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Israelite slinger's equpment; what did Israelite slinger's carry
Topic Started: Dec 19 2010, 03:24 AM (3,063 Views)
J. Andrew
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Greetings, what did Israelite slingers carry in their possibles bags? While out hunting, or in the countryside, or tending sheep, or during battle? What other weapons would they have carried?
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J. Andrew
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Here's another pic of a slinger by Johnny Shumate, the other one is one by him too
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Brock H
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Any answer would be purely speculative since I know of no comtemporary illustrations or burials that could be designated as that of a "slinger." If the time you are interested in is that of Judges or Kings (which I'm assuming is correct), most Israelite soldiers would be tribal militia carrying whatever weapons they could afford.

Aside from the sling and its missiles (stones or baked clay bullets), the one item almost certainly carried would be a knife/dagger. It is such a useful tool/weapon that every free adult male would own one and naturally take it with him to war. Any other weapons would be speculative, but if he owned an axe for use in his civilian life, he'd take that along, too. Some farming implements could also make passable weapons in a pinch. Some sort of club as shown in the first illustration is possible as it is a cheap weapon.

The handful of professional soldiers, including slingers, would be better armed. In those cases a short sword would be a possible secondary weapon for a slinger, as would an axe intended as a weapon rather than one intended as a tool and used as a makeshift weapon.

I'm afraid due to lack of concrete evidence possibilites is the best that can be suggested.

Oh, and for things other than weapons, bread would be found in the possibles bag. Maybe legumes or other vegetables that wouldn't spoil easily and a small pot for cooking them in. Whole grain could also be cooked in the pot to make a porridge, so it might also be found in the bag.
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Brock H
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Most of what I said in my last post refered to his going to war. Out tending sheep or hunting besides his sling he'd have only his knife as a weapon and some bread in the possibles bag. Anything more really wouldn't be necessary unless he knew he wasn't going to return home the same day. Even gone for 2 or 3 days bread would probably be all he took for food and no cooking pot due to its weight or anything that needs cooking, unless it was done beforehand.
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Edwin Deady
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years ago I saw a programme where they climbed into a cave in Palestine and found a hoard of short bronze daggers and round bronze mace heads. So these were presumably available to BA Israelites.
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Jamie Szudy
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There are a number of weapons available in the last 2nd Millennium BC - there is a well-known find of inscribed arrowheads or spearheads from el-Khadr, near Bethlehem. However, whether or not the Israelites actually existed as a distinct ethnic group before the 1st Millennium BC is very much a matter of debate.

As far as early 1st Millennium (the "Kings" period) slingers go, the best reference is Assyrian palace reliefs, which show numerous examples of Assyrian slingers. Below is an example of a pair of them from the Southwest Palace of Sennacherib at Nineveh. They wear scale (or perhaps a form of lamellar) shirts, conical Assyrian helmets, and short swords hung on baldrics. In reality, many of the slingers probably did not wear quite so much armor (reliefs were, after all, intended as propaganda), but they were still probably much better equipped than those in the relatively impoverished Palestine.

Even so, the Israelites probably had at least a handful of well-equipped elite soldiers...though these were probably charioteers rather than slingers. At best, the slingers would have a helmet (more likely crested than conical) and a scale shirt, and perhaps a sword. Most likely, they had no armor at all and only a dagger as a back-up weapon.

You may also want to check out the excavation reports from Lachish, an Israelite city destroyed by the Assyrians. Lots of interesting finds (though who they belonged to, Assyrian or Israelite, is often quite unknown).

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Scott Woodruff
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I am putting together a slinger's kit from the "Judges" or "Kings" period. I have sandals, naalbound wool cap, wool cloak, wool sling and short-sleeved linen tunic. I want to add a scale cuirass, bronze or leather greaves, an iron Naue type II sword, and an axe or spiked mace. I wonder if any kind of trousers, leggings or gemaschen- or wininga-like leg-wraps would have been used.
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J. Andrew
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all I have is a leather shoulder pouch, one of these days I will find a bronze knife or an iron age knife, i have a jute cord 3 strand braid and a leather pouch sling, I have a wool blanket that I can turn into a cloak, I just have to find suitable material for a tunic and I can be in any period re-enactment that has slingers idk, and I also have a pair of leather shoes
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Scott Woodruff
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Some of the early Iron Age knives are identical to some modern knives (except iron instead of hi-carbon steel.) I have an old kitchen knife that with a little grinding is a dead ringer for an example on the Greek Age of Bronze site. Do you use your sling much? How do you like the jute? I have a couple of jute slings, but I much prefer the wool ones, both for looks and use. Unfortuneately, I have lost the couple I have amidst the piles of reenactment stuff from various periods that I have lying around, so I think I will have to make a new one. How long is your sling? As to the tunic, cotton is ok post 600BC. My short under tunic is linen, but I am now working on an outer tunic made from cotton tarp material. It is cheap and looks quite good. A lot of my stuff is recycled from Viking Vinland reenacting, with some modifications, like short sleeves instead of long, as is required for the Viking Age.
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Sean Manning
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Scott Woodruff,May 25 2011
03:31 AM
I am putting together a slinger's kit from the "Judges" or "Kings" period. I have sandals, naalbound wool cap, wool cloak, wool sling and short-sleeved linen tunic. I want to add a scale cuirass, bronze or leather greaves, an iron Naue type II sword, and an axe or spiked mace. I wonder if any kind of trousers, leggings or gemaschen- or wininga-like leg-wraps would have been used.

I suspect that few slingers would have armour, a sword, and an axe or a mace. In most cultures the sling was the weapon of people too poor to use a spear or bow, although that doesn't mean it was ineffective!
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Scott Woodruff
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Indeed, the slinger shown on the Tell Hafaf (10th c) relief is shown barefoot with nothing but headband, tunic and kilt. I already have everything needed for such a portrayal. The point is, I am doing a kit from 12th-10th century Levant, and would like to keep adding to it. Assyrian slingers from this era (or a bit later) are shown with exactly the armor described (see pic above) plus helmet. Obviously, I wouldn't carry all the weapons around at once, I just appreciate the versatility.

I may have been wrong about knives being iron, coeval knives from Cyprus are the earliest known hardened and tempered steel objects known.

Does anyone have any thoughts about the garments being worn under the greaves of the Assyrian slingers shown above. I try to avoid reading too much into iconographic evidence, but it sure looks like they are wearing some sort of quilted panzerhosen or leggings, or at least some sort of trousers. They appear to have garters just above the knee. I know that trousers are mentioned in the Old Testament, does anyone know when they might have been introduced into the Levant?
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J. Andrew
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Scott Woodruff,May 26 2011
11:17 AM
Some of the early Iron Age knives are identical to some modern knives (except iron instead of hi-carbon steel.) I have an old kitchen knife that with a little grinding is a dead ringer for an example on the Greek Age of Bronze site. Do you use your sling much? How do you like the jute? I have a couple of jute slings, but I much prefer the wool ones, both for looks and use. Unfortuneately, I have lost the couple I have amidst the piles of reenactment stuff from various periods that I have lying around, so I think I will have to make a new one. How long is your sling? As to the tunic, cotton is ok post 600BC. My short under tunic is linen, but I am now working on an outer tunic made from cotton tarp material. It is cheap and looks quite good. A lot of my stuff is recycled from Viking Vinland reenacting, with some modifications, like short sleeves instead of long, as is required for the Viking Age.

the jute is nice and strong, but it tends to fray a little, i wouldnt know where to find some wools cord to make slings but jute works fine for me, the sling length is usually from my heart extending to my left hand soo almost half my height which is about 5''11 soo idk about 30 inches, as for the tunics and such havent made those yet
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Scott Woodruff
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I just use regular wool yarn (either plied or single-twist) and braid it, 3 strands if it is fairly thick or 9 if it is really thin. My sling when fully stretched out is about my height, so similar in relative length to yours. I find that the stretchiness of the wool makes the sling more forgiving in the cast.
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Dan Howard
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Thom Richardson studied the Egyptian one in the Petrie Museum. The sling isn't complete; only the cradle and one cord are intact. Both are made from braided flax. The cradle is 125 x 70 mm, and the cord is 570 mm long. He also made several reconstructions and experimented with them. The results are published here:

T. Richardson, "The ballistics of the sling," Royal Armouries Yearbook, Vol. 3, (Leeds: Royal Armouries, 1998) 44.
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Scott Woodruff
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Thanks Dan, I'll have to check that out. So that would give a total length of about 1.2m. In my experience, shorter slings of about this length are ideal for throwing heavier missiles at shorter ranges. Using an overhand throw with such a sling I can throw about every 2 seconds. A longer sling like the one I most recently made is about as long as it can be and still be easy to use and reload quickly and is ideal for throwing a lighter missile a long ways using a more underhand or sideways throw. Interestingly, Assyrian reliefs seem to show the use of short slings being used overhand to throw heavy missiles.

I have some hemp and linen cordage, so I may try making a sling out of one of those to see how it compares. A while back I made one out of Agave fiber, but I didn't like it much. Not only was it very rough and uncomfortable to use, but the lack of stretchiness just made it feel weird to me. It is hard to describe, but it had a sort of "snap" at the release that made it hard to control the release or have any accuracy. I continuously read that wool was used for slings, but off the top of my head I can only recall flax examples that have been preserved. I wonder if any wool slings or fragments have survived to the present day. I know that wool degrades much more quickly than linen in most environments.
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