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Details
LOT 1409
Hellenistic Rhodian Lead Slingshot with Bee
3RD CENTURY B.C.
1 1/4 in. (27.2 grams, 31 mm).
Lentoid-section and depicting a bee to one side and inscription 'ΚΑΛΑ' on the other. [No Reserve]
Provenance
Ex Norri collection, Milton Keynes, UK, 1980s-1990s.
Literature
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, pp.29-43, fig.23, for identical; 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.38.
Footnotes
The slingshots with an inscription ΚΑΛΑ are believed to originate from the island of Rhodes. On these sling bullets ΚΑΛΑ should be translated as “nice things.” Together with the Balearic slingers, Rhodian slingers were considered to be the best of the Hellenistic world, and they were also used in the Roman army.
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