Medieval Military Technology

• The Middle Ages, Medieval times and Dark ages refer to the period from 500 to 1500 A.D.
• This covers the time from the fall of the Roman Empire to the rise of the Ottoman Empire.

Military Technologies

• A counterweight trebuchet is a weapon that uses counterweights to hurl huge stones very far.
• It was first used in the eastern Mediterranean basin.
• A longbow with massed, disciplinary archery was used by the English against the French during the Hundred Years' War from 1337–1453
• The longbow was powerful, accurate, and contributed to the demise of the medieval knight class.
• The steel crossbow was the first handheld mechanical crossbow.
• Several different cocking aids enhanced its draw power, a European innovation.
• Complete plate armor appeared by the end of the 14th century.
• Armor chain was made from thousands of metal rings, and the armor was a long clock called a hauberk.
• Plate armor is considered the best in personal armor in terms of body protection and showed the skills involved in working metal.
• A blast furnace for cast iron first appeared in middle Europe around 1150.

Other Inventions

• The hourglass was made from a dependable, affordable, and accurate measure of time.
• Vertical windmills are pivot able post mills which are efficient at grinding grain or draining water.
• Spectacles are composed of convex lenses used to help far-sighted people to see.
• The earliest predecessors of chess originated in India.
• Mirrors were made in 1180 by Alexander Neckhan who said to "take away the lead which is behind the glass and there will be no image of the one looking in".
• Oil paint was invented by Flemish painter Jan Van Eyck around 1410, who introduced a stable oil mixture.

Agricultural Innovations

• Heavy wheeled plows were important in the cultivation of rich, often wet soils of Northern Europe that advanced their agricultural practices.
• A horse collar allowed for better horse pulling power, especially with heavy plows.
• Horseshoes let horses adapt to rocky terrain and mountains, allowing them to carry heavier loads.
• An artesian well uses a thin rod with a hard iron cutting edge placed in a borehole and struck repeatedly with a hammer
• Underground water pressure forces water up the hole without pumping.
• Artesian wells are named after Artois, a region in France where the first one was drilled by Carthusians.
• Wheelbarrows were used in construction, mining, and farming for carrying materials from place to place.

Other Inventions

• Blast furnaces first appeared in Middle Europe around 1150.
• Medieval innovation of the hourglass was first documented in Siena, Italy as a dependable, affordable and accurate measure of time.
• Vertical windmills are pivot able post mills efficient at grinding grain or draining water.
• Spectacles are composed of convex lenses to help far-sighted people to see.
• The earliest predecessors of chess originated from India in the 6th century, and spread through Persia and the Muslim world to Europe.
• The game evolved to its current form from the 15th century.
• Mirrors were made in 1180 by Alexander Neckham who said "Take away the lead which is behind the glass and there will be no image of the one looking in.".
• Oil paint was invented by a Flemish painter Jan van Eyck around 1410, who introduced a stable oil mixture, and was used to add details to tempera paintings.
• A tide mill is a special type of water mill driven by a tidal rise and fall.
• The earliest excavated tide mill, dating from 787 AD, is the Nendrum Monastery on an island in Strangford Lough in Northern Ireland.
• The spinning wheel was probably invented in India, though its origins are ambiguous, and reached Europe via the Middle East in the European Middle Ages.
• It replaced the earlier method of hand spinning.
• The first universities were developed by the 1000s.
• Modern Universities emerged throughout Western Europe such as Oxford and Cambridge in England by the 1100s.
• In the 14th century, the Crisis of the Late Middle Ages was underway, and a plague called the Black Death came.
• The Quarantine technique was established, initially a 40-day period, and was introduced by the Republic of Ragusa to prevent the spreading of the diseases.