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Quote from: Keraunos on April 12, 2025, 10:15:38 PM

Quote from: Adrian Nayler on April 12, 2025, 06:11:41 PMI haven't read this piece as it's behind a paywall. However, I was impressed by a sentence that I could read for free which said "They plan to test the weapon on replica warships to assess how effective the rams were during naval battles." "Now, that I gotta see," I thought.

You mean you havn't seen Gladiator II? 

I really couldn't make up my mind whether to see Gladiator II or Napoleon but in the end I opted to stay home instead. I subsequently adopted an air of satisfied smugness when various of my friends returned from the cinema monetarily the poorer and seething with rage. Sometimes you just kinda know how things are going to turn out.

Quote from: Keraunos on April 12, 2025, 10:15:38 PM

Quote from: Adrian Nayler on April 12, 2025, 06:11:41 PMI haven't read this piece as it's behind a paywall. However, I was impressed by a sentence that I could read for free which said "They plan to test the weapon on replica warships to assess how effective the rams were during naval battles." "Now, that I gotta see," I thought.

You mean you havn't seen Gladiator II? 

No. Last film I saw in a cinema was The Kings Speech which is a long while ago now. Reason is easy we have only one cinema in easy reach and it's an Odeon that uses its monopoly to rip us off especially if you want a seat you can see from, daughter goes occasionally and is debating value. Sorry sticking to Freeview and even then listen more to radio/podcasts than TV. Happy to keep paying a licence fee to keep those going.

Quote from: Adrian Nayler on April 12, 2025, 06:11:41 PMI haven't read this piece as it's behind a paywall. However, I was impressed by a sentence that I could read for free which said "They plan to test the weapon on replica warships to assess how effective the rams were during naval battles." "Now, that I gotta see," I thought.

You mean you havn't seen Gladiator II? 

OK, comparing Wittfogel & Feng's translation with the Liao Shi text at https://chinesenotes.com/liaoshi/liaoshi034.html, putting the relevant paragraph in Google Translate and using the latter's dictionary to clarify the meanings of individual words, I think the character translated "halberd" is yue .

The situation is slightly complicated (for people like me with no command of Chinese) by the fact that the text has two characters 斧 鉞 fu yue, both meaning "axe", together. The Liao Shi online text makes it look as if these two characters form one word, whereas W&F, in the bit of the list translated as "axe, halberd", seem to be translating fu as axe and yue as halberd. In classical Zhou sources, where these two words are first encountered, they usually indicate two different kinds of axe, yue being used for larger blades and sometimes translated broad-axe or battle-axe.

Short conclusion: someone should point a Chinese speaker at the Liao Shi text, but I think we are dealing with a word more related to axe than to spear.

I haven't read this piece as it's behind a paywall. However, I was impressed by a sentence that I could read for free which said "They plan to test the weapon on replica warships to assess how effective the rams were during naval battles." "Now, that I gotta see," I thought.

Then the reality check (and the budgetary constraints) kicked in - presumably, this will be computer modelling rather than real-life replicas. Real shame though.

In case the journalist failed to cite his source, I'm pretty sure it's going to be the Ancient Naval Ram Casting Project, details of which can be found here:

https://stephendecasien.com/ancient-naval-ram-casting-project/

The research paper is slated for release in June 2025, and I suspect it will not be released in open access, at least initially.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2476277-bronze-naval-ram-from-roman-battle-recreated-using-ancient-techniques/

One for Nick

Depends which end of the pointy stick you were looking at

Weren't the Vikings the good guys?

Yeah well modern day sensibilities and all that.....

It is surely only a matter of time (and indeed may already have happened) when someone says "The Roman Empire fell due to a "perfect storm" where barbarians, lead poisoning, icebergs, environment, social decline, Christianity and plague all got together to overwhelm it".

Incidentally, it did seem to me that an event dated to 540 AD and after could be the cause of the fall of the Western Empire was a bit odd.