[Regia-NA] Crossbows

[Tate William T Jr TSgt 352 OSS/SCSC]

I had a chat with Chris about this on the way home from the Witan =
Saturday.

The rolling nut from Scotland cannot be accurately dated because, =
indeed,
the context it was found in isn't relative to anything else.  The bogs =
were
used for centuries for hunting water fowl, and it is known that the =
crossbow
was used in this capacity up to (if I remember correctly) the 16th =
century.
The nut itself was found loose and couldn't really be stratified.

We touched briefly on rolling nuts and that they may have been used in =
our
period, but I can't remember what sources he was using for this =
conclusion.

It appears to me that there are a few sources to document =
crossbows...enough
to allow one, or two, a show...but not legions of crossbow-wielding
Norsemen.

Bill





WILLIAM T. TATE, JR., TSgt, USAF
Security Manager
352 OSS/SCSC
DSN 238-4827 (non-secure)



-----Original Message-----
From: Phil [mailto:phils@clara.net]
Sent: Saturday, March 15, 2003 11:23 AM
To: list-regia-na@lig.net
Subject: Re: [Regia-NA] Crossbows


Ooooh! A translation would be most excellent.

If I understand it correctly, the problem with the rolling nut found in
Scotland is that it does not come from a secure context, and so could =
have
been lost at any time.

Alm reckons the rolling nut crossbows are C12/C13.

Phil

----- Original Message -----
From: "Carolyn Priest-Dorman" <capriest@cs.vassar.edu>
To: <list-regia-na@lig.net>
Sent: Friday, March 14, 2003 10:23 PM
Subject: Re: [Regia-NA] Crossbows


> This is (surprise!) a military topic that interest me.  I have a =
60-lb
> rolling nut crossbow and used to be pretty good with it.  Phil wrote:
>
> >Alm states that crossbows were used at the sieges of Senlis in 947 =
and
> >Verdun in 985, although his reference seems to be to another =
secondary
source.
>
> Payne-Gallwey put me onto the original source for this, which is =
Richer de
> St. Remy's _Historia_ (tenth century).  The original is of course in
Latin,
> but a facing-page French edition is in the Vassar Library (ed. Robert
> Latouche).  I translated the section about the siege of Senlis from =
the
> Latin for the SCA periodical _Early Period_, but that was over a =
decade
ago
> and I can't find my stash of them right now.  When I do I'll repost.
>
> Egon Harmuth's _Die Armbrust:  Ein Handbuch_ has a black and white
Biblical
> illustration of the siege (?=3DBelagerung) of Jerusalem (presumably =
the
> Babylonian one?) from a French manuscript of the 10th century.  He =
also
> shows an 8th or 9th century nut and handle from "English" finds.
Footnotes
> say one is an 8th century nut from _Ancient Scottish Lake-Dwellings =
or
> Crannogs_ by Robert Munro (Edinburgh, 1882) and the other is a 9th =
century
> handle and nut from Southgrove Farm, Burbage, Wiltshire.
>
> MacGregor more or less concurs on these dates.  He says the Scottish =
one
> (from Buston Crannog, Strathclyde) could very well be that late, and =
that
> in any case they're most likely to be post-Roman.  See the section on
> crossbows in his _Bone Antler Ivory and Horn_ for more info.
>
> I haven't seen anything about the rising pin mechanism in this =
period,
though.
>
>
> Carolyn Priest-Dorman              =DE=F3ra Sharptooth
>   http://www.cs.vassar.edu/~capriest/thora.html
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> list-regia-na mailing list
> list-regia-na@lig.net
> http://www.lig.net/mailman/listinfo/list-regia-na
>
>

_______________________________________________
list-regia-na mailing list
list-regia-na@lig.net
http://www.lig.net/mailman/listinfo/list-regia-na