more research on early (Qin) crossbow mechanisms
A recent issue of the archaeology journal Antiquity has an article that should be of interest to various ATARN members. It concerns a morphometric and spatial analysis of crossbow mechanisms from the Qin Shihuang Mausoleum excavations, its authors largely the same (UCL & Xian-based) research team that wrote the article I described in an earlier post here (see "Article on Chinese Bronze Age weapons (incl. crossbows)"). Their new conclusions seem pretty compatible with what they learned from analyzing bronze-tipped arrows, but have important implications for understanding the logistics and organization of the workshops that these weapons were made in.
As before, I am simply posting the abstract, reference, and a link where (at least as of today!) the article can be downloaded from. I also add a few other links to the website and blog of the "Imperial Logistics: The Making of the Terracotta Army" research project behind this work.
Have fun reading! Ian
Abstract:
"The Terracotta Army that protected the tomb of the Chinese emperor Qin Shihuang offers an evocative image of the power and organisation of the Qin armies who unified China through conquest in the third century BC. It also provides evidence for the craft production and administrative control that underpinned the Qin state. Bronze trigger mechanisms are all that remain of crossbows that once equipped certain kinds of warrior in the Terracotta Army. A metrical and spatial analysis of these triggers reveals that they were produced in batches and that these separate batches were thereafter possibly stored in an arsenal, but eventually were transported to the mausoleum to equip groups of terracotta crossbowmen in individual sectors of Pit 1. The trigger evidence for large-scale and highly organised production parallels that also documented for the manufacture of the bronze-tipped arrows and proposed for the terracotta figures themselves."
Reference:
Li, Xiuzhen Janice, Andrew Bevan, Marcos Martinón-Torres, Thilo Rehren, Wei Cao, Yin Xia and Kun Zhao
2014 Crossbows and Imperial Craft Organisation: The Bronze Triggers of China's Terracotta Army. Antiquity 88:126-140.
Link:
http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1412513/1/ant0880126.pdf [article]
Other links:
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/terracotta-army
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/terracotta-army/blog
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/terracotta-army/bl ... 2014-03-06
As before, I am simply posting the abstract, reference, and a link where (at least as of today!) the article can be downloaded from. I also add a few other links to the website and blog of the "Imperial Logistics: The Making of the Terracotta Army" research project behind this work.
Have fun reading! Ian
Abstract:
"The Terracotta Army that protected the tomb of the Chinese emperor Qin Shihuang offers an evocative image of the power and organisation of the Qin armies who unified China through conquest in the third century BC. It also provides evidence for the craft production and administrative control that underpinned the Qin state. Bronze trigger mechanisms are all that remain of crossbows that once equipped certain kinds of warrior in the Terracotta Army. A metrical and spatial analysis of these triggers reveals that they were produced in batches and that these separate batches were thereafter possibly stored in an arsenal, but eventually were transported to the mausoleum to equip groups of terracotta crossbowmen in individual sectors of Pit 1. The trigger evidence for large-scale and highly organised production parallels that also documented for the manufacture of the bronze-tipped arrows and proposed for the terracotta figures themselves."
Reference:
Li, Xiuzhen Janice, Andrew Bevan, Marcos Martinón-Torres, Thilo Rehren, Wei Cao, Yin Xia and Kun Zhao
2014 Crossbows and Imperial Craft Organisation: The Bronze Triggers of China's Terracotta Army. Antiquity 88:126-140.
Link:
http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1412513/1/ant0880126.pdf [article]
Other links:
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/terracotta-army
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/terracotta-army/blog
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/terracotta-army/bl ... 2014-03-06