Slings do not appear in works of art and were probably low-status weapons, as they were in medieval Europe, because of the utilitarian skills they demanded. Nevertheless, the distribution of slingstones throughout Mesoamerica indicates the continued use of this effective and inexpensive projectile weapons. Standardizing the slingstones by sizing pottery or grinding stones made slings more effective, in that each slinger would then know with relative certainty how far and accurately he could throw. However, their weight limited the number of slingstones that could be carried long distance, so unless they could be retrieved for reuse—and the prevalence of fragments suggest that the ceramic ones were relatively fragile—slings were probably used primarily to defend settlements where transport was not an issue.

Perhaps in reaction to slings, shields were widely adopted in the Late formative, especially large rectangular ones that protected most of the body. Their construction is uncertain, but the shields were probably made of leather, woven materials of various weights, or solid wood, as were later examples, although wood and woven reeds are particularly suited to rectangular forms. These shields appear very sturdy and, if made of solid wood, cold directly block weapon thrusts. Lighter materials, such as leather or woven reeds, could not absorb the forces of a blow that might break the shieldman’s arm—the notorious parry fracture—but they could deflect them, block projectiles, and defend against the cutting effect of blades. The protection these large shields afforded the trunk and limbs was, however, achieved at the price of mobility, suggesting a more set-piece style of combat. In fact, the heavenly shields may have been rested on the ground where it could still provide considerable protection from projectiles and, in conjunction with thrusting spears, would have been a formidable deterrent to an enemy charge.