were specialists. Rhodian slingers became famous in the 4th century B.C. because the islanders had a tradition of practice. In the Peloponnese, in mainland Greece, and along the Aegean coast, slingers fought in both field operations and sieges. The practice survived into the Roman period, during which specialist mercenaries, like the Rhodians or the Balearic slingers, were still in use.