| # | Polity | Coded Value | Tags | Year(s) | Edit | Desc |
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Coded present as they were used by indigenous forces under British command? Why would the British use tension siege engines when they have cannon? Ed.
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Not mentioned in the literature.
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Not mentioned in the literature.
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Cannon was in use at this time.
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Present in previous and subsequent polities.
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we need expert input in order to code this variable
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Inferred from use in previous polities.
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According to Han dynasty era scholars Jia Kui and Xu Shen "something called a "hui" which was moved or activated by the King of Zhou against the Duke of Zheng in 707 B.C. They identified this as a catapult but because the word "hui" now no longer exists, we cannot be sure of their interpretation."
[1]
[1]: (Liang 2005) |
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No discussion in literature of this. In this case it is evidence of absence since this is in line with logical expectations for this late-complexity society.
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not yet invented
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not yet developed
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not yet developed
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traction trebuchets preceded counter-weight trebuchet.
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not present during this time period
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not yet invented
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not yet developed
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not yet developed
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not yet developed
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not yet developed
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not present during this time period
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not present during this time period
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The following Achaemenid Empire may have been the first polity in the Egyptian region to have used tension siege engines.
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not invented at this time
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Inferred from the absence of tension siege engines in previous and subsequent polities in Cuzco.
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Not mentioned in the literature. This is interpreted as evidence of absence because this is a culture of low complexity for warfare technology.
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Not mentioned in the literature.
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Likely to have switched to siege artillery.
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Likely to have switched to siege artillery.
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Not mentioned in the literature.
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Not mentioned in the literature.
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Not mentioned in the literature.
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Not mentioned in the literature.
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According to a military historian (needs confirmation from a polity specialist) siege engines such as catapults were used by the Mauryans
[1]
which might have implications for technology available to later polities.
[1]: (Gabriel 2002, 220) Gabriel, Richard A. 2002. The Great Armies of Antiquity. Greenwood Publishing Group. |
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"Yantra was loosely used to denote a contrivance of any kind and that it was like catapults and ballistics used by the ancient Hebrews, Greeks and Romans in their warfare."
[1]
[1]: (Mishra 1977, 151) Shyam Manohar Mishra. 1977. Yaśovarman of Kanauj: A Study of Political History, Social, and Cultural Life of Northern India During the Reign of Yaśovarman. Abhinav Publications. |
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According to one military historian (this data needs to be confirmed by a polity specialist) the Mauryans used "catapults, ballistas, battering rams, and other siege engines."
[1]
Inferred from continuity with Mauryan polity .
[2]
[1]: (Gabriel 2002, 220) Richard A Gabriel. 2002. The Great Armies Of Antiquity. Praeger. Westport. [2]: (Roy 2016, 19) Kaushik Roy. 2016. Military Manpower, Armies and Warfare in South Asia. Routledge. Abingdon. |
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In Anatolia siege warfare was mentioned in Old Hittite records.
[1]
Presumably at this time the catapult was not used? In India, according to Jain texts, Ajatashatru, a 5th century BCE king of Magadha in North India, used a catapult "capable of hurling huge pieces of stone".
[2]
Marsden (1969) said archaeological records exist before the 4th century BCE.
[3]
The Achaemenids (c400 BCE?) are assumed to have had the catapult because the Macedonians did.
[4]
Pollard and Berry (2012) say torsion catapults first came into widespread use in the Hellenistic period 4th - 1st centuries BCE.
[5]
The Syracuse Greek Dionysios I invented a form of crossbow called the gastraphetes in 399 BCE which encouraged the development of large tension-powered weapons.
[6]
There is no direct evidence for catapults for this time/location. The aforementioned evidence we currently have covering the wider ancient world suggests they were probably not used at this time, perhaps because effective machines had not been invented yet.
[1]: Siegelova I. and H. Tsumoto (2011) Metals and Metallurgy in Hittite Anatolia, pp. 278 [In:] H. Genz and D. P. Mielke (ed.) Insights Into Hittite History And Archaeology, Colloquia Antiqua 2, Leuven, Paris, Walpole MA: PEETERS, pp. 275-300 [2]: (Singh 2008, 272) Upinder Singh. 2008. A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. Pearson Longman. Delhi. [3]: (Marsden 1969, 5, 16, 66.) Marsden, E. W. 1969. Greek and Roman Artillery: The Historical Development. Toronto: Oxford University Press. [4]: (Dandamaev 1989, 314) Dandamaev, M A. 1989. A Political History of the Achaemenid Empire. Brill. [5]: (Pollard and Berry 2012, 45) Pollard, N, Berry, J (2012) The Complete Roman Legions, Thames and Hudson, London Rives, J (2006) Religion in the Roman Empire, Wiley [6]: (Keyser and Irby-Massie 2006, 260) Paul T Keyser. Georgia Irby-Massie. Science, Medicine, And Technology. Glenn R Bugh. ed. 2006. The Cambridge Companion to the Hellenistic World. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. |
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In Anatolia siege warfare was mentioned in Old Hittite records.
[1]
Presumably at this time the catapult was not used? In India, according to Jain texts, Ajatashatru, a 5th century BCE king of Magadha in North India, used a catapult "capable of hurling huge pieces of stone".
[2]
Marsden (1969) said archaeological records exist before the 4th century BCE.
[3]
The Achaemenids (c400 BCE?) are assumed to have had the catapult because the Macedonians did.
[4]
Pollard and Berry (2012) say torsion catapults first came into widespread use in the Hellenistic period 4th - 1st centuries BCE.
[5]
The Syracuse Greek Dionysios I invented a form of crossbow called the gastraphetes in 399 BCE which encouraged the development of large tension-powered weapons.
[6]
There is no direct evidence for catapults for this time/location. The aforementioned evidence we currently have covering the wider ancient world suggests they were probably not used at this time, perhaps because effective machines had not been invented yet.
[1]: Siegelova I. and H. Tsumoto (2011) Metals and Metallurgy in Hittite Anatolia, pp. 278 [In:] H. Genz and D. P. Mielke (ed.) Insights Into Hittite History And Archaeology, Colloquia Antiqua 2, Leuven, Paris, Walpole MA: PEETERS, pp. 275-300 [2]: (Singh 2008, 272) Upinder Singh. 2008. A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. Pearson Longman. Delhi. [3]: (Marsden 1969, 5, 16, 66.) Marsden, E. W. 1969. Greek and Roman Artillery: The Historical Development. Toronto: Oxford University Press. [4]: (Dandamaev 1989, 314) Dandamaev, M A. 1989. A Political History of the Achaemenid Empire. Brill. [5]: (Pollard and Berry 2012, 45) Pollard, N, Berry, J (2012) The Complete Roman Legions, Thames and Hudson, London Rives, J (2006) Religion in the Roman Empire, Wiley [6]: (Keyser and Irby-Massie 2006, 260) Paul T Keyser. Georgia Irby-Massie. Science, Medicine, And Technology. Glenn R Bugh. ed. 2006. The Cambridge Companion to the Hellenistic World. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. |
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Not invented yet
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Base camps with fortified walls are present, defending against animal or human attackers.
[1]
In Anatolia siege warfare was mentioned in Old Hittite records.
[2]
Presumably at this time the catapult was not used? In India, according to Jain texts, Ajatashatru, a 5th century BCE king of Magadha in North India, used a catapult "capable of hurling huge pieces of stone".
[3]
Marsden (1969) said archaeological records exist before the 4th century BCE.
[4]
The Achaemenids (c400 BCE?) are assumed to have had the catapult because the Macedonians did.
[5]
Pollard and Berry (2012) say torsion catapults first came into widespread use in the Hellenistic period 4th - 1st centuries BCE.
[6]
The Syracuse Greek Dionysios I invented a form of crossbow called the gastraphetes in 399 BCE which encouraged the development of large tension-powered weapons.
[7]
There is no direct evidence for catapults for this time/location. The aforementioned evidence we currently have covering the wider ancient world suggests they were probably not used at this time, perhaps because effective machines had not been invented yet.
[1]: (Leverani 2014, 39-42) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. [2]: Siegelova I. and H. Tsumoto (2011) Metals and Metallurgy in Hittite Anatolia, pp. 278 [In:] H. Genz and D. P. Mielke (ed.) Insights Into Hittite History And Archaeology, Colloquia Antiqua 2, Leuven, Paris, Walpole MA: PEETERS, pp. 275-300 [3]: (Singh 2008, 272) Upinder Singh. 2008. A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. Pearson Longman. Delhi. [4]: (Marsden 1969, 5, 16, 66.) Marsden, E. W. 1969. Greek and Roman Artillery: The Historical Development. Toronto: Oxford University Press. [5]: (Dandamaev 1989, 314) Dandamaev, M A. 1989. A Political History of the Achaemenid Empire. Brill. [6]: (Pollard and Berry 2012, 45) Pollard, N, Berry, J (2012) The Complete Roman Legions, Thames and Hudson, London Rives, J (2006) Religion in the Roman Empire, Wiley [7]: (Keyser and Irby-Massie 2006, 260) Paul T Keyser. Georgia Irby-Massie. Science, Medicine, And Technology. Glenn R Bugh. ed. 2006. The Cambridge Companion to the Hellenistic World. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. |
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Not invented yet
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Not invented yet
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Not invented yet
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Not invented yet
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Not invented yet
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||||||
|
In Anatolia siege warfare was mentioned in Old Hittite records.
[1]
Presumably at this time the catapult was not used? In India, according to Jain texts, Ajatashatru, a 5th century BCE king of Magadha in North India, used a catapult "capable of hurling huge pieces of stone".
[2]
Marsden (1969) said archaeological records exist before the 4th century BCE.
[3]
The Achaemenids (c400 BCE?) are assumed to have had the catapult because the Macedonians did.
[4]
Pollard and Berry (2012) say torsion catapults first came into widespread use in the Hellenistic period 4th - 1st centuries BCE.
[5]
The Syracuse Greek Dionysios I invented a form of crossbow called the gastraphetes in 399 BCE which encouraged the development of large tension-powered weapons.
[6]
There is no direct evidence for catapults for this time/location. The aforementioned evidence we currently have covering the wider ancient world suggests they were probably not used at this time, perhaps because effective machines had not been invented yet.
[1]: Siegelova I. and H. Tsumoto (2011) Metals and Metallurgy in Hittite Anatolia, pp. 278 [In:] H. Genz and D. P. Mielke (ed.) Insights Into Hittite History And Archaeology, Colloquia Antiqua 2, Leuven, Paris, Walpole MA: PEETERS, pp. 275-300 [2]: (Singh 2008, 272) Upinder Singh. 2008. A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. Pearson Longman. Delhi. [3]: (Marsden 1969, 5, 16, 66.) Marsden, E. W. 1969. Greek and Roman Artillery: The Historical Development. Toronto: Oxford University Press. [4]: (Dandamaev 1989, 314) Dandamaev, M A. 1989. A Political History of the Achaemenid Empire. Brill. [5]: (Pollard and Berry 2012, 45) Pollard, N, Berry, J (2012) The Complete Roman Legions, Thames and Hudson, London Rives, J (2006) Religion in the Roman Empire, Wiley [6]: (Keyser and Irby-Massie 2006, 260) Paul T Keyser. Georgia Irby-Massie. Science, Medicine, And Technology. Glenn R Bugh. ed. 2006. The Cambridge Companion to the Hellenistic World. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. |
||||||
|
In Anatolia siege warfare was mentioned in Old Hittite records.
[1]
Presumably at this time the catapult was not used? In India, according to Jain texts, Ajatashatru, a 5th century BCE king of Magadha in North India, used a catapult "capable of hurling huge pieces of stone".
[2]
Marsden (1969) said archaeological records exist before the 4th century BCE.
[3]
The Achaemenids (c400 BCE?) are assumed to have had the catapult because the Macedonians did.
[4]
Pollard and Berry (2012) say torsion catapults first came into widespread use in the Hellenistic period 4th - 1st centuries BCE.
[5]
The Syracuse Greek Dionysios I invented a form of crossbow called the gastraphetes in 399 BCE which encouraged the development of large tension-powered weapons.
[6]
There is no direct evidence for catapults for this time/location. The aforementioned evidence we currently have covering the wider ancient world suggests they were probably not used at this time, perhaps because effective machines had not been invented yet.
[1]: Siegelova I. and H. Tsumoto (2011) Metals and Metallurgy in Hittite Anatolia, pp. 278 [In:] H. Genz and D. P. Mielke (ed.) Insights Into Hittite History And Archaeology, Colloquia Antiqua 2, Leuven, Paris, Walpole MA: PEETERS, pp. 275-300 [2]: (Singh 2008, 272) Upinder Singh. 2008. A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. Pearson Longman. Delhi. [3]: (Marsden 1969, 5, 16, 66.) Marsden, E. W. 1969. Greek and Roman Artillery: The Historical Development. Toronto: Oxford University Press. [4]: (Dandamaev 1989, 314) Dandamaev, M A. 1989. A Political History of the Achaemenid Empire. Brill. [5]: (Pollard and Berry 2012, 45) Pollard, N, Berry, J (2012) The Complete Roman Legions, Thames and Hudson, London Rives, J (2006) Religion in the Roman Empire, Wiley [6]: (Keyser and Irby-Massie 2006, 260) Paul T Keyser. Georgia Irby-Massie. Science, Medicine, And Technology. Glenn R Bugh. ed. 2006. The Cambridge Companion to the Hellenistic World. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. |
||||||
|
In Anatolia siege warfare was mentioned in Old Hittite records.
[1]
Presumably at this time the catapult was not used? In India, according to Jain texts, Ajatashatru, a 5th century BCE king of Magadha in North India, used a catapult "capable of hurling huge pieces of stone".
[2]
Marsden (1969) said archaeological records exist before the 4th century BCE.
[3]
The Achaemenids (c400 BCE?) are assumed to have had the catapult because the Macedonians did.
[4]
Pollard and Berry (2012) say torsion catapults first came into widespread use in the Hellenistic period 4th - 1st centuries BCE.
[5]
The Syracuse Greek Dionysios I invented a form of crossbow called the gastraphetes in 399 BCE which encouraged the development of large tension-powered weapons.
[6]
There is no direct evidence for catapults for this time/location. The aforementioned evidence we currently have covering the wider ancient world suggests they were probably not used at this time, perhaps because effective machines had not been invented yet.
[1]: Siegelova I. and H. Tsumoto (2011) Metals and Metallurgy in Hittite Anatolia, pp. 278 [In:] H. Genz and D. P. Mielke (ed.) Insights Into Hittite History And Archaeology, Colloquia Antiqua 2, Leuven, Paris, Walpole MA: PEETERS, pp. 275-300 [2]: (Singh 2008, 272) Upinder Singh. 2008. A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. Pearson Longman. Delhi. [3]: (Marsden 1969, 5, 16, 66.) Marsden, E. W. 1969. Greek and Roman Artillery: The Historical Development. Toronto: Oxford University Press. [4]: (Dandamaev 1989, 314) Dandamaev, M A. 1989. A Political History of the Achaemenid Empire. Brill. [5]: (Pollard and Berry 2012, 45) Pollard, N, Berry, J (2012) The Complete Roman Legions, Thames and Hudson, London Rives, J (2006) Religion in the Roman Empire, Wiley [6]: (Keyser and Irby-Massie 2006, 260) Paul T Keyser. Georgia Irby-Massie. Science, Medicine, And Technology. Glenn R Bugh. ed. 2006. The Cambridge Companion to the Hellenistic World. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. |
||||||
|
In Anatolia siege warfare was mentioned in Old Hittite records.
[1]
Presumably at this time the catapult was not used? In India, according to Jain texts, Ajatashatru, a 5th century BCE king of Magadha in North India, used a catapult "capable of hurling huge pieces of stone".
[2]
Marsden (1969) said archaeological records exist before the 4th century BCE.
[3]
The Achaemenids (c400 BCE?) are assumed to have had the catapult because the Macedonians did.
[4]
Pollard and Berry (2012) say torsion catapults first came into widespread use in the Hellenistic period 4th - 1st centuries BCE.
[5]
The Syracuse Greek Dionysios I invented a form of crossbow called the gastraphetes in 399 BCE which encouraged the development of large tension-powered weapons.
[6]
There is no direct evidence for catapults for this time/location. The aforementioned evidence we currently have covering the wider ancient world suggests they were probably not used at this time, perhaps because effective machines had not been invented yet.
[1]: Siegelova I. and H. Tsumoto (2011) Metals and Metallurgy in Hittite Anatolia, pp. 278 [In:] H. Genz and D. P. Mielke (ed.) Insights Into Hittite History And Archaeology, Colloquia Antiqua 2, Leuven, Paris, Walpole MA: PEETERS, pp. 275-300 [2]: (Singh 2008, 272) Upinder Singh. 2008. A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. Pearson Longman. Delhi. [3]: (Marsden 1969, 5, 16, 66.) Marsden, E. W. 1969. Greek and Roman Artillery: The Historical Development. Toronto: Oxford University Press. [4]: (Dandamaev 1989, 314) Dandamaev, M A. 1989. A Political History of the Achaemenid Empire. Brill. [5]: (Pollard and Berry 2012, 45) Pollard, N, Berry, J (2012) The Complete Roman Legions, Thames and Hudson, London Rives, J (2006) Religion in the Roman Empire, Wiley [6]: (Keyser and Irby-Massie 2006, 260) Paul T Keyser. Georgia Irby-Massie. Science, Medicine, And Technology. Glenn R Bugh. ed. 2006. The Cambridge Companion to the Hellenistic World. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. |
||||||
|
In Anatolia siege warfare was mentioned in Old Hittite records.
[1]
Presumably at this time the catapult was not used? In India, according to Jain texts, Ajatashatru, a 5th century BCE king of Magadha in North India, used a catapult "capable of hurling huge pieces of stone".
[2]
Marsden (1969) said archaeological records exist before the 4th century BCE.
[3]
The Achaemenids (c400 BCE?) are assumed to have had the catapult because the Macedonians did.
[4]
Pollard and Berry (2012) say torsion catapults first came into widespread use in the Hellenistic period 4th - 1st centuries BCE.
[5]
The Syracuse Greek Dionysios I invented a form of crossbow called the gastraphetes in 399 BCE which encouraged the development of large tension-powered weapons.
[6]
There is no direct evidence for catapults for this time/location. The aforementioned evidence we currently have covering the wider ancient world suggests they were probably not used at this time, perhaps because effective machines had not been invented yet.
[1]: Siegelova I. and H. Tsumoto (2011) Metals and Metallurgy in Hittite Anatolia, pp. 278 [In:] H. Genz and D. P. Mielke (ed.) Insights Into Hittite History And Archaeology, Colloquia Antiqua 2, Leuven, Paris, Walpole MA: PEETERS, pp. 275-300 [2]: (Singh 2008, 272) Upinder Singh. 2008. A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. Pearson Longman. Delhi. [3]: (Marsden 1969, 5, 16, 66.) Marsden, E. W. 1969. Greek and Roman Artillery: The Historical Development. Toronto: Oxford University Press. [4]: (Dandamaev 1989, 314) Dandamaev, M A. 1989. A Political History of the Achaemenid Empire. Brill. [5]: (Pollard and Berry 2012, 45) Pollard, N, Berry, J (2012) The Complete Roman Legions, Thames and Hudson, London Rives, J (2006) Religion in the Roman Empire, Wiley [6]: (Keyser and Irby-Massie 2006, 260) Paul T Keyser. Georgia Irby-Massie. Science, Medicine, And Technology. Glenn R Bugh. ed. 2006. The Cambridge Companion to the Hellenistic World. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. |
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|
Not invented yet
|
||||||
|
In Anatolia siege warfare was mentioned in Old Hittite records.
[1]
Presumably at this time the catapult was not used? In India, according to Jain texts, Ajatashatru, a 5th century BCE king of Magadha in North India, used a catapult "capable of hurling huge pieces of stone".
[2]
Marsden (1969) said archaeological records exist before the 4th century BCE.
[3]
The Achaemenids (c400 BCE?) are assumed to have had the catapult because the Macedonians did.
[4]
Pollard and Berry (2012) say torsion catapults first came into widespread use in the Hellenistic period 4th - 1st centuries BCE.
[5]
The Syracuse Greek Dionysios I invented a form of crossbow called the gastraphetes in 399 BCE which encouraged the development of large tension-powered weapons.
[6]
There is no direct evidence for catapults for this time/location. The aforementioned evidence we currently have covering the wider ancient world suggests they were probably not used at this time, perhaps because effective machines had not been invented yet.
[1]: Siegelova I. and H. Tsumoto (2011) Metals and Metallurgy in Hittite Anatolia, pp. 278 [In:] H. Genz and D. P. Mielke (ed.) Insights Into Hittite History And Archaeology, Colloquia Antiqua 2, Leuven, Paris, Walpole MA: PEETERS, pp. 275-300 [2]: (Singh 2008, 272) Upinder Singh. 2008. A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. Pearson Longman. Delhi. [3]: (Marsden 1969, 5, 16, 66.) Marsden, E. W. 1969. Greek and Roman Artillery: The Historical Development. Toronto: Oxford University Press. [4]: (Dandamaev 1989, 314) Dandamaev, M A. 1989. A Political History of the Achaemenid Empire. Brill. [5]: (Pollard and Berry 2012, 45) Pollard, N, Berry, J (2012) The Complete Roman Legions, Thames and Hudson, London Rives, J (2006) Religion in the Roman Empire, Wiley [6]: (Keyser and Irby-Massie 2006, 260) Paul T Keyser. Georgia Irby-Massie. Science, Medicine, And Technology. Glenn R Bugh. ed. 2006. The Cambridge Companion to the Hellenistic World. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. |
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In Anatolia siege warfare was mentioned in Old Hittite records.
[1]
Presumably at this time the catapult was not used? In India, according to Jain texts, Ajatashatru, a 5th century BCE king of Magadha in North India, used a catapult "capable of hurling huge pieces of stone".
[2]
Marsden (1969) said archaeological records exist before the 4th century BCE.
[3]
The Achaemenids (c400 BCE?) are assumed to have had the catapult because the Macedonians did.
[4]
Pollard and Berry (2012) say torsion catapults first came into widespread use in the Hellenistic period 4th - 1st centuries BCE.
[5]
The Syracuse Greek Dionysios I invented a form of crossbow called the gastraphetes in 399 BCE which encouraged the development of large tension-powered weapons.
[6]
There is no direct evidence for catapults for this time/location. The aforementioned evidence we currently have covering the wider ancient world suggests they were probably not used at this time, perhaps because effective machines had not been invented yet.
[1]: Siegelova I. and H. Tsumoto (2011) Metals and Metallurgy in Hittite Anatolia, pp. 278 [In:] H. Genz and D. P. Mielke (ed.) Insights Into Hittite History And Archaeology, Colloquia Antiqua 2, Leuven, Paris, Walpole MA: PEETERS, pp. 275-300 [2]: (Singh 2008, 272) Upinder Singh. 2008. A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. Pearson Longman. Delhi. [3]: (Marsden 1969, 5, 16, 66.) Marsden, E. W. 1969. Greek and Roman Artillery: The Historical Development. Toronto: Oxford University Press. [4]: (Dandamaev 1989, 314) Dandamaev, M A. 1989. A Political History of the Achaemenid Empire. Brill. [5]: (Pollard and Berry 2012, 45) Pollard, N, Berry, J (2012) The Complete Roman Legions, Thames and Hudson, London Rives, J (2006) Religion in the Roman Empire, Wiley [6]: (Keyser and Irby-Massie 2006, 260) Paul T Keyser. Georgia Irby-Massie. Science, Medicine, And Technology. Glenn R Bugh. ed. 2006. The Cambridge Companion to the Hellenistic World. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. |
||||||
|
Base camps with fortified walls are present, defending against animal or human attackers.
[1]
In Anatolia siege warfare was mentioned in Old Hittite records.
[2]
Presumably at this time the catapult was not used? In India, according to Jain texts, Ajatashatru, a 5th century BCE king of Magadha in North India, used a catapult "capable of hurling huge pieces of stone".
[3]
Marsden (1969) said archaeological records exist before the 4th century BCE.
[4]
The Achaemenids (c400 BCE?) are assumed to have had the catapult because the Macedonians did.
[5]
Pollard and Berry (2012) say torsion catapults first came into widespread use in the Hellenistic period 4th - 1st centuries BCE.
[6]
The Syracuse Greek Dionysios I invented a form of crossbow called the gastraphetes in 399 BCE which encouraged the development of large tension-powered weapons.
[7]
There is no direct evidence for catapults for this time/location. The aforementioned evidence we currently have covering the wider ancient world suggests they were probably not used at this time, perhaps because effective machines had not been invented yet.
[1]: (Leverani 2014, 39-42) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. [2]: Siegelova I. and H. Tsumoto (2011) Metals and Metallurgy in Hittite Anatolia, pp. 278 [In:] H. Genz and D. P. Mielke (ed.) Insights Into Hittite History And Archaeology, Colloquia Antiqua 2, Leuven, Paris, Walpole MA: PEETERS, pp. 275-300 [3]: (Singh 2008, 272) Upinder Singh. 2008. A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. Pearson Longman. Delhi. [4]: (Marsden 1969, 5, 16, 66.) Marsden, E. W. 1969. Greek and Roman Artillery: The Historical Development. Toronto: Oxford University Press. [5]: (Dandamaev 1989, 314) Dandamaev, M A. 1989. A Political History of the Achaemenid Empire. Brill. [6]: (Pollard and Berry 2012, 45) Pollard, N, Berry, J (2012) The Complete Roman Legions, Thames and Hudson, London Rives, J (2006) Religion in the Roman Empire, Wiley [7]: (Keyser and Irby-Massie 2006, 260) Paul T Keyser. Georgia Irby-Massie. Science, Medicine, And Technology. Glenn R Bugh. ed. 2006. The Cambridge Companion to the Hellenistic World. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. |
||||||
|
Base camps with fortified walls are present, defending against animal or human attackers.
[1]
In Anatolia siege warfare was mentioned in Old Hittite records.
[2]
Presumably at this time the catapult was not used? In India, according to Jain texts, Ajatashatru, a 5th century BCE king of Magadha in North India, used a catapult "capable of hurling huge pieces of stone".
[3]
Marsden (1969) said archaeological records exist before the 4th century BCE.
[4]
The Achaemenids (c400 BCE?) are assumed to have had the catapult because the Macedonians did.
[5]
Pollard and Berry (2012) say torsion catapults first came into widespread use in the Hellenistic period 4th - 1st centuries BCE.
[6]
The Syracuse Greek Dionysios I invented a form of crossbow called the gastraphetes in 399 BCE which encouraged the development of large tension-powered weapons.
[7]
There is no direct evidence for catapults for this time/location. The aforementioned evidence we currently have covering the wider ancient world suggests they were probably not used at this time, perhaps because effective machines had not been invented yet.
[1]: (Leverani 2014, 39-42) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. [2]: Siegelova I. and H. Tsumoto (2011) Metals and Metallurgy in Hittite Anatolia, pp. 278 [In:] H. Genz and D. P. Mielke (ed.) Insights Into Hittite History And Archaeology, Colloquia Antiqua 2, Leuven, Paris, Walpole MA: PEETERS, pp. 275-300 [3]: (Singh 2008, 272) Upinder Singh. 2008. A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. Pearson Longman. Delhi. [4]: (Marsden 1969, 5, 16, 66.) Marsden, E. W. 1969. Greek and Roman Artillery: The Historical Development. Toronto: Oxford University Press. [5]: (Dandamaev 1989, 314) Dandamaev, M A. 1989. A Political History of the Achaemenid Empire. Brill. [6]: (Pollard and Berry 2012, 45) Pollard, N, Berry, J (2012) The Complete Roman Legions, Thames and Hudson, London Rives, J (2006) Religion in the Roman Empire, Wiley [7]: (Keyser and Irby-Massie 2006, 260) Paul T Keyser. Georgia Irby-Massie. Science, Medicine, And Technology. Glenn R Bugh. ed. 2006. The Cambridge Companion to the Hellenistic World. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. |
||||||
|
In Anatolia siege warfare was mentioned in Old Hittite records.
[1]
Presumably at this time the catapult was not used? In India, according to Jain texts, Ajatashatru, a 5th century BCE king of Magadha in North India, used a catapult "capable of hurling huge pieces of stone".
[2]
Marsden (1969) said archaeological records exist before the 4th century BCE.
[3]
The Achaemenids (c400 BCE?) are assumed to have had the catapult because the Macedonians did.
[4]
Pollard and Berry (2012) say torsion catapults first came into widespread use in the Hellenistic period 4th - 1st centuries BCE.
[5]
The Syracuse Greek Dionysios I invented a form of crossbow called the gastraphetes in 399 BCE which encouraged the development of large tension-powered weapons.
[6]
There is no direct evidence for catapults for this time/location. The aforementioned evidence we currently have covering the wider ancient world suggests they were probably not used at this time, perhaps because effective machines had not been invented yet.
[1]: Siegelova I. and H. Tsumoto (2011) Metals and Metallurgy in Hittite Anatolia, pp. 278 [In:] H. Genz and D. P. Mielke (ed.) Insights Into Hittite History And Archaeology, Colloquia Antiqua 2, Leuven, Paris, Walpole MA: PEETERS, pp. 275-300 [2]: (Singh 2008, 272) Upinder Singh. 2008. A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. Pearson Longman. Delhi. [3]: (Marsden 1969, 5, 16, 66.) Marsden, E. W. 1969. Greek and Roman Artillery: The Historical Development. Toronto: Oxford University Press. [4]: (Dandamaev 1989, 314) Dandamaev, M A. 1989. A Political History of the Achaemenid Empire. Brill. [5]: (Pollard and Berry 2012, 45) Pollard, N, Berry, J (2012) The Complete Roman Legions, Thames and Hudson, London Rives, J (2006) Religion in the Roman Empire, Wiley [6]: (Keyser and Irby-Massie 2006, 260) Paul T Keyser. Georgia Irby-Massie. Science, Medicine, And Technology. Glenn R Bugh. ed. 2006. The Cambridge Companion to the Hellenistic World. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. |
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|
Catapults, even if they no longer could bring down walls, could still be used to throw fire, diseased men or animals over walls. Don’t have access to enough of the following reference to know if the Papal States did this but certainly the technology was still available for use in some offensive capacity.
[1]
[1]: Michael Mallett (2009) Mercenaries and their Masters: Warfare in Renaissance Italy. Pen & Sword Military. Barnsley. |
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No archaeological evidence for this. Moreover, the scholarly consensus is that the Jomon were relatively peaceful.
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No archaeological evidence for this. Moreover, the scholarly consensus is that the Jomon were relatively peaceful.
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No archaeological evidence for this. Moreover, the scholarly consensus is that the Jomon were relatively peaceful.
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"unlike the crossbows that were used as anti-personnel weapons, there does not appear to be any record of trebuchet use in Japan, simply because the siege situation did not demand it."
[1]
‘it is not until 1468[CE] that we find an unambiguous reference to the use of traction trebuchets in Japan.’
[2]
[1]: (Turnball 2002) Turnball, S. 2002. Siege Weapons of the Far East (1): AD 612-1300. Osprey Publishing. [2]: Turnbull, Stephen. 2012. Siege Weapons of the Far East (1): AD 612-1300. Vol. 43. Osprey Publishing.p.23. |
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No references in the literature. RA.
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No references in the literature.
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No references in the literature.
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Inferred from the absence of tension sieges in previous and future polities in Niger Inland Delta.
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if they did not need to attack any permanent settlements there was no need for them to develop slow and cumbersome siege engines
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This technology is not known to have been developed anywhere in the Americas before European colonization.
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This technology is not known to have been developed anywhere in the Americas before European colonization.
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not mentioned in any of the sources that deal with weapons and armor
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not mentioned in any of the sources that deal with weapons and armor
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not yet developed
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Fatimid warships used Greek Fire and were "equipped with war machines such as the dabbabas and manganiqs (catapults).
[1]
[1]: (Vermeulen 2001, 54) Vermeulen, U. 2001, Egypt and Syria in the Fatimid, Ayyubid, and Mamluk Eras III: Proceedings of the 6th, 7th and 8th International Colloquium Organized at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in May 1997, 1998, and 1999. Peeters Publishers. |
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Not invented yet
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Not invented yet
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Not invented yet
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In Anatolia siege warfare was mentioned in Old Hittite records.
[1]
Presumably at this time the catapult was not used? In India, according to Jain texts, Ajatashatru, a 5th century BCE king of Magadha in North India, used a catapult "capable of hurling huge pieces of stone".
[2]
Marsden (1969) said archaeological records exist before the 4th century BCE.
[3]
The Achaemenids (c400 BCE?) are assumed to have had the catapult because the Macedonians did.
[4]
Pollard and Berry (2012) say torsion catapults first came into widespread use in the Hellenistic period 4th - 1st centuries BCE.
[5]
The Syracuse Greek Dionysios I invented a form of crossbow called the gastraphetes in 399 BCE which encouraged the development of large tension-powered weapons.
[6]
There is no direct evidence for catapults for this time/location. The aforementioned evidence we currently have covering the wider ancient world suggests they were probably not used at this time, perhaps because effective machines had not been invented yet.
[1]: Siegelova I. and H. Tsumoto (2011) Metals and Metallurgy in Hittite Anatolia, pp. 278 [In:] H. Genz and D. P. Mielke (ed.) Insights Into Hittite History And Archaeology, Colloquia Antiqua 2, Leuven, Paris, Walpole MA: PEETERS, pp. 275-300 [2]: (Singh 2008, 272) Upinder Singh. 2008. A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. Pearson Longman. Delhi. [3]: (Marsden 1969, 5, 16, 66.) Marsden, E. W. 1969. Greek and Roman Artillery: The Historical Development. Toronto: Oxford University Press. [4]: (Dandamaev 1989, 314) Dandamaev, M A. 1989. A Political History of the Achaemenid Empire. Brill. [5]: (Pollard and Berry 2012, 45) Pollard, N, Berry, J (2012) The Complete Roman Legions, Thames and Hudson, London Rives, J (2006) Religion in the Roman Empire, Wiley [6]: (Keyser and Irby-Massie 2006, 260) Paul T Keyser. Georgia Irby-Massie. Science, Medicine, And Technology. Glenn R Bugh. ed. 2006. The Cambridge Companion to the Hellenistic World. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. |
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Not invented yet
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Not invented yet
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Not invented yet
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||||||
|
In Anatolia siege warfare was mentioned in Old Hittite records.
[1]
Presumably at this time the catapult was not used? In India, according to Jain texts, Ajatashatru, a 5th century BCE king of Magadha in North India, used a catapult "capable of hurling huge pieces of stone".
[2]
Marsden (1969) said archaeological records exist before the 4th century BCE.
[3]
The Achaemenids (c400 BCE?) are assumed to have had the catapult because the Macedonians did.
[4]
Pollard and Berry (2012) say torsion catapults first came into widespread use in the Hellenistic period 4th - 1st centuries BCE.
[5]
The Syracuse Greek Dionysios I invented a form of crossbow called the gastraphetes in 399 BCE which encouraged the development of large tension-powered weapons.
[6]
There is no direct evidence for catapults for this time/location. The aforementioned evidence we currently have covering the wider ancient world suggests they were probably not used at this time, perhaps because effective machines had not been invented yet.
[1]: Siegelova I. and H. Tsumoto (2011) Metals and Metallurgy in Hittite Anatolia, pp. 278 [In:] H. Genz and D. P. Mielke (ed.) Insights Into Hittite History And Archaeology, Colloquia Antiqua 2, Leuven, Paris, Walpole MA: PEETERS, pp. 275-300 [2]: (Singh 2008, 272) Upinder Singh. 2008. A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. Pearson Longman. Delhi. [3]: (Marsden 1969, 5, 16, 66.) Marsden, E. W. 1969. Greek and Roman Artillery: The Historical Development. Toronto: Oxford University Press. [4]: (Dandamaev 1989, 314) Dandamaev, M A. 1989. A Political History of the Achaemenid Empire. Brill. [5]: (Pollard and Berry 2012, 45) Pollard, N, Berry, J (2012) The Complete Roman Legions, Thames and Hudson, London Rives, J (2006) Religion in the Roman Empire, Wiley [6]: (Keyser and Irby-Massie 2006, 260) Paul T Keyser. Georgia Irby-Massie. Science, Medicine, And Technology. Glenn R Bugh. ed. 2006. The Cambridge Companion to the Hellenistic World. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. |
||||||
|
In Anatolia siege warfare was mentioned in Old Hittite records.
[1]
Presumably at this time the catapult was not used? In India, according to Jain texts, Ajatashatru, a 5th century BCE king of Magadha in North India, used a catapult "capable of hurling huge pieces of stone".
[2]
Marsden (1969) said archaeological records exist before the 4th century BCE.
[3]
The Achaemenids (c400 BCE?) are assumed to have had the catapult because the Macedonians did.
[4]
Pollard and Berry (2012) say torsion catapults first came into widespread use in the Hellenistic period 4th - 1st centuries BCE.
[5]
The Syracuse Greek Dionysios I invented a form of crossbow called the gastraphetes in 399 BCE which encouraged the development of large tension-powered weapons.
[6]
There is no direct evidence for catapults for this time/location. The aforementioned evidence we currently have covering the wider ancient world suggests they were probably not used at this time, perhaps because effective machines had not been invented yet.
[1]: Siegelova I. and H. Tsumoto (2011) Metals and Metallurgy in Hittite Anatolia, pp. 278 [In:] H. Genz and D. P. Mielke (ed.) Insights Into Hittite History And Archaeology, Colloquia Antiqua 2, Leuven, Paris, Walpole MA: PEETERS, pp. 275-300 [2]: (Singh 2008, 272) Upinder Singh. 2008. A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. Pearson Longman. Delhi. [3]: (Marsden 1969, 5, 16, 66.) Marsden, E. W. 1969. Greek and Roman Artillery: The Historical Development. Toronto: Oxford University Press. [4]: (Dandamaev 1989, 314) Dandamaev, M A. 1989. A Political History of the Achaemenid Empire. Brill. [5]: (Pollard and Berry 2012, 45) Pollard, N, Berry, J (2012) The Complete Roman Legions, Thames and Hudson, London Rives, J (2006) Religion in the Roman Empire, Wiley [6]: (Keyser and Irby-Massie 2006, 260) Paul T Keyser. Georgia Irby-Massie. Science, Medicine, And Technology. Glenn R Bugh. ed. 2006. The Cambridge Companion to the Hellenistic World. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. |
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|
Present for the Abbasids, Ayyubids and Fatimids. Unknown for the Seljuks.
|
||||||
|
In Anatolia siege warfare was mentioned in Old Hittite records.
[1]
Presumably at this time the catapult was not used? In India, according to Jain texts, Ajatashatru, a 5th century BCE king of Magadha in North India, used a catapult "capable of hurling huge pieces of stone".
[2]
Marsden (1969) said archaeological records exist before the 4th century BCE.
[3]
The Achaemenids (c400 BCE?) are assumed to have had the catapult because the Macedonians did.
[4]
Pollard and Berry (2012) say torsion catapults first came into widespread use in the Hellenistic period 4th - 1st centuries BCE.
[5]
The Syracuse Greek Dionysios I invented a form of crossbow called the gastraphetes in 399 BCE which encouraged the development of large tension-powered weapons.
[6]
There is no direct evidence for catapults for this time/location. The aforementioned evidence we currently have covering the wider ancient world suggests they were probably not used at this time, perhaps because effective machines had not been invented yet.
[1]: Siegelova I. and H. Tsumoto (2011) Metals and Metallurgy in Hittite Anatolia, pp. 278 [In:] H. Genz and D. P. Mielke (ed.) Insights Into Hittite History And Archaeology, Colloquia Antiqua 2, Leuven, Paris, Walpole MA: PEETERS, pp. 275-300 [2]: (Singh 2008, 272) Upinder Singh. 2008. A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. Pearson Longman. Delhi. [3]: (Marsden 1969, 5, 16, 66.) Marsden, E. W. 1969. Greek and Roman Artillery: The Historical Development. Toronto: Oxford University Press. [4]: (Dandamaev 1989, 314) Dandamaev, M A. 1989. A Political History of the Achaemenid Empire. Brill. [5]: (Pollard and Berry 2012, 45) Pollard, N, Berry, J (2012) The Complete Roman Legions, Thames and Hudson, London Rives, J (2006) Religion in the Roman Empire, Wiley [6]: (Keyser and Irby-Massie 2006, 260) Paul T Keyser. Georgia Irby-Massie. Science, Medicine, And Technology. Glenn R Bugh. ed. 2006. The Cambridge Companion to the Hellenistic World. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. |
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|
"early versions of siege crossbows and traction trebuchets may be noted in the accounts of the wars of the Qin and Han dynasties, and appear in the early military writings associated with the name of Mo Zi."
[1]
"There were various grades of crossbow of different draw-weight. The heaviest required a pull of over 350lbs to cock them, and were suitable only for static positions, where they could be fixed on revolving mounts. Strong men capable of loading the larger weapons were known as chuch chang, and were highly valued specialists."
[2]
[1]: (Turnball 2002) Turnball, S. 2002. Siege Weapons of the Far East (1): AD 612-1300. Osprey Publishing. [2]: (Peers 1995, 16) |
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|
we need expert input in order to code this variable
|
||||||
|
"Han era scholars identify what seems to be an early Spring and Autumn period catapult called Hui used by the King of Zhou against the Duke of Zheng in 707 B.C."
[1]
siege-warfare in this period seems to have not involved specialized equipment / technology, more brute force and trickery by besieging armies
[2]
[1]: http://www.grandhistorian.com/chinesesiegewarfare/index-english12122007.html [2]: (Tin-bor Hui 2005) |
||||||
|
"‘the old type of trebuchet was really more convenient’, said the founder of the Ming dynasty in 1388. ‘If you have a hundred of these machines, then when you are ready to march, each wooden pole can be carried by only four men. Then when you reach your destination, you encircle the city, set them up, and start shooting.’"
[1]
[1]: (Turnball 2002) Turnball, S. 2002. Siege Weapons of the Far East (1): AD 612-1300. Osprey Publishing. |
||||||
|
Traction trebuchets. "A Tang dynasty description from 759 is very similar to that from Mo Zi, but includes references to ‘whirlwind trebuchets’ and ‘four-footed trebuchets’, two variations that are illustrated in the Wu Jing Zong Yao of 1044. The frame of the whirlwind trebuchet was a single vertical pole that could be rotated horizontally through 360 degrees, thus allowing a wide arc of fire for comparatively lightweight missiles. Another picture in the same source shows a whirlwind trebuchet mounted on a four-wheeled carriage, which would make it even more flexible."
[1]
"In 979 the Emperor T’ai-tsung ordered 800 to be built, and in 1126 at least 500 machines were present at the defence of K’aifeng alone."
[2]
catapults
[3]
[1]: (Turnball 2002) Turnball, S. 2002. Siege Weapons of the Far East (1): AD 612-1300. Osprey Publishing. [2]: (Peers 2002, 35) [3]: (Lorge 2005, 48) |
||||||
|
"As in earlier periods, sophisticated siege equipment was available, including artillery, towers and rams."
[1]
Traction trebuchets. "A Tang dynasty description from 759 is very similar to that from Mo Zi, but includes references to ‘whirlwind trebuchets’ and ‘four-footed trebuchets’, two variations that are illustrated in the Wu Jing Zong Yao of 1044. The frame of the whirlwind trebuchet was a single vertical pole that could be rotated horizontally through 360 degrees, thus allowing a wide arc of fire for comparatively lightweight missiles. Another picture in the same source shows a whirlwind trebuchet mounted on a four-wheeled carriage, which would make it even more flexible."
[2]
[1]: (Peers 2002, 17) [2]: (Turnball 2002) Turnball, S. 2002. Siege Weapons of the Far East (1): AD 612-1300. Osprey Publishing. |
||||||
|
"As in earlier periods, sophisticated siege equipment was available, including artillery, towers and rams."
[1]
Traction trebuchets. "A Tang dynasty description from 759 is very similar to that from Mo Zi, but includes references to ‘whirlwind trebuchets’ and ‘four-footed trebuchets’, two variations that are illustrated in the Wu Jing Zong Yao of 1044. The frame of the whirlwind trebuchet was a single vertical pole that could be rotated horizontally through 360 degrees, thus allowing a wide arc of fire for comparatively lightweight missiles. Another picture in the same source shows a whirlwind trebuchet mounted on a four-wheeled carriage, which would make it even more flexible."
[2]
[1]: (Peers 2002, 17) [2]: (Turnball 2002) Turnball, S. 2002. Siege Weapons of the Far East (1): AD 612-1300. Osprey Publishing. |
||||||
|
siege-warfare in this period seems to have not involved specialized equipment / technology, more brute force and trickery by besieging armies (cf. Tin-bor Hui 2005). However, "The Chinese traction trebuchet is at least as old as the siege crossbow and is also described in the Mo Zi writings."
[1]
[1]: (Turnball 2002) Turnball, S. 2002. Siege Weapons of the Far East (1): AD 612-1300. Osprey Publishing. |
||||||
|
"early versions of siege crossbows and traction trebuchets may be noted in the accounts of the wars of the Qin and Han dynasties, and appear in the early military writings associated with the name of Mo Zi."
[1]
"There were various grades of crossbow of different draw-weight. The heaviest required a pull of over 350lbs to cock them, and were suitable only for static positions, where they could be fixed on revolving mounts. Strong men capable of loading the larger weapons were known as chuch chang, and were highly valued specialists."
[2]
[1]: (Turnball 2002) Turnball, S. 2002. Siege Weapons of the Far East (1): AD 612-1300. Osprey Publishing. [2]: (Peers 1995, 16) |
||||||
|
No discussion in literature of this. In this case it is evidence of absence since this is in line with logical expectations for this late-complexity society.
|
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|
The Shuar constructed traps for defensive purposes: ’At intervals along the trails leading to the house strong saplings are bent back, attached with strings leading across the trail with trap releases. Spears are attached to these saplings so that when the string is stepped against, the sapling will react as a catapult, launching the spear into the body of the person releasing the trap. Deadfalls with pointed chonta sticks on the bottoms are dug at various strategic points. Frequently a trench with the bottom covered with chonta points in this fashion is dug entirely around the house. Great pains are taken to cover this naturally, so as to make its location difficult to detect. Loaded guns with strings attached to the triggers are also set up here and there along the trails in the manner of the spear-catapults."
[1]
These provisional traps do not constitute tension siege engines in the conventional sense of the term.
[1]: Stirling, Matthew Williams. 1938. “Historical And Ethnographical Material On The Jivaro Indians.”, 59 |
||||||
|
[NB: Traps involving spears under tension were used for defensive purposes but it is presumed that this does not qualify as a siege engine? See: "At intervals along the trails leading to the house strong saplings are bent back, attached with strings leading across the trail with trap releases. Spears are attached to these saplings so that when the string is stepped against, the sapling will react as a catapult, launching the spear into the body of the person releasing the trap. Deadfalls with pointed chonta sticks on the bottoms are dug at various strategic points. Frequently a trench with the bottom covered with chonta points in this fashion is dug entirely around the house. Great pains are taken to cover this naturally, so as to make its location difficult to detect. Loaded guns with strings attached to the triggers are also set up here and there along the trails in the manner of the spear-catapults."
[1]
]
[1]: Stirling, Matthew Williams. 1938. “Historical And Ethnographical Material On The Jivaro Indians.”, 59 |
||||||
|
traction trebuchets preceded counter-weight trebuchet - were they still in use?
|
||||||
|
not yet developed
|
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|
not yet developed
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|
Present for Abbasid Caliphate: Torsion engines in use in Arabic warfare in this period.
[1]
[2]
"A fragment of a wall painting depicting the use of a traction trebuchet at the siege of Penjikent (700-725) in modern Tajikistan. This unique painting is contemporary with Tang China, displaying how the traction trebuchet was used along the Silk Road."
[3]
[1]: (Kennedy 2001, 184 [2]: Kelly DeVries, ’siege engines’ in The Oxford Companion to Military History, Eds. Holmes, Singleton, and Jones Oxford University Press: 2001) [3]: (Turnball 2002) Turnball, S. 2002. Siege Weapons of the Far East (1): AD 612-1300. Osprey Publishing. |
||||||
|
Not mentioned in the literature. This is interpreted as evidence of absence because this is a culture of low complexity for warfare technology.
|
||||||
|
Not mentioned in the literature.
|
||||||
|
Cannon took over as the siege weapon. Had they eliminated other projectile machines by this time?
|
||||||
|
Cannon took over as the siege weapon. Had they eliminated other projectile machines by this time?
|
||||||
|
Motte and Bailey castles proliferated
[1]
so siege warfare no doubt increased in this period. Traction trebuchets preceded counter-weight trebuchets. "A drawing of a thirteenth-century stone carving at the Church of Saint-Nazaire in Carcassonne that is believed to depict the siege of Toulouse in 1218. It shows a traction trebuchet, and illustrates two important points. First, some of the hauliers (who include a woman in their number) are pulling horizontally, a method that is implied by Chinese illustrations. Second, there is apparently a heavy weight on the pulling end of the beam to assist the effort, thus showing the transition of the traction trebuchet toward the full counterweight version with no hauliers."
[2]
[1]: (Hallam and Everard 2014) Elizabeth M Hallam. Judith Everard. 2014. Capetian France 987-1328. Second Edition. Routledge. London. [2]: (Turnball 2002) Turnball, S. 2002. Siege Weapons of the Far East (1): AD 612-1300. Osprey Publishing. |
||||||
|
Not mentioned in the literature RA.
|
||||||
|
Present in Alexander’s army and successor states.
[1]
Inferred as the Bactrian Greeks were equipped in the tradition of the Macedonians.
[2]
[1]: Sekunda, Nick. The army of Alexander the Great. Edited by Angus McBride. No. 148. Osprey Publishing, 1984. [2]: Sekunda, Nick. The army of Alexander the Great. |
||||||
|
Traction trebuchets preceded counter-weight trebuchets. "A drawing of a thirteenth-century stone carving at the Church of Saint-Nazaire in Carcassonne that is believed to depict the siege of Toulouse in 1218. It shows a traction trebuchet, and illustrates two important points. First, some of the hauliers (who include a woman in their number) are pulling horizontally, a method that is implied by Chinese illustrations. Second, there is apparently a heavy weight on the pulling end of the beam to assist the effort, thus showing the transition of the traction trebuchet toward the full counterweight version with no hauliers."
[1]
[1]: (Turnball 2002) Turnball, S. 2002. Siege Weapons of the Far East (1): AD 612-1300. Osprey Publishing. |
||||||
|
I Maccabees reports (5:30) that the Maccabees captured siege engines (mekhanai in the Greek), which were later likely used in the siege of Jerusalem (6:20, 6:52). The text also describes the Jews making their own engines.
[1]
The tension catapult and ballista were well-known by that point, having been used for centuries by various Greek cities and especially by the Macedonian Empire.
[1]: Bar-Kokhva (1989:81). |
||||||
|
II Chronicles 26:15 records that King Uzziah of Judah commissioned defensive engines of some kind to be placed on the corner towers of Jerusalem, which could shoot "arrows and great stones," but the nature of such engines is unknown and there is no supporting evidence for them elsewhere.
|
||||||
|
According to Jaina texts, Ajatashatru, a 5th century BCE king of Magadha in North India, used a catapult "capable of hurling huge pieces of stone".
[1]
A military historian reports that ancient Indians had a weapon called the yantra that "may refer to a device for hurling stones and missiles at the enemy, but we have no information as to its design."
[2]
- what do specialist scholars of this period know about this? Ancient Indian armies had siege engines that could "fling stones and lead balls wrapped up in burning materials. The Mahabharata mentions an Asma-yantra (a stone-throwing machine) in the battle with Jarasandha and we have further records that such engines were used in later periods to set enemy fortifications alight and that ’liquid fires’ containing naphtha were in use in ancient India."
[3]
[1]: (Singh 2008, 272) Upinder Singh. 2008. A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. Pearson Longman. Delhi. [2]: (Gabriel 2007, 126-127) Richard A Gabriel. 2007. The Ancient World. Greenwood Publishing Group. Westport. [3]: (Forbes 1959, 88-89) Robert James Forbes. 1959. More studies in early petroleum history. Brill Archive. |
||||||
|
Ancient Indian armies had siege engines that could "fling stones and lead balls wrapped up in burning materials. The Mahabharata mentions an Asma-yantra (a stone-throwing machine) in the battle with Jarasandha and we have further records that such engines were used in later periods to set enemy fortifications alight and that ’liquid fires’ containing naphtha were in use in ancient India."
[1]
[1]: (Forbes 1959, 88-89) Robert James Forbes. 1959. More studies in early petroleum history. Brill Archive. |
||||||
|
According to Jaina texts, Ajatashatru, a 5th century BCE king of Magadha in North India, used a catapult "capable of hurling huge pieces of stone".
[1]
Ancient Indian armies had siege engines that could "fling stones and lead balls wrapped up in burning materials. The Mahabharata mentions an Asma-yantra (a stone-throwing machine) in the battle with Jarasandha and we have further records that such engines were used in later periods to set enemy fortifications alight and that ’liquid fires’ containing naphtha were in use in ancient India."
[2]
[1]: (Singh 2008, 272) Upinder Singh. 2008. A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. Pearson Longman. Delhi. [2]: (Forbes 1959, 88-89) Robert James Forbes. 1959. More studies in early petroleum history. Brill Archive. |
||||||
|
According to Jaina texts, Ajatashatru, a 5th century BCE king of Magadha in North India, used a catapult "capable of hurling huge pieces of stone".
[1]
Ancient Indian armies had siege engines that could "fling stones and lead balls wrapped up in burning materials. The Mahabharata mentions an Asma-yantra (a stone-throwing machine) in the battle with Jarasandha and we have further records that such engines were used in later periods to set enemy fortifications alight and that ’liquid fires’ containing naphtha were in use in ancient India."
[2]
[1]: (Singh 2008, 272) Upinder Singh. 2008. A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. Pearson Longman. Delhi. [2]: (Forbes 1959, 88-89) Robert James Forbes. 1959. More studies in early petroleum history. Brill Archive. |
||||||
|
NB: The following refers to a different era and place. According to Jaina texts, Ajatashatru, a 5th century BCE king of Magadha in North India, used a catapult "capable of hurling huge pieces of stone".
[1]
Ancient Indian armies had siege engines that could "fling stones and lead balls wrapped up in burning materials. The Mahabharata mentions an Asma-yantra (a stone-throwing machine) in the battle with Jarasandha and we have further records that such engines were used in later periods to set enemy fortifications alight and that ’liquid fires’ containing naphtha were in use in ancient India."
[2]
[1]: (Singh 2008, 272) Upinder Singh. 2008. A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. Pearson Longman. Delhi. [2]: (Forbes 1959, 88-89) Robert James Forbes. 1959. More studies in early petroleum history. Brill Archive. |
||||||
|
Ancient Indian armies had siege engines that could "fling stones and lead balls wrapped up in burning materials. The Mahabharata mentions an Asma-yantra (a stone-throwing machine) in the battle with Jarasandha and we have further records that such engines were used in later periods to set enemy fortifications alight and that ’liquid fires’ containing naphtha were in use in ancient India."
[1]
[1]: (Forbes 1959, 88-89) Robert James Forbes. 1959. More studies in early petroleum history. Brill Archive. |
||||||
|
Ancient Indian armies had siege engines that could "fling stones and lead balls wrapped up in burning materials. The Mahabharata mentions an Asma-yantra (a stone-throwing machine) in the battle with Jarasandha and we have further records that such engines were used in later periods to set enemy fortifications alight and that ’liquid fires’ containing naphtha were in use in ancient India."
[1]
[1]: (Forbes 1959, 88-89) Robert James Forbes. 1959. More studies in early petroleum history. Brill Archive. |
||||||
|
Ancient Indian armies had siege engines that could "fling stones and lead balls wrapped up in burning materials. The Mahabharata mentions an Asma-yantra (a stone-throwing machine) in the battle with Jarasandha and we have further records that such engines were used in later periods to set enemy fortifications alight and that ’liquid fires’ containing naphtha were in use in ancient India."
[1]
[1]: (Forbes 1959, 88-89) Robert James Forbes. 1959. More studies in early petroleum history. Brill Archive. |
||||||
|
According to Jaina texts, Ajatashatru, a 5th century BCE king of Magadha in North India, used a catapult "capable of hurling huge pieces of stone".
[1]
Ancient Indian armies had siege engines that could "fling stones and lead balls wrapped up in burning materials. The Mahabharata mentions an Asma-yantra (a stone-throwing machine) in the battle with Jarasandha and we have further records that such engines were used in later periods to set enemy fortifications alight and that ’liquid fires’ containing naphtha were in use in ancient India."
[2]
[1]: (Singh 2008, 272) Upinder Singh. 2008. A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. Pearson Longman. Delhi. [2]: (Forbes 1959, 88-89) Robert James Forbes. 1959. More studies in early petroleum history. Brill Archive. |
||||||
|
Ancient Indian armies had siege engines that could "fling stones and lead balls wrapped up in burning materials. The Mahabharata mentions an Asma-yantra (a stone-throwing machine) in the battle with Jarasandha and we have further records that such engines were used in later periods to set enemy fortifications alight and that ’liquid fires’ containing naphtha were in use in ancient India."
[1]
[1]: (Forbes 1959, 88-89) Robert James Forbes. 1959. More studies in early petroleum history. Brill Archive. |
||||||
|
According to a military historian (this needs confirmation from a Mauryan specialist): "By the Mauryan period the Indians possessed most of the ancient world’s siege and artillery equipment including catapults, ballistas, battering rams, and other siege engines."
[1]
Kautilya’s Arthashastra mentions machines (Book II, The Duties of Government Superintendents") both immoveable machines (sthirayantram): Sarvatobhadra, jamadagnya, bahumukha, visvasaghati, samghati, yanaka, parjanyaka, ardhabahu and urdhvabahu; and moveable machines: Panchalika, devadanda, sukarika, musala, yashti, hastivaraka, talavrinta, mudgara, gada, spriktala, kuddala, asphatima, audhghatima, sataghni, trisula and chakra.
[1]: (Gabriel 2002, 220) Gabriel, Richard A. 2002. The Great Armies of Antiquity. Greenwood Publishing Group. |
||||||
|
"Aside from the massive cannon and mortars, a number of more old-fashioned weapons were also present at sieges. Catapults and trebuchets remained in Indian siege trains for decades after Babur’s invasion. A few distinct advantages saved them from immediate obsolescence. They were inexpensive and could be easily broken down for transport and assembled in the field. Like mortars they sent missiles on a high trajectory, ideal for indirect fire. They could also be loaded with ammunition too fragile to be fired from a cannon—gunpowder bombs and canisters of incendiary or caustic chemicals."
[1]
[1]: (De la Garza 2010, p. 123) |
||||||
|
Ancient Indian armies had siege engines that could "fling stones and lead balls wrapped up in burning materials. The Mahabharata mentions an Asma-yantra (a stone-throwing machine) in the battle with Jarasandha and we have further records that such engines were used in later periods to set enemy fortifications alight and that ’liquid fires’ containing naphtha were in use in ancient India."
[1]
[1]: (Forbes 1959, 88-89) Robert James Forbes. 1959. More studies in early petroleum history. Brill Archive. |
||||||
|
According to Jaina texts, Ajatashatru, a 5th century BCE king of Magadha in North India, used a catapult "capable of hurling huge pieces of stone".
[1]
A military historian states that ancient Indians had a weapon called the yantra that "may refer to a device for hurling stones and missiles at the enemy, but we have no information as to its design."
[2]
- do ancient Indian specialists agree? Ancient Indian armies had siege engines that could "fling stones and lead balls wrapped up in burning materials. The Mahabharata mentions an Asma-yantra (a stone-throwing machine) in the battle with Jarasandha and we have further records that such engines were used in later periods to set enemy fortifications alight and that ’liquid fires’ containing naphtha were in use in ancient India."
[3]
[1]: (Singh 2008, 272) Upinder Singh. 2008. A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. Pearson Longman. Delhi. [2]: (Gabriel 2007, 126-127) Richard A Gabriel. 2007. The Ancient World. Greenwood Publishing Group. Westport. [3]: (Forbes 1959, 88-89) Robert James Forbes. 1959. More studies in early petroleum history. Brill Archive. |
||||||
|
Inferred, tension engines being used in this period in the region.
[1]
"The use of the catapult after the Arab conquest of Sindh became very popular."
[2]
[1]: Kennedy, The Armies of the Caliphs p. 184 [2]: (1975, 23) 1975. Journal of the Research Society of Pakistan, Volume 12. Research Society of Pakistan. |
||||||
|
According to Jaina texts, Ajatashatru, a 5th century BCE king of Magadha in North India, used a catapult "capable of hurling huge pieces of stone".
[1]
Ancient Indian armies had siege engines that could "fling stones and lead balls wrapped up in burning materials. The Mahabharata mentions an Asma-yantra (a stone-throwing machine) in the battle with Jarasandha and we have further records that such engines were used in later periods to set enemy fortifications alight and that ’liquid fires’ containing naphtha were in use in ancient India."
[2]
[1]: (Singh 2008, 272) Upinder Singh. 2008. A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. Pearson Longman. Delhi. [2]: (Forbes 1959, 88-89) Robert James Forbes. 1959. More studies in early petroleum history. Brill Archive. |
||||||
|
Torsion engines in use in Arabic warfare in this period.
[1]
[2]
"A fragment of a wall painting depicting the use of a traction trebuchet at the siege of Penjikent (700-725) in modern Tajikistan. This unique painting is contemporary with Tang China, displaying how the traction trebuchet was used along the Silk Road."
[3]
[1]: (Kennedy 2001, 184 [2]: Kelly DeVries, ’siege engines’ in The Oxford Companion to Military History, Eds. Holmes, Singleton, and Jones Oxford University Press: 2001) [3]: (Turnball 2002) Turnball, S. 2002. Siege Weapons of the Far East (1): AD 612-1300. Osprey Publishing. |
||||||
|
The earlier Abbasids had the manjaniq, a swing beam engine similiar to the Western Trebuchet.
[1]
The Manjaniq was man-powered
[2]
not gravity powered.
[1]: Kennedy, The Armies of the Caliphs p. 184 [2]: (Nicolle 2003, 14) Nicolle, David. 2003. Medieval Siege Weapons (2): Byzantium, the Islamic World and India AD 476-1526. Osprey Publishing. |
||||||
|
The Babylonian Chronicles detail the fall of Assyria. They state that the king of Akkad (Babylonia) bought siege engines against the city of Rahilu, but it does not specify what kind of siege engine.
[1]
[1]: Liverani, M. 2011. The Ancient Near East: History, Society and Economy. London: Routledge. p.538 |
||||||
|
The Babylonian Chronicles detail the fall of Assyria. They state that the king of Akkad (Babylonia) bought siege engines against the city of Rahilu, but it does not specify what kind of siege engine.
[1]
[1]: Liverani, M. 2011. The Ancient Near East: History, Society and Economy. London: Routledge. p.538 |
||||||
|
There are no archaeological records regarding the invention of this machine before 4th century BC
[1]
This type of engine is known from ancient time, and the first evidence came from 4th century BC.
[2]
< The sling siege engine our variable refers to is the gravity powered one probably first used in the Middle Ages so I guess this quote belongs here instead.
[1]: Marsden 1969, 5, 16, 66. [2]: Campbel 2003,3, 8. |
||||||
|
"The weapons used in the military forces of the Anatolian Principalities were bow and arrow, sword, shield, javelin, dagger, club, axe, catapult and arrade."
[1]
[1]: (1994, 365) Ibrahim Kafesoglu. Ahmet Edip Uysal. Erdogan Mercil. Hidayet Yavuz Nuhoglu. 1994. A short history of Turkish-Islamic states (excluding the Ottoman state). Turkish Historical Society Printing House. |
||||||
|
In Anatolia siege warfare was mentioned in Old Hittite records.
[1]
Presumably at this time the catapult was not used? In India, according to Jain texts, Ajatashatru, a 5th century BCE king of Magadha in North India, used a catapult "capable of hurling huge pieces of stone".
[2]
Marsden (1969) said archaeological records exist before the 4th century BCE.
[3]
The Achaemenids (c400 BCE?) are assumed to have had the catapult because the Macedonians did.
[4]
Pollard and Berry (2012) say torsion catapults first came into widespread use in the Hellenistic period 4th - 1st centuries BCE.
[5]
The Syracuse Greek Dionysios I invented a form of crossbow called the gastraphetes in 399 BCE which encouraged the development of large tension-powered weapons.
[6]
There is no direct evidence for catapults for this time/location. The aforementioned evidence we currently have covering the wider ancient world suggests they were probably not used at this time, perhaps because effective machines had not been invented yet.
[1]: Siegelova I. and H. Tsumoto (2011) Metals and Metallurgy in Hittite Anatolia, pp. 278 [In:] H. Genz and D. P. Mielke (ed.) Insights Into Hittite History And Archaeology, Colloquia Antiqua 2, Leuven, Paris, Walpole MA: PEETERS, pp. 275-300 [2]: (Singh 2008, 272) Upinder Singh. 2008. A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. Pearson Longman. Delhi. [3]: (Marsden 1969, 5, 16, 66.) Marsden, E. W. 1969. Greek and Roman Artillery: The Historical Development. Toronto: Oxford University Press. [4]: (Dandamaev 1989, 314) Dandamaev, M A. 1989. A Political History of the Achaemenid Empire. Brill. [5]: (Pollard and Berry 2012, 45) Pollard, N, Berry, J (2012) The Complete Roman Legions, Thames and Hudson, London Rives, J (2006) Religion in the Roman Empire, Wiley [6]: (Keyser and Irby-Massie 2006, 260) Paul T Keyser. Georgia Irby-Massie. Science, Medicine, And Technology. Glenn R Bugh. ed. 2006. The Cambridge Companion to the Hellenistic World. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. |
||||||
|
Not for the Parthians: "the Parthians were not skilled nor equipped for sieges".
[1]
Suspected unknown for the earlier Seleucids: "The only evidence for any knowledge of the use of siege engines East of the Roman frontier comes from Vani in Georgia where ballista shot of various calibres were found."
[2]
[1]: (Farrokh 2007, 139) Farrokh, Kaveh. 2007. Shadows in the Desert: Ancient Persia at War. Osprey Publishing. [2]: (Raschke 1976, 819) Raschke, Manfred G. in Haase, Wolfgang ed. 1976. Politische Geschichte (Provinzen und Randvölker: Mesopotamien, Armenien, Iran, Südarabien, Rom und der Ferne Osten). Walter de Gruyter. |
||||||
|
In Anatolia siege warfare was mentioned in Old Hittite records.
[1]
Presumably at this time the catapult was not used? In India, according to Jain texts, Ajatashatru, a 5th century BCE king of Magadha in North India, used a catapult "capable of hurling huge pieces of stone".
[2]
Marsden (1969) said archaeological records exist before the 4th century BCE.
[3]
The Achaemenids (c400 BCE?) are assumed to have had the catapult because the Macedonians did.
[4]
Pollard and Berry (2012) say torsion catapults first came into widespread use in the Hellenistic period 4th - 1st centuries BCE.
[5]
The Syracuse Greek Dionysios I invented a form of crossbow called the gastraphetes in 399 BCE which encouraged the development of large tension-powered weapons.
[6]
There is no direct evidence for catapults for this time/location. The aforementioned evidence we currently have covering the wider ancient world suggests they were probably not used at this time, perhaps because effective machines had not been invented yet.
[1]: Siegelova I. and H. Tsumoto (2011) Metals and Metallurgy in Hittite Anatolia, pp. 278 [In:] H. Genz and D. P. Mielke (ed.) Insights Into Hittite History And Archaeology, Colloquia Antiqua 2, Leuven, Paris, Walpole MA: PEETERS, pp. 275-300 [2]: (Singh 2008, 272) Upinder Singh. 2008. A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. Pearson Longman. Delhi. [3]: (Marsden 1969, 5, 16, 66.) Marsden, E. W. 1969. Greek and Roman Artillery: The Historical Development. Toronto: Oxford University Press. [4]: (Dandamaev 1989, 314) Dandamaev, M A. 1989. A Political History of the Achaemenid Empire. Brill. [5]: (Pollard and Berry 2012, 45) Pollard, N, Berry, J (2012) The Complete Roman Legions, Thames and Hudson, London Rives, J (2006) Religion in the Roman Empire, Wiley [6]: (Keyser and Irby-Massie 2006, 260) Paul T Keyser. Georgia Irby-Massie. Science, Medicine, And Technology. Glenn R Bugh. ed. 2006. The Cambridge Companion to the Hellenistic World. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. |
||||||
|
"The only evidence for any knowledge of the use of siege engines East of the Roman frontier comes from Vani in Georgia where ballista shot of various calibres were found."
[1]
"the Parthians were not skilled nor equipped for sieges".
[2]
[1]: (Raschke 1976, 819) Raschke, Manfred G. in Haase, Wolfgang ed. 1976. Politische Geschichte (Provinzen und Randvölker: Mesopotamien, Armenien, Iran, Südarabien, Rom und der Ferne Osten). Walter de Gruyter. [2]: (Farrokh 2007, 139) Farrokh, Kaveh. 2007. Shadows in the Desert: Ancient Persia at War. Osprey Publishing. |
||||||
|
"The only evidence for any knowledge of the use of siege engines East of the Roman frontier comes from Vani in Georgia where ballista shot of various calibres were found."
[1]
"the Parthians were not skilled nor equipped for sieges".
[2]
[1]: (Raschke 1976, 819) Raschke, Manfred G. in Haase, Wolfgang ed. 1976. Politische Geschichte (Provinzen und Randvölker: Mesopotamien, Armenien, Iran, Südarabien, Rom und der Ferne Osten). Walter de Gruyter. [2]: (Farrokh 2007, 139) Farrokh, Kaveh. 2007. Shadows in the Desert: Ancient Persia at War. Osprey Publishing. |
||||||
|
"Adapting Roman methods, Sassanid siege technology advanced greatly between the first and sixth centuries. The Sassanians employed offensive siege weapons such as scorpions, ballistae, battering rams, and moving towers."
[1]
[1]: (Ward 2014, 31) Ward, S R. 2014. Immortal, Updated Edition: A Military History of Iran and Its Armed Forces. Georgetown University Press. |
||||||
|
"Adapting Roman methods, Sassanid siege technology advanced greatly between the first and sixth centuries. The Sassanians employed offensive siege weapons such as scorpions, ballistae, battering rams, and moving towers."
[1]
[1]: (Ward 2014, 31) Ward, S R. 2014. Immortal, Updated Edition: A Military History of Iran and Its Armed Forces. Georgetown University Press. |
||||||
|
"The only evidence for any knowledge of the use of siege engines East of the Roman frontier comes from Vani in Georgia where ballista shot of various calibres were found."
[1]
However, tension siege engines are coded as present in previous and subsequent periods.
[1]: (Raschke 1976, 819) Raschke, Manfred G. in Haase, Wolfgang ed. 1976. Politische Geschichte (Provinzen und Randvölker: Mesopotamien, Armenien, Iran, Südarabien, Rom und der Ferne Osten). Walter de Gruyter. |
||||||
|
"The dearth of illustrative material for the greater part of six centuries is largely due to the wanton destruction caused by two savage invasions from the east and only such finds as the stucco figures from Kara-shar [Central Asian warrior, eighth to tenth century] tell us that in all this period there had been little change."
[1]
[1]: (Robinson 1967) Robinson, H. Russell. 1967. Oriental Armour. Walker and Co. New York. |
||||||
|
In Anatolia siege warfare was mentioned in Old Hittite records.
[1]
Presumably at this time the catapult was not used? In India, according to Jain texts, Ajatashatru, a 5th century BCE king of Magadha in North India, used a catapult "capable of hurling huge pieces of stone".
[2]
Marsden (1969) said archaeological records exist before the 4th century BCE.
[3]
The Achaemenids (c400 BCE?) are assumed to have had the catapult because the Macedonians did.
[4]
Pollard and Berry (2012) say torsion catapults first came into widespread use in the Hellenistic period 4th - 1st centuries BCE.
[5]
The Syracuse Greek Dionysios I invented a form of crossbow called the gastraphetes in 399 BCE which encouraged the development of large tension-powered weapons.
[6]
There is no direct evidence for catapults for this time/location. The aforementioned evidence we currently have covering the wider ancient world suggests they were probably not used at this time, perhaps because effective machines had not been invented yet.
[1]: Siegelova I. and H. Tsumoto (2011) Metals and Metallurgy in Hittite Anatolia, pp. 278 [In:] H. Genz and D. P. Mielke (ed.) Insights Into Hittite History And Archaeology, Colloquia Antiqua 2, Leuven, Paris, Walpole MA: PEETERS, pp. 275-300 [2]: (Singh 2008, 272) Upinder Singh. 2008. A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. Pearson Longman. Delhi. [3]: (Marsden 1969, 5, 16, 66.) Marsden, E. W. 1969. Greek and Roman Artillery: The Historical Development. Toronto: Oxford University Press. [4]: (Dandamaev 1989, 314) Dandamaev, M A. 1989. A Political History of the Achaemenid Empire. Brill. [5]: (Pollard and Berry 2012, 45) Pollard, N, Berry, J (2012) The Complete Roman Legions, Thames and Hudson, London Rives, J (2006) Religion in the Roman Empire, Wiley [6]: (Keyser and Irby-Massie 2006, 260) Paul T Keyser. Georgia Irby-Massie. Science, Medicine, And Technology. Glenn R Bugh. ed. 2006. The Cambridge Companion to the Hellenistic World. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. |
||||||
|
Base camps with fortified walls are present, defending against animal or human attackers.
[1]
In Anatolia siege warfare was mentioned in Old Hittite records.
[2]
Presumably at this time the catapult was not used? In India, according to Jain texts, Ajatashatru, a 5th century BCE king of Magadha in North India, used a catapult "capable of hurling huge pieces of stone".
[3]
Marsden (1969) said archaeological records exist before the 4th century BCE.
[4]
The Achaemenids (c400 BCE?) are assumed to have had the catapult because the Macedonians did.
[5]
Pollard and Berry (2012) say torsion catapults first came into widespread use in the Hellenistic period 4th - 1st centuries BCE.
[6]
The Syracuse Greek Dionysios I invented a form of crossbow called the gastraphetes in 399 BCE which encouraged the development of large tension-powered weapons.
[7]
There is no direct evidence for catapults for this time/location. The aforementioned evidence we currently have covering the wider ancient world suggests they were probably not used at this time, perhaps because effective machines had not been invented yet.
[1]: (Leverani 2014, 39-42) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. [2]: Siegelova I. and H. Tsumoto (2011) Metals and Metallurgy in Hittite Anatolia, pp. 278 [In:] H. Genz and D. P. Mielke (ed.) Insights Into Hittite History And Archaeology, Colloquia Antiqua 2, Leuven, Paris, Walpole MA: PEETERS, pp. 275-300 [3]: (Singh 2008, 272) Upinder Singh. 2008. A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. Pearson Longman. Delhi. [4]: (Marsden 1969, 5, 16, 66.) Marsden, E. W. 1969. Greek and Roman Artillery: The Historical Development. Toronto: Oxford University Press. [5]: (Dandamaev 1989, 314) Dandamaev, M A. 1989. A Political History of the Achaemenid Empire. Brill. [6]: (Pollard and Berry 2012, 45) Pollard, N, Berry, J (2012) The Complete Roman Legions, Thames and Hudson, London Rives, J (2006) Religion in the Roman Empire, Wiley [7]: (Keyser and Irby-Massie 2006, 260) Paul T Keyser. Georgia Irby-Massie. Science, Medicine, And Technology. Glenn R Bugh. ed. 2006. The Cambridge Companion to the Hellenistic World. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. |
||||||
|
In Anatolia siege warfare was mentioned in Old Hittite records.
[1]
Presumably at this time the catapult was not used? In India, according to Jain texts, Ajatashatru, a 5th century BCE king of Magadha in North India, used a catapult "capable of hurling huge pieces of stone".
[2]
Marsden (1969) said archaeological records exist before the 4th century BCE.
[3]
The Achaemenids (c400 BCE?) are assumed to have had the catapult because the Macedonians did.
[4]
Pollard and Berry (2012) say torsion catapults first came into widespread use in the Hellenistic period 4th - 1st centuries BCE.
[5]
The Syracuse Greek Dionysios I invented a form of crossbow called the gastraphetes in 399 BCE which encouraged the development of large tension-powered weapons.
[6]
There is no direct evidence for catapults for this time/location. The aforementioned evidence we currently have covering the wider ancient world suggests they were probably not used at this time, perhaps because effective machines had not been invented yet.
[1]: Siegelova I. and H. Tsumoto (2011) Metals and Metallurgy in Hittite Anatolia, pp. 278 [In:] H. Genz and D. P. Mielke (ed.) Insights Into Hittite History And Archaeology, Colloquia Antiqua 2, Leuven, Paris, Walpole MA: PEETERS, pp. 275-300 [2]: (Singh 2008, 272) Upinder Singh. 2008. A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. Pearson Longman. Delhi. [3]: (Marsden 1969, 5, 16, 66.) Marsden, E. W. 1969. Greek and Roman Artillery: The Historical Development. Toronto: Oxford University Press. [4]: (Dandamaev 1989, 314) Dandamaev, M A. 1989. A Political History of the Achaemenid Empire. Brill. [5]: (Pollard and Berry 2012, 45) Pollard, N, Berry, J (2012) The Complete Roman Legions, Thames and Hudson, London Rives, J (2006) Religion in the Roman Empire, Wiley [6]: (Keyser and Irby-Massie 2006, 260) Paul T Keyser. Georgia Irby-Massie. Science, Medicine, And Technology. Glenn R Bugh. ed. 2006. The Cambridge Companion to the Hellenistic World. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. |
||||||
|
In Anatolia siege warfare was mentioned in Old Hittite records.
[1]
Presumably at this time the catapult was not used? In India, according to Jain texts, Ajatashatru, a 5th century BCE king of Magadha in North India, used a catapult "capable of hurling huge pieces of stone".
[2]
Marsden (1969) said archaeological records exist before the 4th century BCE.
[3]
The Achaemenids (c400 BCE?) are assumed to have had the catapult because the Macedonians did.
[4]
Pollard and Berry (2012) say torsion catapults first came into widespread use in the Hellenistic period 4th - 1st centuries BCE.
[5]
The Syracuse Greek Dionysios I invented a form of crossbow called the gastraphetes in 399 BCE which encouraged the development of large tension-powered weapons.
[6]
[1]: Siegelova I. and H. Tsumoto (2011) Metals and Metallurgy in Hittite Anatolia, pp. 278 [In:] H. Genz and D. P. Mielke (ed.) Insights Into Hittite History And Archaeology, Colloquia Antiqua 2, Leuven, Paris, Walpole MA: PEETERS, pp. 275-300 [2]: (Singh 2008, 272) Upinder Singh. 2008. A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. Pearson Longman. Delhi. [3]: (Marsden 1969, 5, 16, 66.) Marsden, E. W. 1969. Greek and Roman Artillery: The Historical Development. Toronto: Oxford University Press. [4]: (Dandamaev 1989, 314) Dandamaev, M A. 1989. A Political History of the Achaemenid Empire. Brill. [5]: (Pollard and Berry 2012, 45) Pollard, N, Berry, J (2012) The Complete Roman Legions, Thames and Hudson, London Rives, J (2006) Religion in the Roman Empire, Wiley [6]: (Keyser and Irby-Massie 2006, 260) Paul T Keyser. Georgia Irby-Massie. Science, Medicine, And Technology. Glenn R Bugh. ed. 2006. The Cambridge Companion to the Hellenistic World. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. |
||||||
|
Catapults could be used to throw fire, diseased men or animals over walls. Don’t have access to enough of the following reference to know if the Papal States did this but certainly the technology was still available for use in some offensive capacity.
[1]
The German Emperor Henry IV used catapults and other siege engines in his 1084 siege of Rome.
[2]
[1]: Michael Mallett (2009) Mercenaries and their Masters: Warfare in Renaissance Italy. Pen & Sword Military. Barnsley. [2]: Partner, 135 |
||||||
|
Catapults could be used to throw fire, diseased men or animals over walls. Don’t have access to enough of the following reference to know if the Papal States did this but certainly the technology was still available for use in some offensive capacity.
[1]
[1]: Michael Mallett (2009) Mercenaries and their Masters: Warfare in Renaissance Italy. Pen & Sword Military. Barnsley. |
||||||
|
Added by Ed: Catapults, even if they no longer could bring down walls, could still be used to throw fire, diseased men or animals over walls. Don’t have access to enough of the following reference to know if the Papal States did this but certainly the technology was still available for use in some offensive capacity.
[1]
Otherwise, entirely supplanted by the gunpowder artillery.
[1]: Michael Mallett (2009) Mercenaries and their Masters: Warfare in Renaissance Italy. Pen & Sword Military. Barnsley. |
||||||
|
Added by Ed: Catapults, even if they no longer could bring down walls, could still be used to throw fire, diseased men or animals over walls. Don’t have access to enough of the following reference to know if the Papal States did this but certainly the technology was still available for use in some offensive capacity.
[1]
Otherwise, entirely supplanted by the gunpowder artillery.
[1]: Michael Mallett (2009) Mercenaries and their Masters: Warfare in Renaissance Italy. Pen & Sword Military. Barnsley. |
||||||
|
"The celebrated exploits of Kusunoki Masa-shige made the Nanbokucho Wars (the ‘Wars Between the Courts’), which lasted until 1392, into something of a golden age of siege warfare in Japan. Yet, once again, these operations were conducted against isolated fortresses rather than walled towns, and, although the sieges of Akasaka and Chihaya involved certain siege machines that are compared in the Taiheiki to devices of Chinese origin, there is no specific mention of either catapults or crossbows. There are, however, several references in war reports and casualty lists to samurai being killed or wounded by stones. ... It may well be that the stones were simply dropped from the castle walls, an impression strengthened by the fact that so many of the victims were flag bearers, who traditionally would be the first to approach the enemy defences. It is not until 1468 that we find an unambiguous reference to the use of traction trebuchets in Japan."
[1]
‘sporadic accounts of stone-throwing catapults occur in the Japanese chronicals over the next two centuries [1400-1600s].’
[2]
[1]: (Turnball 2002) Turnball, S. 2002. Siege Weapons of the Far East (1): AD 612-1300. Osprey Publishing. [2]: Turnbull, Stephen. 2012. Siege Weapons of the Far East (1): AD 612-1300. Vol. 43. Osprey Publishing.p.23. |
||||||
|
In Anatolia siege warfare was mentioned in Old Hittite records.
[1]
Presumably at this time the catapult was not used? In India, according to Jain texts, Ajatashatru, a 5th century BCE king of Magadha in North India, used a catapult "capable of hurling huge pieces of stone".
[2]
Marsden (1969) said archaeological records exist before the 4th century BCE.
[3]
The Achaemenids (c400 BCE?) are assumed to have had the catapult because the Macedonians did.
[4]
Pollard and Berry (2012) say torsion catapults first came into widespread use in the Hellenistic period 4th - 1st centuries BCE.
[5]
The Syracuse Greek Dionysios I invented a form of crossbow called the gastraphetes in 399 BCE which encouraged the development of large tension-powered weapons.
[6]
[1]: Siegelova I. and H. Tsumoto (2011) Metals and Metallurgy in Hittite Anatolia, pp. 278 [In:] H. Genz and D. P. Mielke (ed.) Insights Into Hittite History And Archaeology, Colloquia Antiqua 2, Leuven, Paris, Walpole MA: PEETERS, pp. 275-300 [2]: (Singh 2008, 272) Upinder Singh. 2008. A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. Pearson Longman. Delhi. [3]: (Marsden 1969, 5, 16, 66.) Marsden, E. W. 1969. Greek and Roman Artillery: The Historical Development. Toronto: Oxford University Press. [4]: (Dandamaev 1989, 314) Dandamaev, M A. 1989. A Political History of the Achaemenid Empire. Brill. [5]: (Pollard and Berry 2012, 45) Pollard, N, Berry, J (2012) The Complete Roman Legions, Thames and Hudson, London Rives, J (2006) Religion in the Roman Empire, Wiley [6]: (Keyser and Irby-Massie 2006, 260) Paul T Keyser. Georgia Irby-Massie. Science, Medicine, And Technology. Glenn R Bugh. ed. 2006. The Cambridge Companion to the Hellenistic World. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. |
||||||
|
"The celebrated exploits of Kusunoki Masa-shige made the Nanbokucho Wars (the ‘Wars Between the Courts’), which lasted until 1392, into something of a golden age of siege warfare in Japan. Yet, once again, these operations were conducted against isolated fortresses rather than walled towns, and, although the sieges of Akasaka and Chihaya involved certain siege machines that are compared in the Taiheiki to devices of Chinese origin, there is no specific mention of either catapults or crossbows. There are, however, several references in war reports and casualty lists to samurai being killed or wounded by stones. ... It may well be that the stones were simply dropped from the castle walls, an impression strengthened by the fact that so many of the victims were flag bearers, who traditionally would be the first to approach the enemy defences. It is not until 1468 that we find an unambiguous reference to the use of traction trebuchets in Japan."
[1]
‘sporadic accounts of stone-throwing catapults occur in the Japanese chronicals over the next two centuries [1400-1600s].’
[2]
[1]: (Turnball 2002) Turnball, S. 2002. Siege Weapons of the Far East (1): AD 612-1300. Osprey Publishing. [2]: Turnbull, Stephen. 2012. Siege Weapons of the Far East (1): AD 612-1300. Vol. 43. Osprey Publishing.p.23. |
||||||
|
"unlike the crossbows that were used as anti-personnel weapons, there does not appear to be any record of trebuchet use in Japan, simply because the siege situation did not demand it."
[1]
‘it is not until 1468[CE] that we find an unambiguous reference to the use of traction trebuchets in Japan.’
[2]
[1]: (Turnball 2002) Turnball, S. 2002. Siege Weapons of the Far East (1): AD 612-1300. Osprey Publishing. [2]: Turnbull, Stephen. 2012. Siege Weapons of the Far East (1): AD 612-1300. Vol. 43. Osprey Publishing.p.23. |
||||||
|
"unlike the crossbows that were used as anti-personnel weapons, there does not appear to be any record of trebuchet use in Japan, simply because the siege situation did not demand it."
[1]
‘it is not until 1468[CE] that we find an unambiguous reference to the use of traction trebuchets in Japan.’
[2]
[1]: (Turnball 2002) Turnball, S. 2002. Siege Weapons of the Far East (1): AD 612-1300. Osprey Publishing. [2]: Turnbull, Stephen. 2012. Siege Weapons of the Far East (1): AD 612-1300. Vol. 43. Osprey Publishing.p.23. |
||||||
|
No archaeological evidence for this. Moreover, the scholarly consensus is that the Jomon were relatively peaceful.
|
||||||
|
No archaeological evidence for this. Moreover, the scholarly consensus is that the Jomon were relatively peaceful.
|
||||||
|
No archaeological evidence for this. Moreover, the scholarly consensus is that the Jomon were relatively peaceful.
|
||||||
|
Unless anti-personnel "siege crossbows" are counted. "unlike the crossbows that were used as anti-personnel weapons, there does not appear to be any record of trebuchet use in Japan, simply because the siege situation did not demand it."
[1]
‘it is not until 1468[CE] that we find an unambiguous reference to the use of traction trebuchets in Japan.’
[2]
[1]: (Turnball 2002) Turnball, S. 2002. Siege Weapons of the Far East (1): AD 612-1300. Osprey Publishing. [2]: Turnbull, Stephen. 2012. Siege Weapons of the Far East (1): AD 612-1300. Vol. 43. Osprey Publishing.p.23. |
||||||
|
"unlike the crossbows that were used as anti-personnel weapons, there does not appear to be any record of trebuchet use in Japan, simply because the siege situation did not demand it."
[1]
‘it is not until 1468[CE] that we find an unambiguous reference to the use of traction trebuchets in Japan.’
[2]
[1]: (Turnball 2002) Turnball, S. 2002. Siege Weapons of the Far East (1): AD 612-1300. Osprey Publishing. [2]: Turnbull, Stephen. 2012. Siege Weapons of the Far East (1): AD 612-1300. Vol. 43. Osprey Publishing.p.23. |
||||||
|
"unlike the crossbows that were used as anti-personnel weapons, there does not appear to be any record of trebuchet use in Japan, simply because the siege situation did not demand it."
[1]
‘it is not until 1468[CE] that we find an unambiguous reference to the use of traction trebuchets in Japan.’
[2]
[1]: (Turnball 2002) Turnball, S. 2002. Siege Weapons of the Far East (1): AD 612-1300. Osprey Publishing. [2]: Turnbull, Stephen. 2012. Siege Weapons of the Far East (1): AD 612-1300. Vol. 43. Osprey Publishing.p.23. |
||||||
|
"The traction trebuchet thus continued to be used in Japan long after it had been abandoned in China and the West. A final reference to the use of catapults concerns the siege of Osaka castle in 1614 where, Sadler tells us in The Maker of Modern Japan, the defenders installed ‘fire-projecting mangonels’, for which traction trebuchets may best be understood. As it was during this action that the Tokugawa besiegers bombarded the castle from a long distance using European cannon...."
[1]
[1]: (Turnball 2002) Turnball, S. 2002. Siege Weapons of the Far East (1): AD 612-1300. Osprey Publishing. |
||||||
|
Present in preceding and succeeding polities.
|
||||||
|
Inferred from the fact that tension siege engines do not feature among the "personal weapons" mentioned in Charney’s
[1]
comprehensive summary of Southeast Asian military technology and organisation between the early modern period and the nineteenth century, or indeed in his descriptions of sieges where the Thai were the attackers.
[1]: (Charney 2004) |
||||||
|
Not invented yet
|
||||||
|
The ballista. ’One type of contrivance, probably a ballista, is illustrated in the relief culture. Carried on elephant back or mounted on wheels, it is portrayed in the art of the Bayon and Banteay Chmar; it appears to be a double bow, operated by pulling back the rear bow.’
[1]
’This includes a ballista, mounted either on elephant back or on a wheeled vehicle that could be rolled onto the field of battle; it consisted of two opposed bows, worked by two men, and shot arrows with tremendous force. Michel Jacq-Hergoulac’h, the leading authority on Khmer warfare, believes it may have been of Chinese origin. Shield ’ramparts’ mounted on wheels are another innovation of Kayavarman’s VII’s reign.’ [2] ’But before we do this, to avoid repetition, we shall consider what was the technological level of this army, that is, what were the weapons it used, for, of course, contrary to what Zhou Daguan affirms, namely that the use of bows, arrows, ballistae, and breastplates was unknown to the Khmer army, it did in fact have these arms.’ [3] ’The rather later reliefs from banteay Chhmar and the Bayon show ballistae mounted on the backs of elephants. One man guided the elephant, and it took two to arm and fire the nallista. This technique was probably an innovation of the reign of Jayavarman VII and was, according to Mus (1929), derived from China through Cham intermediaries.’ [4] See Jacq-Hergoualc’h and Smithies (2007) pages 27 to 35 for a detailed description. [5] Catapults ’The permanent guard maintained at the capital was probably better. Relief sculpture portrays guards wearing helmets wrought with elaborate motifs; door guards wearing helmets wrought with elaborate motifs; door guardians carrying ceremonial weapons, their points protected by covers; sentinels carry lances, swords and shields. Ordinary soldiers carried lances in their right hands and shields in their left. The arsenal included sabres, swords, shields, broadswords, daggers, catapults and other contrivances.’ [1] [1]: (Mabbett and Chandler 1995, p.157) [2]: (Coe 2003, p. 186) [3]: (Jacq-Hergoualc’h and Smithies 2007, p. 13) [4]: (Higham 2014b, pp. 396-397) [5]: (Jacq-Hergoualc’h and Smithies 2007, pp. 27-35) |
||||||
|
Jacq-Hergoualc’h (2007 [1979]) discusses the royal army and its weapons examining the bas-reliefs of three temples: Angkor Wat, the Bayon, and Banteay Chhmar. The bas-reliefs of Agkor Wat depict the conquests of Suryavarman II (1113-c. 1150 CE), while those at the Bayon and Banteay Chhmar depict the conquests of Jayavarman VII (1181-c. 1218 CE). Thus, the detailed bas-reliefs of these three temples allows the scholar to examine Khmer military history spanning roughly one hundred years. Unfortunately, Jacq-Hergoualc’h does not make explicit (or quantify) the evolutionary changes over this time period. The earlier military technology at Angkor Wat depicts ’the most basic weapons, essentially lances, bows and arrows, and bucklers, sometimes in tandem with breastplates’ (Jacq-Hergoualc’h 2007: 173). As noted by Coe (2003: 186), ’[f]ar more sophisticated armament is to be seen on the Bayon and at Banteay Chhmar, especially among the infantry. This includes the ballista, mounted either on elephant back or on a wheeled vehicle that could be rolled onto the field of battle [...].’ According to Jacq-Hergoualc’h (2007: 35), none of these ’big machines’ are present on the bas-reliefs of Angkor Wat, the construction of which (c. 1113-1145 CE) pre-dates the great battles with the Chams during the reign of Jayavarman VII (beginning in c. 1181 CE). Furthermore, the emphasis on horses diminished and chariots were abandoned in favor of a more developed and elaborate corps of elephants surrounded by infantry.
|
||||||
|
The ballista. ’The rather later reliefs from banteay Chhmar and the Bayon show ballistae mounted on the backs of elephants. One man guided the elephant, and it took two to arm and fire the nallista. This technique was probably an innovation of the reign of Jayavarman VII and was, according to Mus (1929), derived from China through Cham intermediaries.’
[1]
’One type of contrivance, probably a ballista, is illustrated in the relief culture. Carried on elephant back or mounted on wheels, it is portrayed in the art of the Bayon and Banteay Chmar; it appears to be a double bow, operated by pulling back the rear bow.’
[2]
’This includes a ballista, mounted either on elephant back or on a wheeled vehicle that could be rolled onto the field of battle; it consisted of two opposed bows, worked by two men, and shot arrows with tremendous force. Michel Jacq-Hergoulac’h, the leading authority on Khmer warfare, believes it may have been of Chinese origin. Shield ’ramparts’ mounted on wheels are another innovation of Kayavarman’s VII’s reign.’
[3]
’But before we do this, to avoid repetition, we shall consider what was the technological level of this army, that is, what were the weapons it used, for, of course, contrary to what Zhou Daguan affirms, namely that the use of bows, arrows, ballistae, and breastplates was unknown to the Khmer army, it did in fact have these arms.’
[4]
See Jacq-Hergoualc’h and Smithies (2007) pages 27 to 35 for a detailed description. [5] [1]: (Higham 2014b, pp. 396-397) [2]: (Mabbett and Chandler 1995, p.157) [3]: (Coe 2003, p. 186) [4]: (Jacq-Hergoualc’h and Smithies 2007, p. 13) [5]: (Jacq-Hergoualc’h and Smithies 2007, pp. 27-35) |
||||||
|
The ballista. ’The rather later reliefs from banteay Chhmar and the Bayon show ballistae mounted on the backs of elephants. One man guided the elephant, and it took two to arm and fire the nallista. This technique was probably an innovation of the reign of Jayavarman VII and was, according to Mus (1929), derived from China through Cham intermediaries.’
[1]
’One type of contrivance, probably a ballista, is illustrated in the relief culture. Carried on elephant back or mounted on wheels, it is portrayed in the art of the Bayon and Banteay Chmar; it appears to be a double bow, operated by pulling back the rear bow.’
[2]
’This includes a ballista, mounted either on elephant back or on a wheeled vehicle that could be rolled onto the field of battle; it consisted of two opposed bows, worked by two men, and shot arrows with tremendous force. Michel Jacq-Hergoulac’h, the leading authority on Khmer warfare, believes it may have been of Chinese origin. Shield ’ramparts’ mounted on wheels are another innovation of Kayavarman’s VII’s reign.’
[3]
’But before we do this, to avoid repetition, we shall consider what was the technological level of this army, that is, what were the weapons it used, for, of course, contrary to what Zhou Daguan affirms, namely that the use of bows, arrows, ballistae, and breastplates was unknown to the Khmer army, it did in fact have these arms.’
[4]
See Jacq-Hergoualc’h and Smithies (2007) pages 27 to 35 for a detailed description. [5] [1]: (Higham 2014b, pp. 396-397) [2]: (Mabbett and Chandler 1995, p.157) [3]: (Coe 2003, p. 186) [4]: (Jacq-Hergoualc’h and Smithies 2007, p. 13) [5]: (Jacq-Hergoualc’h and Smithies 2007, pp. 27-35) |
||||||
|
"With the help of the Khitan and the Chinese they had taken into their army, as well as the Uighurs, the Mongols learned how to use siege machinery to capture cities."
[1]
"There were also misgivings about the troops’ training, particularly the Chinese units. In 1035 the armies were enjoined to supervise the regular training of their catapulteers, crossbowmen, archers, and swordsmen. In 1046 the emperor watched the exercises of Chinese troops while they practiced using catapults and bows, but serious concern about the inferior skills of the Chinese armies’ catapulteers and crossbowmen continued through the next reign. These were skills that were irrelevant to the Khitans’ traditional mobile cavalry warfare but essential to their warfare with their sedentary Chinese and Korean neighbors."
[2]
[1]: (Beckwith 2009, 186) [2]: (Twitchett, D.C. and K. Tietze. 1994. The Liao. In Franke, H. and D.C. Twitchett (eds) The Cambridge History of China Volume 6: Alien Regimes and Border States, 907-1368 pp. 43-153. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. P. 120) |
||||||
|
Catapults.
[1]
Mangonels used in siege warfare.
[2]
Mongols recruited 1, 000 Chinese catapult operators in 1253.
[3]
"The Mongols made extensive use of traction trebuchets during their campaigns in Korea, notably at the sieges of Kuju and Chukju."
[1]
[1]: (Turnball 2002) Turnball, S. 2002. Siege Weapons of the Far East (1): AD 612-1300. Osprey Publishing. [2]: David Nicolle, Arms and Armour of the Crusading Era, 1050-1350: Islam, Eastern Europe and Asia, rev. and updated ed (London : Mechanicsburg, Pa: Greenhill Books ; Stackpole Books, 1999). p.296 [3]: Findley, Carter V., The Turks in World History (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005),p.83. |
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|
The last Yuan emperor Toghon Temur returned to Mongolia and established the capital of his new Mongol state ("which extended from Manchuria to Kyrgystan") at Karakorum. At that time the MilTech codes would be the same as for the preceding Yuan China. Over the next decades the state lost territory and there was civil war at the start of the 15th century although in 1409 CE they still managed to rout a very large invading Ming army. The Ming attacked again but the Mongols were not conquered. Under an Oirat noble called Esen (1440-1455 CE) they invaded China in 1449 CE with 20,000 cavalry and captured the Ming emperor. In 1451 CE Esen overthrew the Mongol Khan but he wasn’t a direct descendent of Genghis Khan and was killed during a 1455 CE rebellion. His rule was followed by minor Khans who ruled a Mongolia in which the Khalkhas were one of three ’left-flank’ tumens (in addition to Chahars and Uriangqais). The state also had ’right-flank’ tumens (Ordos, Tumeds, Yunshebus) and the Oirats of western Mongolia. "These 6 tumens were major administrative units, often called ulus tumens (princedoms), comprising the 40 lesser tumens of the military-administrative type inherited from the Yuan period, each of which was reputedly composed of 10,000 cavalry troops ..."
[1]
The narrative suggests at least for 1400 CE and 1500 CE the army was cavalry based and in continuity with the preceding Yuan. The Yuan Dyansty is coded present for tension siege engines.
[1]: (Ishjamts 2003, 208-211) N Ishjamts. 2003. The Mongols. Chahryar Adle. Irfan Habib. Karl M Baipakov. eds. History Of Civilizations Of Central Asia. Volume V. Development in contrast: from the sixteenth to the mid-nineteenth century. UNESCO Publishing. Paris. |
||||||
|
Complex military technology was not present in the Valley of Oaxaca until after the Spanish conquest in the 1520s.
[1]
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
||||||
|
Although there is no information on the warfare of this period, it is highly unlikely the resources were available for this technology.
|
||||||
|
Although there is no information on the warfare of this period, it is highly unlikely the resources were available for this technology.
|
||||||
|
This technology is not known to have been developed anywhere in the Americas before European colonization.
|
||||||
|
Although there is no information on the warfare of this period, it is highly unlikely the resources were available for this technology.
|
||||||
|
This technology is not known to have been developed anywhere in the Americas before European colonization.
|
||||||
|
Torsion engines in use in Arabic warfare in this period.
[1]
[2]
"A fragment of a wall painting depicting the use of a traction trebuchet at the siege of Penjikent (700-725) in modern Tajikistan. This unique painting is contemporary with Tang China, displaying how the traction trebuchet was used along the Silk Road."
[3]
[1]: (Kennedy 2001, 184 [2]: Kelly DeVries, ’siege engines’ in The Oxford Companion to Military History, Eds. Holmes, Singleton, and Jones Oxford University Press: 2001) [3]: (Turnball 2002) Turnball, S. 2002. Siege Weapons of the Far East (1): AD 612-1300. Osprey Publishing. |
||||||
|
Tension siege engines do not feature among the "personal weapons" mentioned in Charney’s
[1]
comprehensive summary of Southeast Asian military technology and organisation between the early modern period and the nineteenth century, or indeed in his descriptions of sieges where the Thai were the attackers. However, previous polity did have tension siege engines.
[1]: (Charney 2004) |
||||||
|
Siege warfare is attested in Old Hittite written records.
[1]
. In Anatolia siege warfare was mentioned in Old Hittite records.
[2]
Presumably at this time the catapult was not used? In India, according to Jain texts, Ajatashatru, a 5th century BCE king of Magadha in North India, used a catapult "capable of hurling huge pieces of stone".
[3]
Marsden (1969) said archaeological records exist before the 4th century BCE.
[4]
The Achaemenids (c400 BCE?) are assumed to have had the catapult because the Macedonians did.
[5]
Pollard and Berry (2012) say torsion catapults first came into widespread use in the Hellenistic period 4th - 1st centuries BCE.
[6]
The Syracuse Greek Dionysios I invented a form of crossbow called the gastraphetes in 399 BCE which encouraged the development of large tension-powered weapons.
[7]
There is no direct evidence for catapults for this time/location. The aforementioned evidence we currently have covering the wider ancient world suggests they were probably not used at this time, perhaps because effective machines had not been invented yet.
[1]: Lorenz J. and I. Schrakamp (2011) Hittite Military and Warfare, pp. 144 [In:] H. Genz and D. P. Mielke (ed.) Insights Into Hittite History And Archaeology, Colloquia Antiqua 2, Leuven, Paris, Walpole MA: PEETERS, pp. 125-138 [2]: Siegelova I. and H. Tsumoto (2011) Metals and Metallurgy in Hittite Anatolia, pp. 278 [In:] H. Genz and D. P. Mielke (ed.) Insights Into Hittite History And Archaeology, Colloquia Antiqua 2, Leuven, Paris, Walpole MA: PEETERS, pp. 275-300 [3]: (Singh 2008, 272) Upinder Singh. 2008. A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. Pearson Longman. Delhi. [4]: (Marsden 1969, 5, 16, 66.) Marsden, E. W. 1969. Greek and Roman Artillery: The Historical Development. Toronto: Oxford University Press. [5]: (Dandamaev 1989, 314) Dandamaev, M A. 1989. A Political History of the Achaemenid Empire. Brill. [6]: (Pollard and Berry 2012, 45) Pollard, N, Berry, J (2012) The Complete Roman Legions, Thames and Hudson, London Rives, J (2006) Religion in the Roman Empire, Wiley [7]: (Keyser and Irby-Massie 2006, 260) Paul T Keyser. Georgia Irby-Massie. Science, Medicine, And Technology. Glenn R Bugh. ed. 2006. The Cambridge Companion to the Hellenistic World. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. |
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Preiser-Kapeller says present.
[1]
c900 CE alakatia "small traction (rope-pulled) trebuchets.
[2]
[1]: (Johannes Preiser-Kapeller 2015) Institute for Medieval Research, Division of Byzantine Research, Austrian Academy of Sciences) [2]: (O’Rourke 2010, 30) O’Rourke, M. 2010. The Land Forces of the Roman (Byzantine) Empire in the 10th Century. Canberra. |
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Present, heritage from Roman period.
[1]
After Roman period: "It is often taken for granted that Roman torsion-powered artillery continued to be produced in Byzantium, although there is virtually no solid evidence for such a claim. Recent work strongly suggests that two-arm horizontally mounted torsion-powered weapons had dropped out of use by the end of the fifth century (Chevedden 1995), although Prokopios describes the much simpler single-armed vertically mounted torsion-powered onager, a stone-thrower, at the siege of Rome."
[2]
Torsion siege engines are more powerful than tension siege engines.
[1]: (Preiser-Kapeller 2015, Personal Communication) [2]: (Haldon 2008, 478) Jeffreys E, Haldon J and Cormack R eds. 2008. The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Studies. Oxford University Press. Oxford. |
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Siege warfare is attested in Old Hittite written records.
[1]
. In Anatolia siege warfare was mentioned in Old Hittite records.
[2]
Presumably at this time the catapult was not used? In India, according to Jain texts, Ajatashatru, a 5th century BCE king of Magadha in North India, used a catapult "capable of hurling huge pieces of stone".
[3]
Marsden (1969) said archaeological records exist before the 4th century BCE.
[4]
The Achaemenids (c400 BCE?) are assumed to have had the catapult because the Macedonians did.
[5]
Pollard and Berry (2012) say torsion catapults first came into widespread use in the Hellenistic period 4th - 1st centuries BCE.
[6]
The Syracuse Greek Dionysios I invented a form of crossbow called the gastraphetes in 399 BCE which encouraged the development of large tension-powered weapons.
[7]
There is no direct evidence for catapults for this time/location. The aforementioned evidence we currently have covering the wider ancient world suggests they were probably not used at this time, perhaps because effective machines had not been invented yet.
[1]: Lorenz J. and I. Schrakamp (2011) Hittite Military and Warfare, pp. 144 [In:] H. Genz and D. P. Mielke (ed.) Insights Into Hittite History And Archaeology, Colloquia Antiqua 2, Leuven, Paris, Walpole MA: PEETERS, pp. 125-138 [2]: Siegelova I. and H. Tsumoto (2011) Metals and Metallurgy in Hittite Anatolia, pp. 278 [In:] H. Genz and D. P. Mielke (ed.) Insights Into Hittite History And Archaeology, Colloquia Antiqua 2, Leuven, Paris, Walpole MA: PEETERS, pp. 275-300 [3]: (Singh 2008, 272) Upinder Singh. 2008. A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. Pearson Longman. Delhi. [4]: (Marsden 1969, 5, 16, 66.) Marsden, E. W. 1969. Greek and Roman Artillery: The Historical Development. Toronto: Oxford University Press. [5]: (Dandamaev 1989, 314) Dandamaev, M A. 1989. A Political History of the Achaemenid Empire. Brill. [6]: (Pollard and Berry 2012, 45) Pollard, N, Berry, J (2012) The Complete Roman Legions, Thames and Hudson, London Rives, J (2006) Religion in the Roman Empire, Wiley [7]: (Keyser and Irby-Massie 2006, 260) Paul T Keyser. Georgia Irby-Massie. Science, Medicine, And Technology. Glenn R Bugh. ed. 2006. The Cambridge Companion to the Hellenistic World. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. |
||||||
|
Siege warfare is attested in Old Hittite written records.
[1]
. In Anatolia siege warfare was mentioned in Old Hittite records.
[2]
Presumably at this time the catapult was not used? In India, according to Jain texts, Ajatashatru, a 5th century BCE king of Magadha in North India, used a catapult "capable of hurling huge pieces of stone".
[3]
Marsden (1969) said archaeological records exist before the 4th century BCE.
[4]
The Achaemenids (c400 BCE?) are assumed to have had the catapult because the Macedonians did.
[5]
Pollard and Berry (2012) say torsion catapults first came into widespread use in the Hellenistic period 4th - 1st centuries BCE.
[6]
The Syracuse Greek Dionysios I invented a form of crossbow called the gastraphetes in 399 BCE which encouraged the development of large tension-powered weapons.
[7]
There is no direct evidence for catapults for this time/location. The aforementioned evidence we currently have covering the wider ancient world suggests they were probably not used at this time, perhaps because effective machines had not been invented yet.
[1]: Lorenz J. and I. Schrakamp (2011) Hittite Military and Warfare, pp. 144 [In:] H. Genz and D. P. Mielke (ed.) Insights Into Hittite History And Archaeology, Colloquia Antiqua 2, Leuven, Paris, Walpole MA: PEETERS, pp. 125-138 [2]: Siegelova I. and H. Tsumoto (2011) Metals and Metallurgy in Hittite Anatolia, pp. 278 [In:] H. Genz and D. P. Mielke (ed.) Insights Into Hittite History And Archaeology, Colloquia Antiqua 2, Leuven, Paris, Walpole MA: PEETERS, pp. 275-300 [3]: (Singh 2008, 272) Upinder Singh. 2008. A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century. Pearson Longman. Delhi. [4]: (Marsden 1969, 5, 16, 66.) Marsden, E. W. 1969. Greek and Roman Artillery: The Historical Development. Toronto: Oxford University Press. [5]: (Dandamaev 1989, 314) Dandamaev, M A. 1989. A Political History of the Achaemenid Empire. Brill. [6]: (Pollard and Berry 2012, 45) Pollard, N, Berry, J (2012) The Complete Roman Legions, Thames and Hudson, London Rives, J (2006) Religion in the Roman Empire, Wiley [7]: (Keyser and Irby-Massie 2006, 260) Paul T Keyser. Georgia Irby-Massie. Science, Medicine, And Technology. Glenn R Bugh. ed. 2006. The Cambridge Companion to the Hellenistic World. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. |
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|
Sources only mention bows and arrows, muskets, war-clubs, knives, and hatchets
[1]
. It should be noted that sources that specifically describe the way the Illinois Confederation waged war are relatively rare.
[1]: Illinois State Museum, The Illinois, Technology: Weapons (2000), http://www.museum.state.il.us/muslink/nat_amer/post/htmls/te_houses.html |
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"A fragment of a wall painting depicting the use of a traction trebuchet at the siege of Penjikent (700-725) in modern Tajikistan. This unique painting is contemporary with Tang China, displaying how the traction trebuchet was used along the Silk Road."
[1]
[1]: (Turnball 2002) Turnball, S. 2002. Siege Weapons of the Far East (1): AD 612-1300. Osprey Publishing. |
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|
"In the seventh century the Arab Caliphate overran the Sāssānian Empire and, as far as we can tell, no great changes took place in the Persian equipment then or for a long time afterwards."
[1]
"Adapting Roman methods, Sassanid siege technology advanced greatly between the first and sixth centuries. The Sassanians employed offensive siege weapons such as scorpions, ballistae, battering rams, and moving towers."
[2]
"A fragment of a wall painting depicting the use of a traction trebuchet at the siege of Penjikent (700-725) in modern Tajikistan. This unique painting is contemporary with Tang China, displaying how the traction trebuchet was used along the Silk Road."
[3]
[1]: (Robinson 1967) Robinson, H. Russell. 1967. Oriental Armour. Walker and Co. New York. [2]: (Ward 2014, 31) Ward, S R. 2014. Immortal, Updated Edition: A Military History of Iran and Its Armed Forces. Georgetown University Press. [3]: (Turnball 2002) Turnball, S. 2002. Siege Weapons of the Far East (1): AD 612-1300. Osprey Publishing. |
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