Slinging [Steinschleuder]

Extended description: The heart of the photographic collection of the Gustaf-Dalman Institute in Greifswald forms a wooden cabinet filled with 3.195 slides: large-format glass plate positive, some of which were still used in teaching until the 1980s. Their motives show the cultural landscape of Palestine from the lake of Genezareth to the Dead Sea, some down to Egypt. The black and white shots (only a few are colored) were taken between the outgoing 19th and the beginning 20th century, they come from Gustaf Dalman and his fellows, some from professional photographers and publishers from Jerusalem, the German Empire and the Anglo-American region. One of these shots, a photograph of the American Colony from Jerusalem from the first half of the 20th century shows a shepherd with the stone slingshot. Standing on a sloping plane, set a foot forward, he is just picking up for the toss. Christian and Jewish viewers would have to have made an active effort to avoid thinking about the biblical David who is preparing to strike the giant Goliath. The Dalman collection contains not only this photograph, but also a similar slingshot in the original. Both of them together form a very realistic picture of this technique.