Roman sling-bullets

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

:lol: :lol:

[Gaius Longius]

Hi Andrew,

Not read the article but have made the subject.
I cast a number like that last year for some of our guys who were including the sling as part of their impression. Its dead easy and can be done using the camp fire.

We intend to include this in our camp display this year.
Well done on finding the article though.

Regards, Gary.

[K. A. Koskinen]

You've been most helpful, sincerely, and I'm sorry I did not have time to answer sooner, but I'm happy that so many still had time to help meager student like me.

By the way mould for small lead objects was ussualy made of stone. It looks like fault made by cast-maker, same as numerous mistakes made by brick stamps.

Do you know if there is any reference to the stone moulds in bibliografy?

I cast a number like that last year for some of our guys who were including the sling as part of their impression. Its dead easy and can be done using the camp fire.

Experimental archaeology. I like that. Might try it myself someday.

As a master of pointing out the obvious, suppose the person making the scratch marks in the mold were not dreadfully literate...

That's what I like to think. Propably some too eager funditor to make his first cast. But all the other sling-bullets I have seen aren't negatives. That's curious. And the inscription is: -T-L-I- (as read correctly) and it was found in France, Côte-d'Or, near Dijon.

[Tarbicus]

Propably some too eager funditor to make his first cast. But all the other sling-bullets I have seen aren't negatives. That's curious.

"There's always one." :roll: may well be one of the oldest phrases ever used :wink: It may be more unusual if someone didn't get it wrong.

[Peroni]

Some sling shot were found that were made by someone poking their finger into the wet sand and using the cavity as a mold. The resulting shot looked like little fingers!

Have you ever tried to cast boiling lead into a wet or moist mould?

Let me tell you from experience that it's not something I would recommend! The water in the mould boils instantly and you get a small explosion of moulten lead spewing into the air and onto your hands, and feet!

[Celer]

Salve,

Actually writing things backwards was a common way of insribing a curse, and also of contacting the underworld.

Vale,

Celer.

[Tarbicus]

Actually writing things backwards was a common way of insribing a curse, and also of contacting the underworld.

Good point!

[K. A. Koskinen]

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...

[M. Demetrius]

Let me tell you from experience that it's not something I would recommend! The water in the mould boils instantly and you get a small explosion of moulten lead spewing into the air and onto your hands, and feet!

And then you see the ambulance sign from the inside of the ambulance, so would it be written the right direction? I doubt you'd care that much.

Would dry pottery clay work for a mold? Or should it be fired first?

I'm willing to try it and find out, I think. Maybe make a 4 or 6 cell mold.

[Arahne]

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...

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.

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.

[K. A. Koskinen]

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...

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.

Damn, you're right. I'm not a bit wiser than that poor man who made that mould...