Medieval warfare was wicked and nasty

[Mergie Master]

Personally, I'd rather just get shot. ~ Mergie

Medieval warfare was just as terrifying as you might imagine

Excerpt 1:

THE soldier now known as Towton 25 had survived battle before. A healed skull fracture points to previous engagements. He was old enough—somewhere between 36 and 45 when he died—to have gained plenty of experience of fighting. But on March 29th 1461, his luck ran out.

Towton 25 suffered eight wounds to his head that day. The precise order can be worked out from the direction of fractures on his skull: when bone breaks, the cracks veer towards existing areas of weakness. The first five blows were delivered by a bladed weapon to the left-hand side of his head, presumably by a right-handed opponent standing in front of him. None is likely to have been lethal.



The next one almost certainly was. From behind him someone swung a blade towards his skull, carving a down-to-up trajectory through the air. The blow opened a huge horizontal gash into the back of his head—picture a slit you could post an envelope through. Fractures raced down to the base of his skull and around the sides of his head. Fragments of bone were forced in to Towton 25’s brain, felling him.

His enemies were not done yet. Another small blow to the right and back of the head may have been enough to turn him over onto his back. Finally another blade arced towards him. This one bisected his face, opening a crevice that ran from his left eye to his right jaw (see picture). It cut deep: the edge of the blade reached to the back of his throat.

Excerpt 2:

By looking at the different ways that bone fractures when it has fluids in it and when it has dried out, Ms Novak found that 27 of the 28 skulls she examined had suffered blows at the time of death. Not just one, either. Both Towton 16 and 25 were struck eight times and Towton 10 six times. Towton 32 suffered no fewer than 13 different blows to the head.

Excerpt 3:

The stress of this kind of fighting was immense: a few of the Towton skeletons had been clenching their teeth together so tightly that bits of them splintered off.

The Complete Article Here

[Swamp Rat]

I love history and archeology. That's just cool stuff.

And, yes, I'd rather be shot.

[Mergie Master]

The blood, guts, gore and pieces of bone that must have been flying around everywhere was enough to make a man clench his jaws so tight his teeth would break. His butthole was probably locked up pretty tight too! Dang!

[Jozie & Me]

The human animal is a savage beast. We may be a bit refined with clean clothes and iphones, but we are just a food shortage or electrical outage away from that savagery rearing its ugly head.

Was a neat article and its amazing how they can reconstruct the happenings of a day in history 100's of years ago.