DOI: 10.5880/fidgeo.2024.003
title: Lead isotope analyses (LIA) on lead sling bullets from Pre-Roman and Roman context

description: The data publication presented is concerned with the collection of geochemical results enhanced with metadata of archaeologic, stylistic, geographic and other crucial information. The publication covers analytical and metadata sets of analysed projectiles, both from own and published works. Starting point for the data collection was the PhD thesis Müller 2018 were projectiles from different find sites, dating into the Roman Republic, were analysed and published. 
 
The objects up to date included in the current database are from various find sites with varying archaeological background, which have been collected and evaluated by the authors for diachronic comparison within a supra-regional frame. Own unpublished data are also included. These data are of objects, which are too isolated in terms of a research question to be published in a journal. However, our intention is to make them accessible in the context compiled here for any further use. We hereby encourage other researchers to contribute to this database either with their published or even their unpublished data so that it can continuously develop for the specific objects presented here. 
 
The samples taken by the project group were analysed in the laboratories of FIERCE, the Frankfurt Isotope and Element Research Center of Goethe-University Frankfurt and the Research Laboratory of the Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum, a central unit within its research department using Multicollector ICP mass spectrometry. 
 
We are initiating this database with the goal that it will grow through collective contributions from researchers working on this topic. It should therefore be seen as a project of collaborative engagement. The research team is dedicating its efforts to the continuation and maintenance of the database. Anyone who contributes data will be named as a contributor in subsequent versions of the database.
description: An ongoing research project - Brought or from the scene? On the origin of lead sling bullets in (Pre-)Roman military and other context - Lead isotope analyses (LIA) on lead sling bullets from the 4th cent. BC to the 2nd cent. AD from find sites around the Mediterranean Sea, the Black Sea, Central and Western Europe up to Scotland – investigates lead sling bullets interdisciplinary with combined archaeometric and archaeological methods. Lead sling bullets are widespread finds on ancient sites of conflict, dominantly in Roman and Hellenistic times. They represent small projectiles usually cast in two-piece moulds from lead metal, and follow typical stylistic shapes. Often they bear inscriptions (i.e. initials) or symbols, attributing them to historical personalities or events. Furthermore lead sling bullets were not only armour-piercing but also could wield specific features like small holes, resulting in whistling sounds when shot, possibly contributing a psychological effect during warfare. 
 
The research question covers several aspects: 1) The origin of the raw lead used to cast the sling bullets - the question behind is whether the troops were centrally supplied with the sling bullets, or the bullets were produced on-site and on-demand using brown-bagged raw metal or local lead sources. 2) The relationship between manufacture, originality and dating - here the question arises whether a larger dataset of determined lead sling bullets can be used to infer undated bullets, bullets from unknown sources or lacking archaeological record. 3) The re-use of lead - the question arises whether one can determine potential recycling of lead e.g., within a find complex of different lead finds.