SLING-STONES AND BALLS.
Passing on from flint arrow-heads and the tools which were probably
used in the process of their manufacture, we come to another form of
missile weapon—the sling-stone—which also appears to have been in
use in Britain. It is needless here to enter into details as to the
early use of the sling among the more civilized nations of antiquity,
especially as comprehensive articles on the subject have already been
published in this country by Mr. Walter Hawkins[1979] and Mr. Syer
Cuming.[1980]
A stone thrown by hand doubtless constituted the first missile weapon,
and some form of sling must probably have been among the earliest
inventions of mankind. What appears to be the simplest kind, and one
which, like Nilsson[1981] and Strutt,[1982] I frequently used as a boy,
consists of a stick split for a short distance down one end, so as to
form a cleft, in which a stone is placed; the elasticity of the two
halves of the stick, which are kept asunder by the stone, retaining
it there until the proper moment for its discharge. Nilsson cites
Lepsius as engraving in his great work on Egypt a representation of a
man armed with such a sling, which he appears to use very actively in
fight. At his feet there is a heap of small stones in readiness for
use. Nilsson[1983] also suggests that it was with such a sling that
David was armed when he encountered Goliath, who addresses him: “Am
I a dog that thou comest to me with staves?”[1984] that is, with the
shepherd’s staff and the sling handle. The most ancient form, however,
recorded by classical writers is that of the ribbon sling, with a
central receptacle for the stone, and with strings on either side.
The neatly plaited or knitted cup or strap of a sling, with a portion
of its cord, both formed of flax, was among the objects discovered in
the |418| Lake-settlement of Cortaillod,[1985] which was remarkably
rich in bronze objects. This probably is the most ancient sling now in
existence.
The staff-sling reappears in Roman times in a somewhat modified form,
with a receptacle for the stone attached to the end of a staff. To this
weapon the name of _fustibalus_ was given.
* * * * *
The earliest sling-stones were, no doubt, like those used by
David against Goliath, the “smooth stones out of the brook;” but
in after-times, among the Greeks and the Romans, sling-bullets
of an almond or acorn-like form were cast in lead, and flattened
ovoid missiles were formed in terra cotta; both kinds, from their
uniformity in size, ensuring greater precision of aim than could be
secured with stones, however carefully selected, and the former also
offering the advantages of less resistance from the air, as well
as greater concentration of force when striking the object. Some
polished sling-bullets of loadstone or hæmatite are mentioned by
Schliemann[1986] as having been found on the presumed site of Troy.
The advantages of uniformity of size and form are recognized among
some savage tribes, who make use of the sling at the present day; the
sling-stones, for instance, of the New Caledonians being carefully
shaped out of steatite, and, what is worthy of remark, approximating
closely in form to the Roman _glandes_, being fusiform or pointed
ovoids. The same form on a larger scale, about 3 inches in diameter and
4 inches long, has been adopted by the natives of Savage Island for
missiles thrown by the hand. These are wrought from calc-spar almost as
truly as if turned in a lathe.
Nilsson[1987] has engraved a sling-stone of this same form, found in
Sweden, where, however, they are by no means common, as he cites but
five specimens in the museums at Lund and Stockholm.
Artificially-fashioned sling-stones are not, however, confined to this
fusiform shape; those that were in use among the Charruas of Southern
America having been of a lenticular form, though slightly flattened
at the centre of each face. One in my collection is about 3 inches in
diameter and 1 3∕8 inches thick in the middle. It has been ground over
the whole of both faces, and has the edge at its periphery slightly
rounded.
The objects so frequently found in the Swiss Lake-dwellings, and to
which the name of sling-stones has been commonly given, were, as
Keller[1988] has pointed out, probably intended for some very different
purpose. Many of the forms described by Sir William Wilde,[1989] under
the name of sling-stones, may also, I think, be more properly placed
in some other category. The carefully polished lenticular disc of
flint (Wilde, Fig. 9) seems better adapted for a cutting tool; and the
flat oval stones, usually with “a slight indentation, such as might
be effected by rubbing with a metal tool,” were, as I have already
observed, more probably used for obtaining fire, like those of the same
class belonging to the early Iron Age of Denmark,[1990] which they much
resemble in character. |419|
The objects to which in this country the name of sling-stone
has been generally applied are more or less roughly-chipped, and
approximately lenticular blocks of flint, varying considerably in
proportionate thickness, and usually from about 1 1∕2 to 3 inches
in diameter. An average specimen from the Yorkshire Wolds is shown
in Fig. 350. The contour is frequently more truly circular or oval,
and the faces somewhat more carefully chipped. They are found in
considerable numbers on the Yorkshire Wolds, in Suffolk, Sussex, and
other counties where chalk flints are common. Occasionally also they
occur in Scotland.[1991] Similar forms are also abundant in the Danish
kjökken-möddings and “coast-finds.” In this latter case it appears
quite as probable that they may have served for net-sinkers as for
sling-stones; although, as Sir John Lubbock[1992] has remarked, “that
some have really served as sling-stones seems to be indicated by their
presence in the peat-mosses, which it is difficult to account for in
any other way.”
[Illustration: Fig. 350.—Yorkshire Wolds. 1∕2]
Prof. Nilsson[1993] objects that they are so irregular and
sharp-cornered, “that they would soon wear out the sling, even if it
were made of leather.” He presumes “that these sharp-cornered stone
balls were the first hand-missile weapons of the earliest and rudest
savages, and used by them to throw at wild animals or enemies.” This
objection to regard them as sling-stones seems hardly well founded;
especially if we consider them to have been in use with a stick-sling,
in which case their angularity would have been of some service in
retaining them in the cleft, while their lenticular form adapts them
well for this kind of sling. A more valid objection raised by Prof.
Nilsson is that no one “would give himself all this trouble to fashion
sling-stones which were to be thrown away the next moment, when he
could find many natural pebbles quite as suitable.” But to this it may
be replied, that at the present day we do find the New Caledonians, the
Tahitians, and other tribes, carefully fashioning their sling-stones;
and also that this flat lenticular form is better adapted for the
stick-sling than a natural pebble of the usual oval form. As a fact,
however, I think it will be found that these flint discs, to which the
name of sling-stones is applied, are most abundant in those districts
where natural rolled pebbles happen to be scarce. If the case be really
so, we can readily understand why the cores, from which flakes had been
struck for conversion into arrow-heads and other instruments, should
have been themselves utilized as sling-stones. If these missiles were
necessary, it would be a question of which would involve the least
trouble, whether to chip into the required form a certain number of
flints which came readily to hand, at the same time making use of
the resulting chips; or to select and bring together, possibly from
a distant sea-coast, a bed of a stream, or some uncovered patch of
gravel, a number of pebbles of the right size and form for slinging. In
the camp at Hod Hill, near Blandford, |420| which, however, probably
belongs to the Early Iron Period, the latter course seems to have been
adopted, as several heaps of rounded flint-pebbles, either derived from
the sea-coast or from some bed of Lower Tertiary Age, have been found
there, and in all probability constituted the munition of the slingers
of the camp.
The late Mr. C. Monkman[1994] remarked that in Yorkshire he always
found the small globular sling-stones most plentiful at a short
distance (50 to 200 yards away) from old entrenchments, and he was
inclined to class under the head of sling-stones, nodules chipped
over their whole surface, varying from an almost globular form to all
degrees of flatness, and in size from 1∕2 inch to 3 inches in diameter.
This is perhaps too wide a definition, as most of the larger globular
forms appear to have been destined for hammer-stones; and pebbles but
half an inch in diameter would be almost too light for missiles. It
is, however, impossible to say with certainty that any given specimen
was undoubtedly a sling-stone, as the flatter forms, which were more
probably missiles, merge in the form of a roughly-chipped oval celt
like Fig. 17 at one end of the series, and in that of a discoidal
scraper with a broken edge at the other. Many may be merely cores,
from both faces of which flakes have been struck, so that the term
“sling-stones,” if employed for these roughly-chipped discs, must
always be used in a somewhat doubtful sense, and for convenience rather
than precision.
In Polynesia,[1995] besides rounded pebbles, sharp, angular, and rugged
stones were used for slinging. These were called _Ofai ara_, faced or
edged stones.
* * * * *
Another class of objects in stone which may possibly have served for
the purposes of the chase or of war, consists of balls with their
surface divided into a number of more or less projecting circles, with
channels between them. They seem, so far as is known, to be confined to
Scotland and Ireland.
[Illustration: Fig. 351.—Dumfriesshire. 1∕2]
* * * * *
That shown in Fig. 351 was found in Dumfriesshire,[1996] and has been
engraved by Sir Daniel Wilson. It presents six circular faces. Others,
almost identical in form, have been found at Biggar,[1997] Lanarkshire;
Dudwick,[1998] Chapel of Garioch[1999] and Migvie,[2000] Tarland,
Aberdeenshire; Kilmarnock,[2001] Ayrshire; and Montblairy,[2002]
Banffshire. Another, about 3 inches in diameter, with three faces
only, was found on the Tullo of Garvoch,[2003] Kincardineshire; and
one, with four faces, in a cairn at East Braikie, Forfarshire. This
|421| latter is in the Montrose Museum.[2004] One of greenstone, 2 1∕2
inches in diameter, found at Ballater,[2005] Aberdeenshire, has six
plain circular discs, with the interspaces partially cut into small
knobs or studs, the ornaments being possibly in course of formation.
Stone balls,[2006] about 2 1∕2 and 3 inches in diameter, covered over
the surface with small rounded projections, like enormous petrified
mulberries, have been found in the Isle of Skye, in Orkney, and at
Garvoch Hill, Kincardineshire. I presume the latter to be a different
specimen from that with three faces, previously described. Others
are in the Perth Museum.[2007] A series of such balls, some highly
ornamented, has been described by Dr. John Alexander Smith.[2008] One
formed of hornblende schist, with six strongly projecting circular
faces, was found near Ballymena,[2009] co. Antrim, in 1850, and is now
in the British Museum.
[Illustration: Fig. 352.—Towie.]
Probably the most remarkable of all these balls is that shown in
Fig. 352, from a cut kindly lent me by the Society of Antiquaries of
Scotland. It was found at Towie,[2010] Aberdeenshire, and is about
2 1∕2 inches in diameter, with four rounded projections, three of
which are ornamented with different incised patterns, while the fourth
is smooth and undecorated. From the character of the patterns, this
object would seem to belong to the Bronze Period rather than to that
of Stone, if not, indeed, to still later times. In connection with the
pattern upon it, attention may, however, be called to the remarkable
carved cylinders of chalk found by Canon Greenwell in a barrow on
Folkton Wold,[2011] Yorkshire, and now in the British Museum, which are
certainly not of later date than the Bronze Age. The ornament on a clay
vessel found in Devonshire[2012] may be compared with that of the sides
of the cylinders. |422|
* * * * *
These balls appear to me to differ most essentially from the ordinary
“sink-stones” found in Denmark and Ireland,[2013] with which they have
been compared. It is, however, by no means easy to suggest the purpose
for which they were intended. The only suggestions that I have met with
are, that they were used in some game or amusement; for defence when
slung in a long thong or line[2014]; as mace heads[2015] attached to a
handle; or else for purposes of divination.[2016] I must confess that
I hardly see in what manner the last purpose can have been served,
especially as in most instances all the faces of the ball are alike.
Nor do I see in what manner they can have been used in games, though
of course it is possible that they were so employed. It seems more
probable that they were intended for use in the chase or war, when
attached to a thong, which the recesses between the circles seem well
adapted to receive. Among savage nations of the present day we find
the use of the _bolas_, or stones attached to the ends of thongs, over
a great part of the southern continent of America;[2017] while the
principle is known to the Eskimos, whose strings of sinew, weighted
with bunches of ivory knobs, are arranged to wind themselves round the
bird at which they are thrown, in just the same way as the much stouter
cords weighted at the ends with two or three heavy stone balls which
form the _bolas_,[2018] twist round, and hamper the movements of larger
game.
The _bolas_ proper, as in use on the Pampas, consist of three balls of
stone, nearly the size of the fist, and covered with leather, which
are attached to the ends of three thongs, all branching from a common
centre. Leaden balls have now almost superseded those of stone. The
hunter gives to the _bolas_ a rotary motion, and can then throw them
to a great distance, in such a manner that the thongs entwine round
the legs, neck, and body of his prey and thus render it helpless, so
that it can then be easily despatched. A _bola_ of small size, but of
lead or copper, with a single thong about 3 feet long, is also used,
and forms both the sling and its stone. It likewise serves as a weapon
for striking in close encounter. Among the Patagonians[2019] the same
two |423| varieties are used, but those for hunting have usually only
two stones, and not three. They sometimes throw the single _bola_ at
the adversary, rope and all, but generally they prefer to strike at his
head with it.
Assuming a difficulty in securing a ball of stone in a leather case,
and that therefore it would be necessary to fasten it by means of a
thong, some channelling of the surface would become a necessity; and
the natural tendency of savages to decorate their weapons might lead
to regular circular discs being left between the channels on the ball,
and even to these discs being engraved in patterns, that next the cord
being, as in Fig. 352, left undecorated. In the Christy Collection is
a _bola_ formed of a polished red spherical stone, mounted in such a
manner as to show a considerable portion of its surface, which has
evidently been regarded as too handsome to be entirely concealed by
the leather. Mr. C. H. Read suggests that these ornamented balls were
entirely covered with raw hide, which was allowed to dry, the ends or
edges being tightly tied. When dry the circles over the knots were cut
out so as to display the ornament and leave a solid binding round the
stone to which a thong might be attached.
These _bola_ stones are sometimes wrought so as to present a number
of rounded protuberances. Of this kind there are specimens in the
Christy Collection[2020] and in that of the late Mr. J. Bernhard
Smith. Even if the use of the _bolas_ or the single _bola_ were
unknown, there is a form of military flail or “morning star,” a sort
of modification of the staff-sling, though the stone never quits the
cord by which it is attached to the staff, for which such balls as
these might serve. A mediæval weapon[2021] of this kind, in the Meyrick
Collection, consists of a staff, to which is attached by a chain a
ball of wood with numerous projecting iron spikes. The citizens of
London will be familiar with the same weapon in the hands of the giant
Gog or Magog at Guildhall. The Calmucks, Mongols, and Chinese,[2022]
still use a flail of this sort, with an iron perforated ball about
two pounds in weight attached to the end of the thong. Substituting
one of these stone balls for the spiked morning-star, and a leather
thong carefully adjusted in the channels of the stone for the chain,
a most effective form of weapon for close encounters would result.
Among the North American tribes a somewhat |424| similar weapon was
lately in use, and is thus described by Lewis and Clarke, as quoted
by Squier and Davies:[2023]—“The Shoshonee Indians use an instrument
which was formerly employed among the Chippeways, and called by them
_pogamoggon_.[2024] It consists of a handle 22 inches long, made of
wood covered with leather, about the size of a whip-handle. At one end
is a thong 2 inches in length, which is tied to a stone weighing two
pounds, enclosed in a cover of leather; at the other end is a loop
of the same material, which is passed around the wrist to secure the
implement, with which they strike a powerful blow.” Another form of
club in use among the Algonquins consisted of a round boulder sewn in
a piece of fresh skin and attached to the end of a long handle, to
which, by the drying of the skin, it becomes firmly attached. Examples
of both of these kinds are in the British Museum. An engraving of a
drumstick-like club of this character is given by Schoolcraft.[2025]
Unfortunately, however, the existence of such a weapon in early times
is not susceptible of proof. Whatever the purpose of these British
balls of stone, they seem to belong to a recent period as compared with
that to which many other stone antiquities may be assigned.
|425|