The death of a medieval Danish warrior

[Patrick Waterson]

Also, if a man is down but still moving, even if not consciously acting, the tendency is to strike until he stops moving and then give him one or two to make sure.  This is  more evident among undisciplined troops, as disciplined troops tend to have a limited and effective repertoire of killer strikes (which helps them to achieve results with minimal expenditure of energy) and the more experienced they are the better they know when an opponent is no longer going to be a problem.

So our tentative conclusion thus far is 'excited overkill', probably by a second-rank enthusiast (or even two) with more brawn than technique.

It is a fair point that the standard (TV/movies) view of shot/stabbed/brushed with sword = fall down instantaneously, neatly and quietly dead is a long way from what would really have happened.

Very fair point.

[aligern]

A friend ( and soa member) who had done several years of high level reenactment explained that the damage to the heads of the Towton prisoners migh well be the result of attempts to finish them off whilst they were still wearing helmets. Picking up Richard and Patrick's points about how long it takes to die,piercing  blows to the heart or massive blows to the head kill very quickly, anywhere else and the man is still dangerous.
Roy

[Erpingham]

I've had another look at the report and also relooked at some notes on the Visby finds.  Visby is a bit unusual in that it has relatively high levels of post cranial trauma (this may be a sampling thing - its by a long way the biggest sample we have from a single battle).  But interpreters of the remains have suggested a lot of leg trauma isn't consciously aiming at the legs but swings at the upper body missing the aiming point or deflecting onto the legs (e.g. off the shield)*.  So our dead man may be defending himself face to face and is crippled by unlucky shots.  Also in the course of this action, his shield gives way and he takes a parry wound in his left arm.  He may be on his knees by this point, maybe lost his helmet.  The attacker gives him a well placed blow on his front left, followed by a second closely after.  Our casualty is now rapidly dying but to make sure his attacker keeps hacking at his head as he goes down face first.  The Visby report notes that massive penetrating head blows often came in groups, and reckons they represent that an attacker who is also defending can't go all out for the killer blow whereas, if his opponent is no longer defending himself effectively, he can hack away.  This may have been the fate of our casualty.



* Though there is one skeleton that has had both legs amputated by a single blow  

[Patrick Waterson]

This sounds, at least to me, very like what may have happened.