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Stone projectiles from the siege of Alcalá la Vieja (Spain) and likely trebuchet placement
Author(s) -
Galán M. Ramírez,
Galán M. Benítez
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
archaeometry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.716
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1475-4754
pISSN - 0003-813X
DOI - 10.1111/arcm.12578
Subject(s) - siege , projectile , fortress (chess) , projectile point , archaeology , islam , geography , ancient history , geology , history , physics , quantum mechanics
Investigations of the siege of Islamic Alcalá la Vieja (Madrid, Spain) by Christian forces in the 12th century ce have depended on secondary sources proven to be unreliable and error‐laden. In a search for possible locations of trebuchets used by the Christian attackers, the option was for an interdisciplinary approach combining elements from archaeology, physics and spatial analysis. The discovery of stone projectiles near the Islamic fortress allowed for the application of projectile physics to the calculation of several effective firing ranges for each stone. Those outcomes, in combination with geographical information system (GIS) data, have revealed a possible location where Christian forces could have effectively deployed hybrid trebuchets as siege engines.