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LOT 1041
Roman Stone and Lead Sling Shot Group
2ND CENTURY A.D.
1 3/4 - 2 1/4 in. (121 grams total, 47-58 mm).
Comprising two lentoid-section, one a lead glans, and another in stone. [2, No Reserve]
ProvenanceEx Simmons Gallery, London E11, UK, in the 1990s.
From a North London 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.
FootnotesBoth the missiles seem to be of ovoid type, type Ia of the Völling classification. The pair finds parallels with examples unearthed at Ham Hill, Somerset, UK. 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.
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