A shattered skeleton, a medieval technology, and some very modern science

"Breaking news" and "forensic science" aren't phrases commonly associated with medieval research (although those of us working at the coalface come across them a surprising amount). This week, however, a piece of medieval research involving both phrases seems to have broken containment: what may well be the earliest confirmed death by trebuchet.

The unfortunate star of this grisly piece of news is known as "Skeleton 150", a defender of Scotland’s Stirling Castle in the early 1300s, a period of intense conflict between Scotland and England. Stirling Castle, as many readers will undeoubtedly know, was known as the 'gateway' to Scotland, because of its position on one of the major routes to Edinburgh. Unsurprisingly, it played a prominent role in many of these military campaigns, changing hands five times between 1296 and 1304, before it finally fell under the English king Edward I's permanent control. 

Skeleton 150 is actually one of five skeletons from the early 1300s uncovered during excavations in 1997. All five had bones showing injuries that suggested violent deaths. The unfortunate hero of this particular tale was a man estimated to have been 22-34 years at the time he died, and the analysis so far indicates he was braced for a brutal impact from a trebuchet (perhaps from Edward's famous Loup-de-Guerre or Warwolf trebuchet, although this would have heightened the bad luck of the victim, given that Warwolf was reportedly not finished until after the castle's defenders had surrended. Edward was apparently determined to test it anyway, refusing to let anyone enter or leave the castle before it had been tried).

Dr Jo Buckberry, from the University of Bradford's School of Archaeological and Forensic Sciences used radiography, microscopy, and micro-CT scanning to augment macroscopic analysis and distinguish between peri-mortem and post-mortem fractures. Her research established that Skeleton 150 was hit with a single, high-velocity, blunt-force impact from their head to their knees, and that this would have been the cause of death.

A question that often comes up when teaching undergraduates about medieval warfare is the efficacy of dramatic weapons like cannons and trebuchets: whether death was necessary for these intimidating pieces of technology to have a significant impact and whether they were worth the cost. I suspect we will be discussing this example quite a bit over the next few years!

Until next time,

Rhiannon