DW: Et tu NRA?
Researchers studying the ancient city of Pompeii say they've found evidence that Roman soldiers may have used a weapon best described as an early machine gun when they attacked the city more than 2,000 years ago. A team from two Italian universities spent five years studying unusual impact marks on the northern walls of Pompeii, which date back to the siege of 89 BC led by Roman general Lucius Cornelius Sulla. The marks, small and angular and arranged in tight fan-shaped clusters, don't match the round craters left by standard catapult stones.
Using 3D scanning and digital models, the researchers concluded the damage most closely fits the "polybolos," a Greek-designed repeating dart launcher capable of firing metal-tipped projectiles in rapid succession without reloading. No physical example of a polybolos has ever been found, but the researchers say the wall damage lines up with written descriptions of the weapon and surviving projectiles from other Roman sites.
Source: Telegraph