The Face of Battle? Debating Arrow Trauma on Medieval Human Remains From Princesshay, Exeter
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8882540 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Oliver H Creighton, Oliver Creighton (0000-0003-3051-0370, University of Exeter, corresponding author), Laura Evis (0000-0002-8493-5166, University of Exeter), Mandy Kingdom (University of Exeter), Catriona J Mckenzie (0000-0001-7288-1319, University of Exeter), Iain Watt (University of Exeter), A K Outram (0000-0003-3360-089X, University of Exeter) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 100 |
| Pages | 165-189 |
| Publication date | 2020-05-05 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Antiquaries Journal (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0003-5815 • E-ISSN: 1758-5309 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0003581520000116 |
| OpenAlex | W3001374806 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 25 |
Physical evidence of weapon trauma in medieval burials is unusual, and evidence for trauma caused by arrowheads is exceptionally rare. Where high frequencies of traumatic injuries have been identified, this is mainly in contexts related to battles; it is much less common in normative burials. Osteological analysis of one context from an assemblage of disarticulated and commingled human bones recovered from a cemetery associated with the thirteenth-century Dominican friary in Exeter, Devon, shows several instances of weapon trauma, including multiple injuries caused by projectile points. Arrow trauma is notoriously difficult to identify, but this assemblage shows that arrows fired from longbows could result in entry and exit wounds in the skull not incomparable to modern gunshot wounds. Microscopic examination of the fracture patterns and spalling associated with these puncture wounds provides tentative evidence that medieval arrows were fletched to spin clockwise. These results have profound implications for our understanding of the power of the medieval longbow, for how we recognise arrow trauma in the archaeological record and for our knowledge of how common violent death and injury were in the medieval past, and how and where casualties were buried
Ancient history · Archaeological record · Archaeology · Assemblage (archaeology · Battle · Context (archaeology · Osteology · Autopsy Techniques and Outcomes · Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies · History · Traumatic Ocular and Foreign Body Injuries
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| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2024 - 2026 (3) |
| Highly cited | No |