LOT 1470

Hellenistic Rhodian Lead Slingshot with Scorpion

3RD CENTURY B.C.

1 1/8 in. (29.6 grams, 29 mm).

Lentoid-section and depicting a stylised scorpion to one side, a type sometimes known to have the Rhodian legend ΚΑΛΑ to verso. [No Reserve]

From a Manchester, UK, collection, 1990s.
This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.

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.

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. The slingshots with an image of a scorpion on one side and with an inscription ΚΑΛΑ on the other are believed to originate from the Island of Rhodes. On these sling bullets ΚΑΛΑ should be translated as “nice things.” Of course, ironically, these “nice things” were designed to kill enemies and to sting like a scorpion, and the message of those with the image of a scorpion could be understood, as proposed by M. Manov and N. Torbov, as: “nice things sting like a scorpion.”