The Roman Sling Chronograph Test - The Forgotten Weapon

The Roman Sling Chronograph Test

Throughout historical warfare, the bow is commonly discussed. However, the sling was an important projectile weapon in antiquity, and we will discover the true power of the sling bullet with radar chronograph testing today. (140 fps is considered impressive in professional baseball pitching. Meanwhile a Balearic sling can reach 250-300 fps.)

This is a collaboration project with archaic arms, I strongly recommend you to check his channel out for historical slinging and also Acroballistics channel.

A sling is a weapon typically used to throw a projectile such as natural stones found in the ground, clay, or lead bullets. The sling is inexpensive and easy to make. Historically it has been used for hunting, warfare, herding animals, and recreational use. A classic sling is braided from non-elastic material. The traditional materials are flax, hemp or wool. Slings by Balearic islanders were said to be made from a rush. Flax and hemp resist rotting, but wool is softer and more comfortable.

It is possible that the sling was invented during the paleolithic stone age, but the archeolgocil finds of slings themselves are rare. This is because slings are made of natural materials and they were lower-status weapons, so rarely being preserved for burial.

The oldest-known surviving slings—radiocarbon dated to c. 2500 BC—were recovered from Peru. The oldest known slings from the Old World were found in an egyptian tomb, who died c. 1325 BC.

A pair of slings intended for the departed pharaoh to use for hunting game.

Representations of slingers can be found on artifacts from all over the ancient world, including Assyrians, Egyptian, roman and norman artifacts.
The oldest representation of a slinger in art may be from an anatolian settlement from c. 7,000 BC,

The sling is mentioned as early as in the writings of Homer,[14] where several characters kill enemies by hurling stones at them.
The greeks and romans wrote about the usage of slings by Greeks Romans, Iberians, Lusitanians, Gauls,Persians and Arab , Libyans and Phoenicians.

Livy mentions the most famous of ancient skillful slingers: the people of the Balearic Islands, who often worked as mercenaries. Strabo writes: "And their training in the use of slings used to be such, from childhood up, that they would not so much as give bread to their children unless they first hit it with the sling."[13]

Balearic slingers were amongst the specialist mercenaries extensively employed by Carthage against the Romans and other enemies.

The late Roman writer Vegetius, wrote that the sling caused more annoyance to the soldiers than arrows of the enemy. and the greast reason for instructing all troops with the sling is its portability while carrying their typical gear, especially in stony places where ammunition can be easily found:

Recruits are to be taught the art of throwing stones both with the hand and sling. Soldiers, notwithstanding their defensive armour, are often more annoyed by the round stones from the sling than by all the arrows of the enemy. Stones kill without mangling the body, and the contusion is mortal without loss of blood. It is universally known the ancients employed slingers in all their engagements. There is the greater reason for instructing all troops, without exception, in this exercise, as the sling cannot be reckoned any encumbrance, and often is of the greatest service, especially when they are obliged to engage in stony places, to defend a mountain or an eminence, or to repulse an enemy at the attack of a castle or city.

The sling is mentioned in the Bible, in the Book of Judges, thought to be written c. 6th century BC,
The Bible provides a famous slinger account, between David and Goliath from the First Book of Samuel

As a weapon, the sling had several advantages; The sling was light to carry and cheap to produce; ammunition in the form of stones was readily available and often to be found near the site of battle. a porper sling bullet lobbed in a high trajectory can achieve ranges in excess of 400 meters (1,300 ft). A bow and arrow could also reach these distrances and more analysis is planned on this channel to comapre the bow versus the sling. Ancient poets wrote that sling-bullets could penetrate armour, and that lead projectiles, heated by their passage through the air, would melt in flight

According to description of Procopius, the sling had an effective range further than a Hun bow and arrow.

Video on Creative Commons Licence
From:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rF1Yx5ikA6M