Sling
Honda
- Date
- c. 5000 BCE · confidence medium
- Place
- En Esur, southern Levant coastal plain, Israel
- Credited to
- Chalcolithic communities of the Levant
- Field
- Conflict
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A strip of leather or plaited fibre that launches projectiles by centrifugal force. The oldest secure evidence is the accumulations of mass-produced sling projectiles at Chalcolithic sites in the Levant; the oldest preserved slings are Andean, from c. 2500 BCE.
The origin is probably earlier, but there is no Palaeolithic or Epipalaeolithic evidence: a possible depiction at Çatalhöyük (c. 7000 BCE) is uncertain. Record rewritten after the verification of 23/09/2026 (previously dated c. 14 ka with no support).
What it led to
- Hunting of birds and small prey with unlimited ammunition
- A weapon of war for the first villages (standardised clay balls in the Neolithic)
- Pastoral use for herd control
Built on
- Bow and arrowc. 64 ka
- Cordage (twisted fibre string)c. 50 ka
- Cordage (twisted fibre string)
- Bow and arrow