Anceint Weapons Found In Ancient Syrian City

It was the ancient version of a last stand: Twelve clay bullets lined
up and ready to be shot from slings in a desperate attempt to stop
fierce invaders who soon would reduce much of the city to rubble.

The discovery was made in the ruins of Hamoukar, an ancient sett-
lement in northeastern Syria located just miles from the border with
Iraq.

Excavations have been going on at the site since 1999, but in digs
conducted this past fall, researchers uncovered new evidence of
the city's end and more clues about how urban life there may have
begun.
The University of Chicago was to announce the findings Tuesday.

The site was anything but peaceful in approximately 3,500 B.C.
The archaeologists have previously detailed how they believe
Hamoukar's independence was ended by a battle that caused its
buildings and walls to collapse and burn.

But along this basin, the researchers found neatly lined up along its
edge 12 "sling bullets," oval-shaped weapons made of clay that were
fired using slings.
More than 1,000 of the bullets were found in debris of collapsed walls
in 2005.
Reichel theorizes someone who usually worked with the clay sealings
was trying to contribute to the war effort and fashioned bullets from
the clay instead.


SOURCE:
news.Yahoo.com

This is obviously not going to be interesting to everyone, but none
the less I think it's post worthy, as it furthers are knowledge of
our earliest civilizations.


Comments, Opinions?

Originally posted by iori_komei
This is obviously not going to be interesting to everyone

It is to me.

This is very exciting, although I'm not to familiar with the ancient ME. Greece is my thing, so this discovery will set me off on a new research jag...

Great find!

This is obviously not going to be interesting to everyone, but none

au contraire
this is more like it
its real history as opposed to the type of fake history that so many posters think is what this forum is for
the motto "deny ignorance" does not mean encourage pseudoscience
it means deny ignorance period
Pseudoscience and alternative history is ignorance

in this case the only ignorance I see is on behalf of the various media organisations who think this is a recent discovery
oi.uchicago.edu...
this extremely detailed report dates from april 2000 and is the offical report from the chicago museum that did the original excavation
they updated it recently with this report
www-news.uchicago.edu...
which is what the media have suddenly got hold of and think its a relevation
the reason they missed it the last time was because this news was released in november 2000
you may remember that as the time that Dubya rigged his election win in Florida.

the most interesting thing to be said about this discovery is that humanity was capable or even motivated to commit acts of warfare this early on

what is of special note is considering that this is the first recorded example of warfare in the ancient world that there are no laser blasts and no nuclear craters present

this site dates to the very time that some other posters have been claiming that alien gods walked the earth
apparently if this is the case they were about as advanced as we were at the time in regards to weaponry

Wow! Really interesting!

And thanks for the "extras", Marduk.

Interesting the amount of slingbullets found and some were 2-4 inches in diameter..suggesting a larger, possible crew served weapon??...interesting. In some ancient forts of england hundreds of pounds of sling ammo have been found ....although these are not as old as those at Hamoukar.
link

Warfare seems to be the constants of humanity...

Just to clarify.....

In addition to the wall, the team has uncovered quasi-industrial installations and two large administrative buildings that had been destroyed by an intense fire. It was at the site that, mixed in with the debris from the collapsed wall, that over 1,000 egg-shaped sling bullets were found in 2005, leading the excavators to conclude that an early act of warfare had caused the end of the settlement.

link

Even though Hamoukar has been worked on since 1999..it appears that they did not find or realize that these things were slingshot ammunition untill the fall of 2005 . Interesting just how slow archeology finds can be, sites just have to be looked at over and over..and it seems you will find more and more objects of interest.
So it IS sort of a new revelation and I don’t think ‘W’ hand a hand in this one.