Download PDF | Artillery In The Era Of The Crusades Siege Warfare And The Development Of Trebuchet Technology Brill (2018)
544 Pages
Foreword
In 20n1, I had the privilege of digging in southern Italy as part of a group coordinated by Fabio Colivicchi through Queen’s University, Canada. On16 July, we visited Pompeii; there, Professor Colivicchi made a point of showing us (I like to think me in particular) the north wall of the city, where the scarring left by Sulla’s artillery in 89 Bc can still be seen. I had completed my Ma a couple years earlier but had been struggling to come up with an original line of doctoral research, looking beyond the traditional limits of history to archaeology and the burgeoning field of photogrammetry in hopes of finding inspiration. By the end of that hot July day I had a clear thesis topic. My plan was to try to determine the strength of medieval stone-throwing engines by studying the datable impact signatures discernable at castles in the Levant. After a few months of research I determined that this was not only a feasible project but that there was a significant gap in the scholarship relating to medieval mechanical artillery. Unfortunately I began my doctoral programme, with the fantastic crusades scholars at Cardiff, just as the Syrian civil war was beginning. Perhaps the least significant consequence of this terrible conflict was that it prevented me from visiting certain sites in Syria, forcing me to shift my approach from an archaeological study to a historical one and place far more emphasis on the surviving literary evidence than I had originally planned.
This book is the ultimate outcome of that epiphany back at Pompeii in 20n; however, it would not have been possible without the help and support of a number of people between then and now. In Wales, thanks are due first to Denys Pringle, whose help, guidance and input over the past few years has been instrumental. Thanks also to Helen Nicholson and John France, who also read and commented on what was an early version of this book, and to Peter Edbury who graciously read parts and has generously shared many thoughts over the years. In Canada, W.T.S. Tarver has enthusiastically shared his experiences building and operating trebuchets and Mark Denny has been incredibly generous in running numerous theoretical mathematical scenarios through his trebuchet algorithm. Denys Pringle, Michael Eisenberg and others have kindly shared some of the photos that are included and CGIAR have allowed me to include the background topographical data of the small-scale regional maps, composed in Qcis, found below. Numerous archaeologists based around the world have generously shared information relating to their past and ongoing excavations and to all of them I am deeply grateful. Finally, thanks are due to the Zinman Institute of Archaeology, which provided the postdoctoral fellowship that allowed for the final preparation of this book, to Rabei Khamisy, my sponsor, and to his incredible family in Mi‘ilya. To everyone involved, my most sincere thanks.
MSF. Mi‘ilya, Galilee, 2018
Introduction
Medieval mechanical artillery has interested historians for centuries, yet our understanding of these engines remains fairly poor. Whereas technical treatises, detailed contemporary descriptions and illustrations survive from the classical and Renaissance periods, evidence dating to the Middle Ages is relatively scarce. In the absence of lucid contemporary descriptions, medieval artillery (mechanical stone-throwing machines) tends to be dealt with quite generally or studied in a very broad context. This has allowed historians, often relying on the most sensational anecdotal scenarios, to put forward various theories relating to the development and capabilities of these engines.
In order to avoid the generalisations that have accompanied previous studies, the focus here will be on a specific region and a relatively short period of time: the Levant, from 1097 to 1291. From the arrival of the First Crusade in Anatolia until the expulsion of the Franks from Palestine and Syria, this was a dynamic period of conflict, coexistence and cooperation between Latin, Greek, Armenian and Syrian Christians, as well as Sunni and Shiite Arabs, Turks and local Syrian Muslims. This nexus of cultures left a rich collection of literary sources, composed by a range of individuals from different cultural backgrounds writing from different perspectives. Although these contemporary sources present an informative window into the use and steady development of artillery technology during this period, their testimony must be reconciled with examinations of available archaeological evidence, the topography that influenced the use of artillery in each scenario and an understanding of the mechanics that governed the function of these engines.
Unfortunately, most previous studies have dealt with only the most sensational descriptions of artillery and have neglected the wealth of less detailed references that can help to construct a more complete picture of these machines and how they were used. Likewise, few have attempted to incorporate archaeological evidence or a sound appreciation of the practical physics of trebuchet technology. Such shortfalls have allowed scholars to accept at face value certain reports and figures, often provided by medieval authors with limited understanding of contemporary siege technology, leading to assumptions that these machines were far more powerful than appears to have been the reality.
Over the past two centuries or so, the views of many scholars have been influenced by the significance of modern artillery. At times, historians have even drawn direct parallels between modern howitzers and the mechanical engines regarded as their medieval predecessors.! In his seminal work on twelfth-century crusader warfare, R.C. Smail highlighted the inability of crusader castles to halt advancing armies, pointing out that these were not the forts of the eighteenth century with guns that could effectively close roads and obstruct the movements of large bodies of troops.” While few people associate the power of medieval defensive artillery with that of the modern era, there remains a pervasive tendency to characterise offensive engines as proto-bombards, the exclusive function of which was to smash holes in walls. Much as Smail forced us to reconsider the role of castles, it is time to re-evaluate the development of artillery during this period and the ways in which these engines were employed.
Among the best studies of medieval siege warfare in the Levant since that of Smail are those of Randall Rogers, Christopher Marshall and John France. Rogers and Marshall focused on the twelfth and thirteenth centuries respectively while France examined sieges in an around the crusader principalities in a broader study of medieval warfare in the Latin world.’ All three works operate primarily from a Frankish perspective and only Rogers examines artillery in any detail. Contrastingly, Paul Chevedden has operated primarily from a Muslim point of view and has perhaps devoted more attention to medieval artillery than any other modern scholar since Kalervo Huuri. His theories, however, tend to be built around a selection of choice anecdotes.*
The present study is, in part, a response to the ideas of these men: an attempt to improve our understanding of the development and role of mechanical artillery during this period and to integrate this into our conception of contemporary siege warfare; and, to address the exaggerated notions of power that have become popular in recent decades. In order to do this, it is necessary to look at the development of these engines in the lead up to the twelfth century in the various cultural contexts that would play a role in the struggle for control of the Levant during the period of the crusades. Furthermore, it is important to appreciate the fundamental mechanics of these machines and to possess an understanding of them as energy systems. The wealth of evidence, textual and archaeological, can then be critically examined to determine not only how these engines developed, but how widely this technology was known and employed, if the technology of certain groups was superior to that of others, and how these engines were used by military forces with different siege traditions and tactical preferences.
When all of the evidence is considered, it will become apparent that mechanical artillery was an important part of siege warfare during the era of the crusades; however, these engines did not develop into super-weapons that drastically changed the nature of war in the region or the design of fortifications. Light traction trebuchets, familiar to all parties at the end of the eleventh century, remained important weapons through to the end of the thirteenth century. These machines were complimented, probably from around the late twelfth century, by the development of the counterweight trebuchet, a more powerful variety that was employed in an increasingly different way. Despite the increasing use and scale of these latter engines, they do not appear to have caused any kind of revolution in the nature of siege warfare.
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