The Bullet(s) Speak(s)!

A new open access journal article.

Eisenberg, Michael, Arleta Kowalewska, and Gregor Staab. 2026. “Learn! – A New Type of Inscription on a Sling Bullet from Hippos of the Decapolis.” Palestine Exploration Quarterly, March, 1–5. doi:10.1080/00310328.2026.2641294.

Regular readers of this blog will know my love of glans, esp. those with inscriptions (earlier posts).

In the press (not the article) another type of sling bullet from the same site is illustrated that with the scorpion. Thunderbolts (fulmen) I know of as a bullet symbol from the Western Mediterranean but scorpions feel new to me in this context but v fitting given their regular appearance on intaglios and as secondary symbols on coinage.

A selection of posts that mention if briefly scorpions.

Drawing of a Sling Bullet from Athens, with a proper name: ΚΛΕΟΝΙΚΟΥ (BM image), just to remind us drawings are a useful part of the archaeological archive (and I like them)

In the BM’s modest collection of such bullets (47 from the Classical World), scorpions are well attested (5 from Kamiros, 1 from the Nile Delta, 1 Kalavarda, 1 from Corfu).