Pompeii's Battle Scars Linked to an Ancient 'Machine Gun'

Pompeii's battle scars linked to an ancient 'machine gun'

The ancient city of Pompeii is one of those archaeological sites that keeps on giving with one discovery after another. While much of what we know about the Roman settlement comes from the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79, another significant event from nearly a century earlier is also yielding fresh insights into its past.

Evidence of a fabled ancient Greek 'machine gun', the polybolos, discovered in Pompeii

A recent study suggests Roman forces may have used a rare ancient Greek repeating ballista — known as the polybolos and sometimes described as a 'machine gun of antiquity' — during the siege of Pompeii in 89 BCE. Researchers say markings discovered on the city's stone walls could be the earliest physical evidence of a repeating arrow-firing device known from ancient texts. The findings, led by Adriana Rossi of the University of Campania, were pu…

Archeologists Uncovered Evidence of a 2,000-Year-Old Machine Gun—and the Damage It Did

Traces of the fabled “multi-thrower” have emerged from the ruins of Pompeii.