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Details
LOT 1459
Greek Lead Slingshot
3RD-1ST CENTURY B.C.
1 1/4 in. (25.6 grams, 31 mm).
Biconical in profile with casting seam and reserved legend 'ΛY-P-N' = maybe ΛYKOΦ-PONO = Lykophronos (name). [No Reserve]
Provenance
Acquired on the German art market before 2000.
Private collection, Munich, Germany.
Literature
See Schinco, G., Small, A.M., 'A previously unknown siege of Botromagno/Silvium: the evidence of slingshots from Gravina in Puglia (Provincia di Bari, Puglia)' in Papers of the British School at Rome, 2019, pp.1-52, fig.37, type iib of Volling, for similar.
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.
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