04-09-2007, 01:01 AM
Quote:You still have a mistake. If it is (it is not-you don't have reason to think that it is) for creating a mold, it would give positive mould inscription (which is wrong, since that proper mould needs negative inscription), and that mould would give another false, i.e. negative inscription. So without another explanation, let's think of it as mistake created in mass production.Celer:1349ao96 Wrote:Salve,
Actually writing things backwards was a common way of insribing a curse, and also of contacting the underworld.
That's an interesting point, but in my case the inscription is more like a monogram (-T-L-I-). As I read through the Griffiths's article: "The Sling and it's Place in the Roman Imperial Army", I found out that the moulds were made of clay, so there still is a possibility that a sling-bullet with a negative inscription could be used to make moulds with the same inscription, or that's what I would like to think. Not very reassuring: that it is either meant to be that way, or it was just a simple mistake. Difficult to know...
That note about tabellae defixionum is interesting, but I think that there is a huge gap to connect that practice (contact with other world through the oposite sight, through the mirror) with mistakes created by mass inscribing.
Stefan Pop-Lazic
by a stuff demand, and personal hesitation
by a stuff demand, and personal hesitation