LOT 0724

Roman Lead Sling Shot Projectile Collection

1ST CENTURY B.C.-2ND CENTURY A.D.

3/4 - 1 3/8 in. (384 grams total, 18-36 mm).

Comprising ten lentoid-section glandes, five with impressed stylised 'fulmen' (thunderbolt) of Jupiter. [13]

Acquired in Europe in 1990.
European private collection.

Cf. Marchant, D.J., Roman weaponry in the province of Britain from the second century to the fifth century AD, Durham, 1991, fig.26, for similar; 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, figs.36, 37.

The missiles of ovoid shape belong to type Ia of the Völling classification. The sling (funda) with its lead missiles (plumbea pondera or glandae) and stone (lapides) was used by special funditores, illustrated on Trajan’s Column where they are simply dressed in broad tunics with no armour, but carry a shield. A fold in their cloak, or sagulum, acted as an ammunition bag. The effectiveness of the slingers was unquestionable and much appreciated, especially against elephants. Celsus, writing towards the end of the 2nd century A.D., described how a slingshot wound was more dangerous and harder to treat than one inflicted by an arrow.