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Details
LOT 1514
Romano-British 'Verulanium' Lead Slingshot
2ND CENTURY A.D.
1 3/8 in. (59 grams, 37 mm).
Biconical in profile with reserved 'thunderbolt' motif to two faces; old inked collector's reference '130'. [No Reserve]
Provenance
Found near St Albans (Verulamium), UK.
From the private collection of Kenneth Machin (1936-2020), Buckinghamshire, UK; his collection of antiquities and natural history was formed since 1948; thence by descent.
This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.
Literature
Cf. Greep, S.J., ‘Lead Sling-Shot from Windridge Farm, St Albans and the Use of the Sling by the Roman Army in Britain’ in Britannia, vol.18. 1987, pp.183-200, fig.2, type 1, fig.7.
Footnotes
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.
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