Tuesday, June 30, 2026
Science

Ancient sling bullet delivers a 2,100-year-old taunt: 'Learn your lesson!'

For millennia, sling bullets served as a hand-thrown projectile that could be used to fend off enemies. At Hippos, 70 sling bullets made of lead have been recovered over the course of fieldwork and excavation. However, while many are bare or depict scorpions and thunderbolts, one recently recovered...

Ancient sling bullet delivers a 2,100-year-old taunt: 'Learn your lesson!'
Image: Phys.org
For millennia, sling bullets served as a hand-thrown projectile that could be used to fend off enemies. At Hippos, 70 sling bullets made of lead have been recovered over the course of fieldwork and excavation. However, while many are bare or depict scorpions and thunderbolts, one recently recovered sling bullet is the first inscribed example ever recovered at Hippos and the only known sling bullet ever inscribed with the letters ΜΑΘΟΥ meaning "Learn your lesson!"

Originally published at Phys.org

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