SoA Forums

indeed but I will leave that to others....

Readers who have noted some of my past writings and comments here will know I have an interest in "Well known facts of history" that are, in fact, of dubious authenticity and often made up or misinterpreted by later authors.  I'm tempted to produce a short piece for Slingshot on a few. To keep it short, I'll avoid anything about longbows (you could write an entire book on longbow myths) and will stick to military history.  Just as a taster, here is a list by Dirk Breiding, famed arms & armour expert, from an article he wrote in 2010

• Only knights wore armor—Wrong
• Armor was so expensive, only princes and the high nobility could afford it—Wrong
• If armor is (highly) decorated, it is for ceremonial use, not for war–Wrong
• Armor is extremely heavy and renders its wearer virtually immobile (and, by implication,
anyone wearing armor had to have almost super-human strength)—Wrong
• Knights had to be hoisted into their saddles with cranes—Wrong
• It took years to make a single armor—Wrong
• Wearing armor makes it dificult to go to the toilet—Wrong
• The military salute originated from the raising of a visor—Very doubtful
• Women never fought or wore armor—Not entirely true
• Only knights were allowed to carry swords—Not entirely true
• Armor became obsolete because of firearms—Not true without qualiication

Some of these I expect will make the article, along with other recent favourites like the houndscull and the Battle of Lake Peipus.  But, if anyone has their own favourites, please flag them up, preferably with a debunking reference

Incidentally, if anyone likes the idea and wants to apply it for a different period (like Classical warfare) or even tackle the related but narrower topic of wargamer history v. actual history, I'm sure they'd make a great article too.

Quote from: Erpingham on May 14, 2024, 01:54:05 PMReally, for relevance, we do need more on the military significance of camelids.  For example, were camels more important logistically than in combat?

With the camel I would say that they were far more important logistically, but what about the horse?

Yes the horse was vital on the Mongol battlefield, if without the horse transporting people to the battle, feeding them, providing the logistical backup, would there even have been a battlefield for the horse to be important on?

We wargame battles far more than we wargame logistics. But I remember reading about Arthur Wellesley's campaigns in India where nothing happened until he'd got enough bullocks to underpin his next move forward
I suspect he would have regarded the bullock as more important than the horse 

Really, for relevance, we do need more on the military significance of camelids.  For example, were camels more important logistically than in combat?

No mention of the now extinct North American camel.

Thanks. This seems to be a case of absence of evidence (no coins or papyri) being taken as proof that nobody lived there.

https://www-heritagedaily-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.heritagedaily.com/2024/05/archaeologists-excavate-medieval-timber-hall/151940/amp?amp_gsa=1&amp_js_v=a9&usqp=mq331AQGsAEggAID#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=17156761018659&csi=0&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.heritagedaily.com%2F2024%2F05%2Farchaeologists-excavate-medieval-timber-hall%2F151940%2Famp%23amp_tf%3DFrom%2520%25251%2524s%26aoh%3D17156761018659%26csi%3D0%26referrer%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.google.com

Not much detail hereby could be significant judging by the timeframe suggested

https://arkeonews.net/radiocarbon-dating-shows-that-the-roman-settlement-of-karanis-survived-in-egypt-until-the-arab-conquest-in-the-7th-century-ad/

Interesting

https://www.newsweek.com/prehistoric-stone-circle-sanctuary-predate-stonehenge-700-years-1900038

And definitely worth a visit

https://www-heritagedaily-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.heritagedaily.com/2024/05/archaeologists-find-traces-of-gloucesters-medieval-castle/151934/amp?amp_gsa=1&amp_js_v=a9&usqp=mq331AQGsAEggAID#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=17156759917493&csi=0&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.heritagedaily.com%2F2024%2F05%2Farchaeologists-find-traces-of-gloucesters-medieval-castle%2F151934

Hopefully of interest