This rather fine manuscript illustration of medieval archers has been doing the rounds on social media recently. Some have declared that it portrays archers shooting in elevation on the battlefield. It depicts the Siege of Paris, so they are shooting up at the walls. So yes, in elevation, but no, not a battlefield situation.The really interesting bit to me, however is not the archers (though of course archers are always interesting) but rather the walls. What are those groupings of angled parallel lines? Clearly not arrows. Nor is it likely that they are stakes or pikes arrayed before the city walls. I think these lines may be the artist’s way of suggesting that the city’s defenses were weakening from an attack.A common construction technique for the infill of medieval fortification walls (castles/town walls) was called ‘opus spicatum’. It presents as a sort of herringbone pattern, which is what we see here.Certainly some remaining sections of the Philip Augustus walls in Paris show this construction style.So the theory would be that, if trebuchets or rams have knocked away the facings of some ashlar stone, what you would see is these herringbone guts.I’m not suggesting that this should be taken literally – ie that the walls are crumbling in the scene – just that it may be an artistic code to show the fortifications are under duress. ... See MoreSee Less
Wishing everyone here a very Happy New Year!To keep you busy as you count down the minutes to midnight, or perhaps to ease into the day tomorrow, why not try your hand at the new GENERAL HISTORY Crossword that I've just published on SUBSTACK. It's free to play.loadesofhistory.substack.com/p/new-general-history-crossword-for... See MoreSee Less
