Did an ancient sling stone teach someone a lesson?

ANCIENT MARTIAL ARTIFACT: ‘Learn your lesson’: Inscribed 2,100-year-old sling bullet found in the Galilee, Artifact was possibly used by the Greek defenders of the city of Hippos against the Hasmonean army of King Alexander Jannaeus in 101 BCE (Rossella Tercatin, Times of Israel).

Its discovery marks the first time that this specific inscription has been found on a sling bullet, according to Haifa University’s Michael Eisenberg, co-director of excavation at the site and one of the authors of the study.

The underlying article just published (open access) in Palestine Exploration Quarterly:

Learn! – A New Type of Inscription on a Sling Bullet from Hippos of the Decapolis

Michael Eisenber, Arleta Kowalewska & Gregor Staab
Published online: 10 Mar 2026
Cite this article https://doi.org/10.1080/00310328.2026.2641294

ABSTRACT

This paper introduces a unique inscribed lead sling bullet (slingshot) found at Hippos of the Decapolis in 2025. The item was recovered with a metal detector within the Southern Necropolis, close to the bed of the Sussita Stream, where an ancient road passed. The bullet, most probably launched by the city defenders at attackers coming up the road, carries Greek letters ΜΑΘΟΥ. This previously unattested inscription can be interpreted as a sarcastic imperative addressed to the enemy: ‘Learn your lesson!’ The find joins the group of 69 lead sling bullets encountered at Hippos. Although some are decorated with a scorpion or a thunderbolt, the bullet described in this paper is the first one with an inscription.

For other discoveries of ancient inscribed and uninscribed sling bullets in Israel, see the links collected here. And for many PaleoJudaica posts on artifacts and architecture recovered in and around the site of Hippos-Sussita, start here and follow the links

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