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With a stack of poles, several lengths of rope, and a rough sketch of a plan, the young men set to work. They lashed the poles together to form the base tripod, then constructed the swing arm and the counterweight. Within an hour they'd constructed a trebuchet, a siege weapon capable of launching its payload several dozens of yards out to sea.

These weren't warriors of old. They were Boy Scouts at camp, working on their Pioneering merit badge. I was impressed with their cooperation and ingenuity as they strove to create the ancient war machine within their allotted time. But I was equally impressed with the way they were learning history and practical skills in one motivating project.

The trebuchet that they constructed is just one of many catapult-like machines created over the history of humankind for flinging projectiles at one another. The true catapult uses tension in a flexed piece of wood to fling a projectile, just as a bow uses flexed wood to fling an arrow. But there are many other ways to fling a rock or dart at one's enemies. The history of the catapult takes us back through the history of war itself.

The ancestor of all catapults and similar devices is the sling, a weapon dating back to neolithic times. The sling is simply a device that allows the user to fling a stone farther than the human arm can. Sling stones are known from prehistoric times, but slings themselves are rarely found, since they were constructed from organic materials. Some have been found in Egyptian tombs, however, and paintings in the tombs show they were used for hunting and for war. A warrior who was skilled with a sling could send a stone flying 400 yards or more, further than ancient bows could shoot an arrow. Slingers armed with lead sling-stones were the artillery of ancient times.

Another hand-held sling-like device was the atlatl. Also known as a spear-thrower, the atlatl extended the length of a person's arm, giving greater leverage when throwing a spear at a target. An atlatl at its simplest form was a stick with a hook or notch at the end. The butt of a spear fit into the hook. The thrower held the end of the atlatl and the shaft of the spear in the same hand. With a forward flinging motion, the thrower released the spear, while keeping hold of the atlatl. The extended motion of the atlatl gives the spear greater speed and force, allowing throwing distances of 100 yards or more with force enough to kill most game animals well within that range. The atlatl was used throughout

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