Slings and Slingstones

Robert York

Description

A fascinating examination of an overlooked weapon For most of us, our knowledge of slings and slingstones begins and ends with the biblical tale of David slaying Goliath. Scholars and archaeologists have told us that slings like the one David employed were common in the Old World, used not just for shepherd boys to kill giants but for protecting herds, hunting, and combat. However, few scholars have addressed the function slings have occupied outside of Eurasian civilizations, especially their use in Oceania and the Americas.In this astounding new archaeological survey, authors Robert York and Gigi York examine the history of Oceania and the Americas to unveil the significant role slings and slingstones played in developing societies. They present new evidence that suggests that unlike David who plucked rounded pebbles from a stream, inhabitants of the Pacific Islands deliberately fashioned sling missiles out of coral, stone, and clay into uniquely deadly shapes. They also show that the use of slings in the Americas was more pervasive and inclined to variability than previously recognized.Well documented, bountifully illustrated, and thoroughly researched, Slings and Slingstones is sure to engage readers interested in expanding their knowledge of the past. It is an essential reference for archaeologists, historians, and students of the history of arms and weaponry.

Sujets

• Sociologie, société et politique
• USA
• Archaeology
• Biological anthropology
• History of the Americas
• Anthropology
• États-Unis

Informations

• Publié par: The Kent State University Press
• Date de parution: 20 janvier 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781631010828
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Slings and Slingstones
Slings & Slingstones
The Forgotten Weapons of Oceania and the Americas
Robert York and Gigi York
The Kent State University Press
Kent, Ohio
© 2011 by The Kent State University Press, Kent, Ohio 44242
A LL RIGHTS RESERVED
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 2011030817
ISBN 978-1-60635-107-9
Manufactured in the United States of America
L IBRARY OF C ONGRESS C ATALOGING-IN- P UBLICATION D ATA
York, Robert, 1944–
Slings and slingstones : the forgotten weapons of Oceania and the Americas / Robert York and Gigi York.
      p.    cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-60635-107-9 (hardcover : alk. paper) ∞
1. Slings—History. 2. Slingstones—History. 3. Oceania—History. 4. America—History. I. York, Gigi, 1944– II. Title.
GN498.S55Y67 2011
799.2'028'2—dc23
2011030817
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication data are available.
15   14   13   12   11          5   4   3   2   1
For Adrian, JDY, Brandy, Brandi, Toby, Dora, Valdo, and all of our Marys.
Contents
List of Figures
List of Maps
Preface
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Part 1 Setting the Stage
1 Time Out, or a Brief Try at Locating the World’s First Slings and Slingstones
Part 2 Oceania/The Islands of the Central Pacific
2 Micronesia
3 Melanesia
4 Polynesia
5 Oceania Summary
Part 3 The Americas
6 South America and Mesoamerica
7 North America
8 The Americas Concluding Remarks: Questions and Issues
References
Index
Figures
1 Linus demonstrating the advantages of the sling
2 Roman lead sling bullets
3 Four probable Paleoarchaic slingstones, Mt. Hebron Archaeological Site, Butte Valley, northern California
4 Bipointed stones, Nightfire Island Site, Klamath Basin, northern California
5 Jean Baptiste Cabri
6 Exhibit of Marianas slingstones ( acho atupat )
7 Revised Thompson-Marianas Slingstones Classification (T-M)
8 Chamorro sling ( atupat ) replica and T-M Slingstone Types 1, 3, and 4
9 Chuuk (Truk) sling and three slingstones
10 Sling and slingstone, Port Moresby area, Central Province, Papua New Guinea
11 New Ireland warriors
12 Nine New Ireland slingstones
13 Possible jagged-edged or unfinished slingstone, Malaita, Solomon Islands
14 Three probable slingstones, Santa Cruz Islands, Solomons
15 Eleven slingstones and carrying bag, New Caledonia
16 Fiji sling
17 Samoan (Tutuila) slingers battle LaPerouse’s men 1787
18 Tahitian slingers engage HMS Dolphin , Matavai Bay, 1767
19 Two probable basalt slingstones, the Marquesas
20 Display of slingstones, Rarotonga, the Cook Islands, at the Otago Museum, Dunedin, New Zealand
21 “Masked Man of the Sandwich Islands”
22 Three Hawaiian slingstones
23 Modern-day Andean slinger
24 Three depictions of Inca sling use from Felipe Guamán Poma’s chronicle, ca. 1615
25 Inca, wool, solid-pocket sling, Coyungo Site, Peru
26 Inca, wool, split-pocket sling, Coyungo Site, Peru
27 Pre-Columbian (Inca?) slingstones
28 Inca spherical slingstone
29 Inca wool, plaited sling
30 Historic Brazilian sling
31 Plan and side views of lenticular slingstone recovered from “excavations on site of Casa del Gobierno Nacional, Federal District, Buenos Aires, Argentina”
32 “Domed” or cone-shaped slingstone recovered from “excavations on site of Casa del Gobierno Nacional, Federal District, Buenos Aires, Argentina”
33 Caribbean Venezuela Manicuaroid Series bipointed slingstones
34 Soldato Mexicano armed with macana , shield, and sling
35 Pre-Columbian Zapotec (?) spherical slingstone
36 Two Zuni Pueblo, New Mexico, and Tarahumara, Mexico, leather slings
37 Two typical pre-Columbian stone balls, North America Southwest
38 Two more typical pre-Columbian Southwest stone balls
39 “Belly of Sling” (i.e., sling pocket) representational art designs, Tewa Pueblos, New Mexico
40 “Gaming stones,” Clear Lake, Modoc County, California
41 T-M Type 3, biconical/diamond-shaped slingstone of argillaceous coral limestone, LauLau Beach, Saipan
42 Basalt, diamond-shaped “charmstone,” Kramer Cave, Falcon Hill, Winnemucca Lake, Nevada
43 Two bipointed stones actually cataloged as “slingstones,” Stiles Ranch Site, Lassen County, California
44 Two basalt bipointed stones, Lassen County, California
45 Two bipointed stones of unidentified rock, Sonoma County, California
46 Seven “bipointed charms” of limestone and igneous rocks, Alpaugh vicinity, Tulare County, California
47 “Plummet” of unidentified stone, probably igneous, San Miguel Island, California
48 Lovelock Cave, Nevada
49 Sling recovered from Lovelock Cave, Nevada
50 Two bipointed stones, Lovelock Cave, Nevada
51 “Elliptical and globular clay balls,” Lovelock Cave, Nevada
52 Three basalt bipointed stones, Pyramid Lake, Nevada
53 Three more basalt bipointed stones, Pyramid Lake, Nevada
54 Stone (tuff) balls classified as “slingstones,” Indian Island Site, Lake County, California
55 Replicated baked clay sling balls used by Eastern Pomo for hunting waterfowl
56 Eastern Pomo tule basket for carrying clay sling balls
57 Eastern Pomo buckskin war or hunting sling
58 Eastern Pomo tule and milkweed fiber waterfowl sling
59 Bipointed stones, Nightfire Island Archaeology Site, Klamath Basin, California
60 “Elliptical baked clay balls,” Gunther Island Site (HUM-67), Humboldt Bay, California
61 Two more probable baked clay sling missiles, Gunther Island Site
62 “Slinger Man” petroglyph at Little Petroglyph Canyon, China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station, California
63 Inuit sling, Greenland
64 Inuit sling, Kotzebue, Alaska
65 Arapaho sling, Wind River Reservation, Wyoming
66 Uintah Ute decorated sling, Whiterocks, Utah
67 Two Cheyenne leather slings, Darlington, Okalahoma
68 Seneca Iroquois sling, New York
69 Common forms of Poverty Point Objects recovered from the Poverty Point Site, Louisiana
70 Fired clay objects, Pecos Pueblo, New Mexico
71 Volcanic bomb, unmodified or slightly modified, recovered ca. 1927 from Summer Lake, Lake County, Oregon
72 “Tuff ball,” spherical volcanic ejecta, unmodified manuport recovered from the Chance Gulch Archaeological Site (5GN817), Colorado
Maps
1 Korfmann’s sling worldwide distribution
2 Oceania
3 Micronesia
4 Melanesia
5 Polynesia
6 Mesoamerica and South America sling distribution
7 South America
8 Mesoamerica
9 North America slingstone survey areas
10 North America Southwest
11 Locations of Native American groups claiming use or knowledge of the sling in part of western North America
12 North America West Coast and Great Basin
13 North America Arctic-Subarctic
14 North America interior
15 North America southeastern and eastern coasts
Preface
Although not every one of the Old and New World peoples knew the sling, its distribution is sufficiently wide so that no serious doubt may be entertained as to its near-universal distribution among man. Those people who did not use this implement may once have possessed it and later given it up.
—Robert F. Heizer and Irmgard W. Johnson, “A Prehistoric Sling from Lovelock Cave, Nevada” (1952)
Through the first half of the twentieth century, slings and slingstones garnered some interest among anthropologists and archaeologists. For reasons that we will explore throughout the text, the implications of the above communication passed down by the eminent California archaeologists Robert F. Heizer and Irmgard W. Johnson, was relegated to archaeology limbo.
Our introduction to and pursuit of slingstones began in 1998 on Saipan, while serving as collections curators at the Northern Mariana Islands Museum of History and Culture (CNMI Museum). For us, archaeologists who had spent their careers among projectile points and potsherds in the western United States, the prevalence of worked slingstones (artifacts totally unfamiliar to us), coupled with the absence of projectile points, was a revelation.
Of the many wonders of our new tropical home, the island’s native peoples (Chamorros and Carolinians) and their ancestors’ slingstones fascinated us most. Saipan’s coral sand beaches are alternately lapped and torn by calm aqua waters and savage typhoons. Waves deposit among the shoreline boulders long-stored booty, including Spanish galleons’ gold, sea shells, and warriors’ missiles—from ancient slingstones to WWII munitions.
Curt Klemstein, sling enthusiast and one of our new Saipan friends, knowing of our interest in slingstones, brought to our attention Manfred Korfmann’s 1973 Scientific American article on slings and slingstones. Korfmann focused largely on the use of slingstones by classical Old World armies, but what caught our attention was his worldwide sling distribution map displaying a rash of dots indicating that the sling was widely known throughout the Pacific and the Americas (see map 1 ).
Our first hands-on slinging experience happened on a typical steamy tropical afternoon. We joined Curt and Paul Oberg (CNMI Museum director) at the nearby high school athletic field to test our skills with the sling by hurling coral stones (fashioned by Curt to replicate typical Marianas football-like slingstones) at a cardboard target. Without disclosing the results of our slinging contest, we can say that an impromptu audience of Saipan teens was highly amused.
Back Stateside in 2002, on the windswept high plains near our home in Laramie, Wyoming, we gave the sling another whirl. On this outing, naturally egg-shaped granite stones that we had collected from California beaches and streambeds served as our ammunition. We had painted these stones bright red and yellow to, we trusted, enhance our ability to retrieve them. After a couple cautious attempts, Gigi power-fired a stone whose flight path could never be determined and landing place never found. Fortunately, it had not come to rest in one of our skulls. That day we retired the slings to our hallway coat rack and the stones to the walk