2,100 years ago, someone hurled a rock inscribed with ‘Learn your lesson!’
No one wants to get pelted by a rock, least of all someone carrying an infuriating taunt. Nonetheless, rogue projectiles have been targeting unlucky targets for thousands of years. And near the ancient city of Antiochia Hippos, in today’s Golan Heights, archaeologists recently discovered a projectile containing the first known message of its kind. As they describe in a study recently published in the journal Palestine Exploration Quarterlyit is very likely that a soldier besieging the Roman fortification around 2,100 years ago was hit with a lead bullet bearing the Greek letters”ΜΑΘΟΥ.”
The translation? “Learn your lesson!” »
Researchers located the projectile in 2025 while monitoring a riverbed near Hippos using metal detectors. Although it is only one of 70 similar munitions documented during fieldwork, most other examples are either bare or feature illustrations of scorpions and lightning. These were widely used by throwing them with slingshots.
“Slingshot bullets were a cheap ammunition, hand-thrown projectile, used for millennia,” archaeologist and study co-author Michael Eisenberg told Phys.org. “Its throwing power relies on whirling a long rope slingshot while the ball rests in a leather pouch.”
THE ΜΑΘΟΥ The bullet may be unique, but the city’s use of slingshots was not. Hippos have seen their share of fights over the centuries. The Greco-Roman colony was one of ten localities that made up the Roman Decapolis. These communities located around the Southern Levant were more closely associated with Greek society than the local Semitic populations. It was founded following the Battle of Paneion around 199 BCE and resisted conquest by the Judean king Alexander Janneus around 101 BCE. However, the Roman general Pompey eventually incorporated Hippos into provincial Syria in 64 BCE.
We do not know exactly when the ΜΑΘΟΥ The ball exactly took flight, but the study authors believe it probably dates from the 2nd century BCE. The team also explained that it is a classic example of an almond-shaped lead bullet from the period, measuring approximately 1.25 by 0.76 inches and weighing approximately 1.3 ounces. According to Eisenberg, slingshot bullets were extremely effective at hitting individual targets up to 328 feet away, but were also effective at longer distances when thrown at groups of enemies.
Historical examples of slingshot balls include inscriptions such as the names of gods, military units, or even the name of the bearer. In some cases, the munitions included taunts such as “receive this” and “taste it”, but ΜΑΘΟΥ is particularly remarkable. Archaeologists believe the Hippos ball probably reads: μαθοῦwhich would accentuate the derision of the message.
“This is the only case where such a word appears on a bullet and its imperative [is] in a medium voice, which could make the statement even more sarcastic,” he explained.
We will probably never know if ΜΑΘΟΥ hit his target to add insult to injury. But based on where archaeologists found the ball, it was almost certainly thrown by a hippo defender, not an attacker. Whether the message was received or not, the defense ultimately worked. Hippos continued to exist in various forms until they were finally abandoned following a devastating earthquake in 749 CE.
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