Trebuchets were used in the Syrian civil war (2011-2024).
I would link a video but I don't think that is a wise idea for legal reasons. There were so many parties in that war and I'm not sure which ones were declared terrorist organizations.
johanvts 3 hours ago [-]
Please don't censor yourself. It should be possible for you to share a video of something without that meaning you support it. You probably live in a country that has free speech? Use it.
I would like to see a video of a trebuchet. Modern or not.
"...uncovered the graves of nine skeletons dated to the early 1300s. Five, including Skeleton 150, dated to the 1300s."
That seems like a contradiction.
kijin 3 hours ago [-]
I parsed it as ((mass grave containing 9 skeletons) dated to the early 1300s) && ((5 skeletons) dated to the 1300s).
As in, the grave itself was dated, and 5 of the 9 skeletons found inside were also individually dated to roughly the same century. Maybe the other 4 were not tested, or turned out to have been buried at a later date.
normie3000 6 hours ago [-]
I hate to contradict you, but it seems like a tautology.
darkerside 1 hours ago [-]
Five did, but nine did too
5 hours ago [-]
nexus6 3 hours ago [-]
“The breaks indicate a very large area of impact and devastation,” she says. “It’s likely the individual was killed by a siege engine.”
So it’s likely, which means it’s not confirmed as the headline implies.
_mjk 2 hours ago [-]
I don't get the nitpicking here. Scientifically correct, since circumstantial. Meteor is also possible, but very unlikely.
The probability regimes in which science is dealing often only leave marginal room for alternative explanations.
cobbzilla 7 hours ago [-]
But have they identified the trebuchet that killed him?
We can rule out Warwolf [1] my favorite trebuchet, which never killed anyone.
Can we? That Wikipedia page is inconclusive, and thus article says:
During Edward I’s 1304 siege of the castle, English forces deployed the recently invented trebuchet, a weapon first documented in the 12th century. A cousin to the catapult, trebuchets were capable of hurling boulders weighing more than 100 kilograms hundreds of meters. One at Stirling, dubbed “War Wolf,” “was the biggest trebuchet ever built at that point,” Buckberry says. Eyewitness accounts confirm the giant siege engine was used during the 1304 battle, tearing through two stone walls “as an arrow would fly through a piece of cloth.”
Accounts of the battle don’t mention any trebuchet casualties. But Buckberry says Skeleton 150’s injuries strongly suggest at least one defender was hit from behind by a flying boulder, launched by War Wolf or one of the other siege engines arrayed outside Stirling Castle’s walls. “It’s a huge amount of energy delivered in milliseconds,” Waltenberger says. “In skeletons from past times you rarely see this.”
JoeAltmaier 5 days ago [-]
Interesting find!
I wonder if the massive damage could also be explained by the falling wall (documented in the article).
hermitcrab 5 days ago [-]
Indeed, I am sure there are other mechanisms that could cause similar trauma.
madaxe_again 3 hours ago [-]
Unlikely, as a regular slow crush gives very different injuries compared to a high velocity impact.
kijin 3 hours ago [-]
It depends on how tall the damaged structure was. A large chunk of masonry falling from a tower could reach speeds comparable to a car crash.
If I go, I would like to go from massive blunt trauma from behind that renders me instantly unconscious.
delis-thumbs-7e 2 hours ago [-]
Well I call you a WIMP! I want to go by literally shitting blood in an agonising pain an fever for weeks on end, like most people in these campaigns often faced their demise: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dysentery
Actually, you know what, I think you might have a point there. I take back ky harsh words.
shevy-java 6 hours ago [-]
> 14th century
While this death may be the first confirmed from a trebuchet,
is that really the first death by a trebuchet? Plus, I'd say
catapults are almost identical to a trebuchet in workings, for
the most part. I don't quite believe that this was really the
first death by catapult.
pfdietz 5 hours ago [-]
Catapults store energy using elastic deformation, like a bow; counterweight trebuchets store energy using gravity.
nephihaha 5 hours ago [-]
Didn't the Romans have something similar?
johanvts 3 hours ago [-]
The Romans had onagers and ballista, both of which work via string tension. Then around 6AD it seems string traction (mangonels) where introduced from China and finally counterweight/gravity was introduced in the 12th century.
nephihaha 1 hours ago [-]
Basically more primitive versions of the same.
TheWrongGuy 5 hours ago [-]
After all these years they finally got someone
noobmasterthrow 4 hours ago [-]
i read death BY trebuchet, i am disappointed.
27183 9 hours ago [-]
dude got absolutely rocked
xprnio 8 hours ago [-]
What do you expect - it came in like a wrecking ball
kouunji 8 hours ago [-]
Didn’t feel it though, cuz he was stoned.
N_Lens 9 hours ago [-]
"What are you going to do, lob a stone at me from 300m away?" shouted the man on the parapet, moments before impact.
CTOSian 4 hours ago [-]
more likely "...a furlong and more" ... no meters that time :}
4 hours ago [-]
SideburnsOfDoom 2 hours ago [-]
"They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance" - last words of Major General John Sedgwick, American Civil War.
I hate this meme. Someone says "think about what you are doing prideful fool". And the other person still decides to use lethal force. That is diabolical, not funny.
WelkinFolk 7 hours ago [-]
Diabolically funny, you mean.
bluefirebrand 7 hours ago [-]
> Someone says "think about what you are doing prideful fool".
That strikes me as a wildly incorrect interpretation of the situation in the meme.
My reading is closer to a man on a parapet shouting "neener neener you can't touch me" moments before being touched by a rock at high velocity
lazide 7 hours ago [-]
Yup, my favorite is the ‘what are you going to do, stab me? -stabbed man’ quote from the news interview hah.
King-Aaron 6 hours ago [-]
I think it was American Gangster that had the line "what are you going to do, shoot me in front of everyone?", right before he gets shot in front of everyone. That's a good one.
foxglacier 6 hours ago [-]
I read an account of exactly that happening to the natives in my country 200 years ago. A group paddled up the river in their canoe and the local tribesmen who were clearly more powerful taunted them. But the natives in the canoe had newly discovered guns and shot the taunters until they were "tired of man-killing" and went home. It seemed to be purely hunting humans for fun. And yes, it was horrible, that was part of a wave of wars that decimates the whole country and cost them their sovereignty.
s20n 6 hours ago [-]
first confirmed case of MLG noscope
Rendered at 11:35:58 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Vercel.
I would link a video but I don't think that is a wise idea for legal reasons. There were so many parties in that war and I'm not sure which ones were declared terrorist organizations.
I would like to see a video of a trebuchet. Modern or not.
That seems like a contradiction.
As in, the grave itself was dated, and 5 of the 9 skeletons found inside were also individually dated to roughly the same century. Maybe the other 4 were not tested, or turned out to have been buried at a later date.
So it’s likely, which means it’s not confirmed as the headline implies.
The probability regimes in which science is dealing often only leave marginal room for alternative explanations.
We can rule out Warwolf [1] my favorite trebuchet, which never killed anyone.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warwolf
Can we? That Wikipedia page is inconclusive, and thus article says:
During Edward I’s 1304 siege of the castle, English forces deployed the recently invented trebuchet, a weapon first documented in the 12th century. A cousin to the catapult, trebuchets were capable of hurling boulders weighing more than 100 kilograms hundreds of meters. One at Stirling, dubbed “War Wolf,” “was the biggest trebuchet ever built at that point,” Buckberry says. Eyewitness accounts confirm the giant siege engine was used during the 1304 battle, tearing through two stone walls “as an arrow would fly through a piece of cloth.”
Accounts of the battle don’t mention any trebuchet casualties. But Buckberry says Skeleton 150’s injuries strongly suggest at least one defender was hit from behind by a flying boulder, launched by War Wolf or one of the other siege engines arrayed outside Stirling Castle’s walls. “It’s a huge amount of energy delivered in milliseconds,” Waltenberger says. “In skeletons from past times you rarely see this.”
from the article: “skull broken in 61 places”
Doubt you’d stay conscious long enough to notice
It went on to tell how a man had committed suicide by drilling 23 holes in his head.
From 1935. And he was not the first one to point that out either.
I actually think that thanks to the internet, we expose many more criminal build ups towards warfare nowadays than before.
[1] - https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/eisenhower001.asp
If I go, I would like to go from massive blunt trauma from behind that renders me instantly unconscious.
Actually, you know what, I think you might have a point there. I take back ky harsh words.
While this death may be the first confirmed from a trebuchet, is that really the first death by a trebuchet? Plus, I'd say catapults are almost identical to a trebuchet in workings, for the most part. I don't quite believe that this was really the first death by catapult.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Sedgwick
That strikes me as a wildly incorrect interpretation of the situation in the meme.
My reading is closer to a man on a parapet shouting "neener neener you can't touch me" moments before being touched by a rock at high velocity