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Static towers were also used in close proximity to enemy walls to rain down projectiles on the defenders. Ballista: 400 BC Syracuse, Sicily: A very large and powerful crossbow. Could be mounted on carts. Similar weapons mounted on elephants were used by the Khmer Empire. [3] Onager: 353 BC Rome: The Onager was a Roman torsion powered siege engine.
While mostly used for offensive purposes, the first recorded use of a cannon in Europe was to defend the city of Algeciras during the siege of 1343-44. [2] However slow to load, cannons proved to be devastating weapons that could level a city's walls or destroy siege engines with only a single projectile.
Although gunpowder weapons were used to defend castles from the late 14th century onwards it became clear during the 16th century that, provided artillery could be transported and brought to bear on a besieged castle, gunpowder weapons could also play an important attack role. The defences of coastal castles around the British Isles were ...
Siege engine in Assyrian relief of attack on an enemy town during the reign of Tiglath-Pileser III 743-720 BC from his palace at Kalhu (Nimrud). The earliest siege engines appear to be simple movable roofed towers used for cover to advance to the defenders' walls in conjunction with scaling ladders, depicted during the Middle Kingdom of Egypt. [2]
Siege towers were used to get troops over an enemy curtain wall. When a siege tower was near a wall, it would drop a gangplank between it and the wall. Troops could then rush onto the walls and into the castle or city. Some siege towers also had battering rams which they used to bash down the defensive walls around a city or a castle gate.
Swords can have single or double bladed edges or even edgeless. The blade can be curved or straight. Arming sword; Dagger; Estoc; Falchion; Katana; Knife; Longsword; Messer; Rapier; Sabre or saber (Most sabers belong to the renaissance period, but some sabers can be found in the late medieval period)
Designers of castles paid particular attention to defending entrances, protecting gates with drawbridges, portcullises and barbicans. Wet animal skins were often draped over gates to repel fire. Moats and other water defences, whether natural or augmented, were also vital to defenders.
Inverted 'keyhole' gun loops at Bodiam Castle, Cooling Castle, and the Westgate, Canterbury, have all been identified as for firing heavy handguns. These defences are dated 1380–1385. Initially used as defensive weapons, primitive bombards began to be used as siege weapons in the later 14th century.