Posted on 12/17/2008 7:39:02 AM PST by SunkenCiv
One of the bars has Iberian characters on it. According to the German Mining Museum in Bochum, the lead originates from the mines of Sierra Morena in southern Spain... A fourth specimen had already been found on an earlier occasion. The characters on the upper surfaces of two of the four known bars are syllabary symbols from the script of Northeastern Iberian... The meaning of the characters has not yet been determined, however, the dating of the objects to the third century B.C., i.e. the period of the Second Punic War, raises further questions. The reason for this is that there is very little evidence for the downsizing of silver works in the Sierra Morena region for this period. There is, however, evidence for this in the mining area around Cartagena in the eastern part of the Iberian Peninsula, i.e. the language area of Northeastern Iberian. For this reason, scientists suspect that the raw lead was processed and branded in this area, before it was placed on board a freighter that was shipwrecked off the north coast of Ibiza. The destination planned for the lead remains unknown. The reason why the lead was transported from the Spanish mainland to the Balearic Islands, even though silver mines were in operation on the islands, has not been established. During antiquity, lead was a by-product of silver mining and used mainly for coinage. Dr. Hermanns therefore assumes that the lead was used as munitions for mercenaries provided by the Baleareans during antiquity.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...
Dr. Marcus Heinrich Hermanns from the Department of Archaeology at the University of Cologne has recovered three lead bars which may originate from the third century before Christ, 39 meters under the sea off the north coast of Ibiza. (Credit: Image courtesy of University of cologne, Universitaet zu Koeln)
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The writer's thought process seems to have gone off the rails here.
Lead was used for coins, and therefore it was ammunition? What ... they're gonna throw money at the other side?
I can maybe see lead being used for sling shots, but wouldn't it would be a millenium before lead had any utility in weaponry.
Ibiza is the dance club capital of the world. I think the divers there are confused amidst all the glo-sticks and used condoms floating offshore.
:’) Lead was used as shot long before gunpowder, it was very useful, and manufactured as needed. Then as now, soldiers in hand-to-hand resorted to throwing stones when the ammo ran low. The Romans had artillery, but no gunpowder.
I think he meant, the silver was used for coinage, or perhaps the editor mangled it. I’m sure the BBC will correct it once they see the criticism here on FR. ;’D
I remember reading about the Balearic slingers -- very good auxiliary troops for the Romans across many centuries. I had assumed that they hurled stones, but lead shot of a certain size would have been ideal.
Allow me to speculate:
Sailing ships need ballast in the keel to keep from capsizing when the wind blows on their sails. Normally this ballast is taken out of the ship only when it is beached for repairs or recaulking if it's seams.
When the Spanish returned from the New World with gold and silver, they removed the ballast from their keels and replaced it with gold and silver, thus allowing the maximum cargo for the voyage home.
My theory is that ships were sailing to the Balearic Islands with lead ballast, removing it, and returning to the mainland with silver ballast (as cargo.) Usually, rock was used as ballast, but if you have to remove it and replace it on a regular basis, it might have been faster to physically remove a smaller volume of lead than it is a larger volume of equal weight rock.
Yeah, it would be more compact for the mass, and really drill through the air (hence its use in bullets) and into an eye, or a skull.
If they couldn't get Depleted Uranium
> but wouldn’t it would be a millenium before lead had any utility in weaponry.
Else I’m mistaken, I believe the antient Greeks used to cast lead into hunks of a standard size, weight and shape and use them in their slings — you know, Goliath-style. Because they were standard-sized a sling-man could reliably practise and shoot for accuracy. It was a significant technological advance over hucking odd-sized rocks out of slings: lead is denser, too, so it hit with a better whallop than a similar-sized rock did.
Why else would they need more lead than the silver mines produced as a byproduct?
......The meaning of the characters has not yet been determined,...
The message is thought by some to be a warning against eating and contacting lead poisoning. Socioanthropologists specializing in old toxicity mortality records at UMASS are very interested.
i agree about the Balerian slinger auxilleries who were a famous part of the Roman forces.
At another thread recently the story referred to some lead ‘Shot” that were found which looked like musket balls and were ysed by slingers
Works for me!
Not a bad idea. :’)
Fine but no shadow funny business
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