Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. 24/7 Space News .




MILTECH
Ancient slingers added insult to injury, researcher says
by Staff Writers
Athens (AFP) April 13, 2011


Centuries before Allied bomber crews would send gleefully personalised ordnance to Adolf Hitler, ancient skirmishers mastered the art of enemy taunts by slingshot, according to a researcher.

Sling bullets recovered from the battlefields of Egypt, Greece and Rome often carry inscriptions designed to add insult to injury, archaeologist Amanda Kelly told an Irish Institute of Hellenic Studies lecture.

Slingers, also known as sphendonetai, have been used in warfare through antiquity, from the Persian Wars and the endless fighting between Greek city states to Alexander the Great's campaigns and the Roman conquest of Britain.

Julius Caesar noted in a treatise that they were particularly useful against war elephants despite being a low-class division of light infantry, said Kelly, a classics professor at the National University of Ireland, Galway.

"There is very little you can use against an elephant," she said.

Some bullets were marked with personalised images any soldier could recognise such as bovine heads. Others were more elaborate, bearing the names of army generals, cities or the blacksmiths who cast them in lead.

And quite often, the missiles packed a verbal as well as a physical punch.

"Perhaps the most unexpected element is the humour involved," Kelly said.

She cited examples of Athenian sling bullets that read "Take that" or Cypriot versions saying "This is yours." More advanced taunts speak of male genitalia, impregnation and other sexual references.

Shot from the island of Corfu bore an inscription asking that they "be lodged well" in their intended targets while Thracian bullets promised "pain".

"The taunt is a weapon as damaging as the blow...and these bullets could penetrate armour," Kelly said.

Some researchers have reasoned that an ancient bullet weighing 40 grammes could fly at 100 kilometres (62 miles) an hour to a distance of 400 metres, she said.

Aside from boosting morale and dampening enemy spirits, inscribed bullets indicated the literacy of an army and that of its opponents as there was little point in employing the weapon unless both sides understood its meaning.

It was a device so popular that it is still in use centuries later, from World War II to the Korean War and US operations in Afghanistan, Kelly noted, pointing to an image from USS aircraft carrier Enterprise taken a decade ago.

"High Jack (sic) this fags", reads a message to insurgents chalked onto a bomb loaded onto an American fighter jet.

.


Related Links
The latest in Military Technology for the 21st century at SpaceWar.com






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle








MILTECH
Australian women destined for frontline combat
Sydney (AFP) April 12, 2011
Australian women could soon be given the right to fight and die for their country by serving in frontline combat positions, Defence Minister Stephen Smith said Tuesday. While women are allowed to fill many military roles, they are currently excluded from the most dangerous and demanding, including in the special forces and rifle companies. Smith said this could change after the defence f ... read more


MILTECH
BRP To Contribute To Canadian Moon And Mars Exploration Programs

Naveen Jain Co-Founder And Chairman Of Moon Express

Project Morpheus To Begin Testing At NASA's Johnson Space Center

NASA Announces Winners Of 18th Annual Great Moonbuggy Race

MILTECH
Several Drives This Week Put Opportunity Over 17-Mile Mark

Next Mars Rover Nears Completion

Mars In Spain

Study Of 'Ruiz Garcia' Rock Completed

MILTECH
"I See Earth! It Is So Beautiful!"

Report Provides NASA With Direction For Next 10 Years Of Space Research

Last legends of early space flight laud Gagarin

Spacelinq The First European Space Liner

MILTECH
Asia's star ever brighter in space

What Future for Chang'e-2

China setting up new rocket production base

China's Tiangong-1 To Be Launched By Modified Long March II-F Rocket

MILTECH
The MELFI Shuffle: Contingency Planning For Preserving Samples

Space Debris No Threat To ISS

Astronauts head to ISS on spaceship Gagarin

Station Fires Engines To Avoid Orbital Debris

MILTECH
Arianespace to launch ASTRA 2E Satellite

PSLV Launch On April 20

Russia Looks To Grab Half Of World Space Launch Market

Mitsubishi Electric's ST-2 Satellite Arrives In French Guiana

MILTECH
A New Way To Find Planets

Telescope Ferrets Out Planet-Hunting Targets

White Dwarfs Could Be Fertile Ground For Other Earths

NASA Announces 2011 Carl Sagan Fellows

MILTECH
WHO eyes 20 year nuclear health watch in Japan

Tissue Engineers Use New System To Measure Biomaterials, Structures

Finding May End A 30-Year Scientific Debate

Researchers Find Replacement For Rare Material Indium Tin Oxide




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement