Archaeologist Samuel Kinirons with the stone catapult ball believed to have been fired during the siege of Edinburgh Castle. Picture: Scott Louden
Posted on 01/07/2019 8:11:30 PM PST by SunkenCiv
An archaeological dig has unearthed new evidence of a three-day attack on Edinburgh Castle - on a site earmarked for a luxury hotel by Sir Richard Branson.
Experts believe they have found a carved stone which would have been fired from a giant catapult during the pivotal siege in 1296.
It led to Edward I seizing control of the medieval fortress, plundering its treasures and shipping them to London, and the castle being held under English rule for 18 years.
Archaeologists made the discovery at the site of the proposed new Virgin Hotel, which is earmarked for a large swathe of Edinburgh's Old Town.
The dig, which has been ongoing in the Cowgate since May, has also unearthed remains of some of the earliest homes to be built in the city centre, which are believed to date back to the 12th century, along with prehistoric bones.
The stone ball is believed to have been fired by a trebuchet - the powerful catapult used by Edward I's forces to lay siege to Edinburgh and Stirling castles. It is thought the "Warwolf" deployed in the Stirling siege, and featured in one of the most spectacular scenes in the new Robert the Bruce netflix film Outlaw King - was the biggest trebuchet made anywhere in the world.
John Lawson, the city council's archaeologist, said the carved stone discovered at the Cowgate site earmarked for the Virgin Hotels development pre-dated the use of cannonballs and gunpowder by around 200 years.
(Excerpt) Read more at scotsman.com ...
Archaeologist Samuel Kinirons with the stone catapult ball believed to have been fired during the siege of Edinburgh Castle. Picture: Scott Louden
In case you missed it in the excerpt, Sir Richard Branson's Virgin is to build a hotel. It's only mentioned a couple more times in the rest of the article.
I heard it was banned in New Jersey because of its ability to fire more than one cannonball...
Can a swallow carry it?
As long as you don’t get it with the high capacity sling or bump-counterweight I think you can still carry a trebuchet even in New Jersey.
Lol
As long as you don’t haul it around on your 18 wheeler close to stadiums.
A cannon ball doesn’t have a husk to grip.
I believe the late R Lee Ermey did a Mail Call show firing watermelons with one of those. Great show, great man. I miss his enthusiasm for the country.
African or European?
It’s a simple question of weight ratios.
Why would they go to the great expense, time, and difficulty of carving a stone into a sphere? That wouldn’t seem to make any sense. Just heave raw stones as fast as you can collect them.
I think I remember that. He loved stuff like that. Yes, he loved the country and it showed.
The rate of fire is way lower without gunpowder. :^)
The Romans used artillery (the word antedates gunpowder, btw) of similar kind as siege equipment against the hill forts in Britain, more than 1000 years before this Edinburgh siege, and they didn't bother to do much shaping when they were hurling rocks. :^)
African swallow, maybe -- but not a European swallow.
I don't kn...AHHHHHHH!
Ballistic repeatability. Semi-spherical, equal weights, it flies about the same distance each shot.
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