2,200-year-old Greek sling bullet discovered in Israel

i24 News ^ | December 08, 2022 | unattributed

[SunkenCiv]

'The inscriptions were part of psychological warfare... to terrorize the opponent and unite the warriors'

A 2,200-year-old lead sling bullet was recently discovered by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) in the central Israeli city of Yavne, bearing a magic inscription for victory and which possibly belonged to a Greek soldier.

On the bullet is the Greek inscription "Victory of Heracles and Hauronas" – a pair of gods that were considered to be the "divine patrons of Yavne during the Hellenistic period," according to Prof. Yulia Ustinova from southern Israel’s Ben Gurion University of the Negev.

"Actually, the inscription on a sling bullet is the first archaeological evidence of the two guardians of Yavne, discovered inside Yavne itself. Until today, the pair was only known from an inscription on the Greek island of Delos," the professor added.

The bullet was uncovered in excavations conducted by the IAA in Yavne as part of the Israel Lands Authority's initiative to expand the city, in cooperation with the Yavne Municipality. It is 4.4 centimeters long and was intended to be used in an early sling.

As a couple, the gods Heracles and Hauron were a perfect team of victory-givers...

The Yavne “mega” excavation was one of the largest conducted by the IAA and has yielded fascinating discoveries that testify to a rich and varied history of 7,000 years.

"One can only imagine what that warrior who held the sling bullet 2,200 years ago thought and felt, as he held on to the hope of divine salvation," said IAA Director Eli Escusido.

The story of the bullet will be presented at the ‘Yavne and its Secrets’ lecture next week in Yavne.

[GingisK]

That’s quite a throw!

[Forward the Light Brigade]

So ancient warriors wrote things on projectiles? Only proved this is a very human thing to do in war. Now Russians write messages on Drones they send to the Ukrainians. We wrote things to the Vietcong, and before that to the Nazis in WW II, In WW I they wrote things on shells before they fired them. A book could be written on all the things, most foul words, that soldiers place on projectiles. I am sure the stones tossed with catapults had interesting messages.

[null and void]

Alright now, a friend of mine named Jay is going to be landing
jets on aircraft carriers in the navy there
And he's going to have a nuclear bomb between his legs
And he's going to paint my face on that nuclear bomb
And on the side it's going to say "Mojo says hi"

[ByteMercenary]

“... but there was no sword in the hand of David.”

... so how did the head get removed ... ? Did David chew it off?

Seriously I take that text to mean that a sword was not used to initially drop big G to the ground. But after that, some kind of edged device would have to have been available to behead the dude. Sword, axe, who knows? You had to be there ...

[Farmerbob]

Goliath had a sword and he wasn’t using it anymore. It was just laying there so David could have borrowed it for a bit.

[SunkenCiv]

The Greek warrior Ioannes Unitas is generally thought to be the thrower.

[Redcitizen]

I thnk we agree on the same thing from different points of view.

Goliath died from the stone impact and then David used Goliaths own sword to cut off his head which i did not write in my initial post.

[smokingfrog]

Assyrian, I think.

[Red Badger]

Pickleball is older than I thought................

[wildbill]

It’s surprising that finding a single bullet would give rise to academic interest. Slingers were usually used in mass formations of specialists from specific areas known for their prowess and the projectiles were probably intended to hit in swarms rather than against individual targets. Should be a lot of them lost on big battlefields although I’m sure they were prized enough for clean-up crews to attempt to find and collect them for multiple uses in battles as well as on any specific battlefield as the lines moved back and forth.