Comment by mapt
1 day ago
This is the only man known to have died in a medieval siege of a medium-sized boulder falling on him.
Trebuchets were used for a variety of purposes in siege warfare, from (uniquely) breaching walls with large boulders to (less uniquely) setting things on fire to (probably) suppressing massed formations of archers with smaller shot. But smaller shot would not leave a characteristic trebuchet injury, it would leave a generic blunt-force trauma injury.
In some cases they’d hurl dead cattle, people’s heads, and flaming projectiles over the walls to damage morale and potentially damage infrastructure.
I would not want to hurl dead cattle ("Valuable beef primal cuts") across the walls onto a starving populace.
> they’d hurl dead cattle
I learned that from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
And to spread disease.