https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/05/the-mongols-built-an-empire-with-one-technological-breakthrough/
Now people will think that the Mongols invented the metal stirrup, invented steppe warfare.
So that's why it's called a "Parthian shot". Err...
I was amused by the puntastic website name......just me? Oh, I'll get my coat :-[
Quote from: Holly on May 30, 2017, 08:16:51 PM
I was amused by the puntastic website name......
They do appear to have difficulty distinguishing their ars from their [composite]bow. ;)
As John G-L mentions, the tactic mentioned was popularised by the (stirrup-less) Parthians; the stirrup seems to have been invented by the Avars, both of whom precede the Mongols by a few centuries.
Quote from: Patrick Waterson on May 30, 2017, 09:05:04 PMthe stirrup seems to have been invented by the Avars
Brought west by the Avars, anyway. Possibly invented by the Xianbei a few centuries earlier. There are some even earlier Indian and Kushan representations, but they may all be leather loop stirrups or open "platform" stirrups rather than solid loops.
I think they start showing up all over the place in China's archaeological record from the third century.
Isn't the stirrup a paired technology in that you have to go to hard saddles or it doesn't work?
(I seem to remember something along the lines of the horse not liking soft saddle/stirrup combinations.)