Image Credit : STILEarte
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/whistling-sling-bullets-were-roman-troops-secret-weapon/
Some 1,800 years ago, Roman troops used “whistling” sling bullets as a “terror weapon” against their barbarian foes, according to archaeologists who found the cast lead bullets at a site in Scotland.
Weighing about 1 ounce (30 grams), each of the bullets had been drilled with a 0.2-inch (5 millimeters) hole that the researchers think was designed to give the soaring bullets a sharp buzzing or whistling noise in flight.
The ancient Greeks and Romans produced lead bullets for use in slings in mass quantities, sometimes in molds and sometimes just by digging a figure into sand and pouring molten lead into it. The messages that ancient Romans put on lead sling bullets ranged from naming the leader of the sling unit, the commander of the troops or messages invoking a god or wishing injury upon or insulting the targets, according to the Collector Antiquities blog.
Ammunition
Sling-bullets of baked clay and stone found at Ham Hill Iron Age hill fort.
The simplest projectile was a stone, preferably well-rounded. Suitable ammunition is frequently from a river or a beach. The size of the projectiles can vary dramatically, from pebbles massing no more than 50 g (1.8 oz) to fist-sized stones massing 500 g (18 oz) or more. The use of such stones as projectiles is well attested in the ethnographic record.[3]
Possible projectiles were also purpose-made from clay; this allowed a very high consistency of size and shape to aid range and accuracy. Many examples have been found in the archaeological record.
The best ammunition was cast from lead. Leaden sling-bullets were widely used in the Greek and Roman world. For a given mass, lead, being very dense, offers the minimum size and therefore minimum air resistance. In addition, leaden sling-bullets are small and difficult to see in flight; their concentrated impact is also a better armour-piercer and better able to penetrate a body.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sling_(weapon)
As a stone inscriber from way back I’d say someone took his time with these . They look like “raised letter” inscriptions where you knock back the background rather than cutting the letters themselves into the stone.
It’s too bad ol’ Julius didn’t use thar against the Senate.
What caliber????....
Mighty interesting. I had no idea lead bullets have been around that for that long of a time. Didn’t teach us this in school.
