Nice! Hi it's Tod from Tod's Workshop here and Matt Easton Schola Gladiatoria. Hi folks, so we're
back for another episode of Weird Weapons and Matt has got no idea, no idea. I'm trying not to look.
So you ready for this one Matt? Okay go on.
And there we have it a shield full of throwing darts.
Nice! You ever seen anything like that before? No not in the medieval period
nor had I so I was first alerted to this by a guy called Augusto Boer Bront who's a excellent
armorer, a friend of mine. Now I've never seen anything like this and it came from a manuscript
by a guy called Mariano Taccola and it's 1433 uh the manuscript is "In Ginesis' and it's weird.
So you've got darts on the back, on the inside of the shield, a heater shield. On the front
this is a heater shield and this is where my confession comes, Matt the picture actually shows,
there's no scale on it obviously, but well there are two pictures one where the shield probably
sits about that high to the ground and another one where it's nearly at shoulder height. Okay
just get yourself one of those to have a look at. So these these kind of war darts that are like a
giant arrow actually appear in a whole bunch of different manuscripts don't they?, but I have
never ever personally seen these fitted to the inside of a shield so have a look at this. Oh wow
yeah I've never seen that before oh and they've very clearly got these these finger loops on
and here you've got heater shield which you've got the scale of the sword is that right? Who knows?
Yeah funnily enough there seems to be some Latin or Italian written next to this one
and there's a word there that looks a bit like plumbata to me.
So I wonder is this a medieval interpretation of classical texts because we know that plumbata...
You will spoil this whole film! You telling me this never existed? I'm not gonna say it never
existed because we know that they did like to replicate things in the renaissance what to
think about I mean yeah and this is the Italian, this is the beginning of the Italian Renaissance,
it is an era of thought, interpretation, so maybe it is, maybe it is exactly that,
because there is a rack of five of them that he is saying, this is my interpretation of a plumbata
maybe. A throwing dart that goes on the back of a shield which we think that the late Romans did,
yes yes so that could be it, but we know these these throwing darts appear in loads of medieval
art, so we know that they existed. I'm going to get you something else now,
now that you know what we're talking about I can get something else out. So what Matt was just
referring to now are these throwing darts here and well you can see how high they are roughly,
we're down on the ground now. You see them if you look for them, you will see them all over medieval
art and very often being thrown by skeletons, I don't know why, so there's some symbolism too,
but you see them an awful lot of medieval art, sieges, naval warfare and battlefield warfare
and then this one here has got a leather thong attached to it which aids the distance
on throwing. I've got other films about exactly these objects, so that's to put it in context
that's what Matt's talking about, but scale wise very, very different. Yeah I mean this is this is
the size of a a very large longbow arrow basically isn't it, I mean it's not one for me, no no but
maybe Joe Gibbs, yeah I mean it's about the length of an arrow but thicker um and not barrelled,
it's guesswork from from a pretty raggedy picture. But those broadheads are brutal and that they do
hint at anti-horses you mentioned that does hint at soft targets rather than armoured. I don't,
I don't think it hinted it, I think it says it blatantly. Yeah so this shape of the head here
always flares out, always a flaring out broadhead and whenever you see these in the manuscripts they
always, always, always have that shape except for one that I've seen where it's cast brass,
but other than that, they're always like this, so you can't see the heads properly on that
manuscript picture but I figured they probably followed the same thing and it's against flesh.
Yeah for sure, so obviously if you were carrying a shield of some kind be it a buckler or a larger
shield you could carry some of these in one hand but with these large ones you could probably only
maximum carry two or three in a hand I would say conveniently. Yeah well you see that with
the Irish Kern I think yeah well you see them with a bundle of maybe three of them yeah yeah whereas
fitting them to the back of a shield you've now got more of them and if this is for
maybe trying to interfere with the charge of opponents or cavalry, defend against
cavalry or perhaps using just general skirmishing actions that gives you more ammunition. I suspect
skirmishing because the size of that shield says to me that they are putting themselves in harm's
way because the other thing you can see from from this although it's a different kind of shield it's
not exactly a convenient thing to have on the inside of your shield. No I'm wondering where
does your arm how does your arm interact with them you're not really fighting with
this I think I mean look at the whole thing it's ridiculous in that sense so I think it's probably
contextually maybe a little bit like a crossbow pavaise that you move into position yeah but the
picture definitely shows them stored like that doesn't it? Yeah and again the picture if you
look at the bottom it's a little indistinct, but I've taken it to be that there is a solid covering
there it's not like individual okay yeah yeah um because sometimes in this type of art they show
things transparent so you can see what's going on inside them don't they? Yeah but fantastic,
so I really want to throw one of these now so let's go down and we'll take these and
we're going to throw them yeah cool. We're down the range now with Matt and Alexander from the
New Zealand Stage and Screen Combat School, we haven't seen him yet in this film but he's going
to be in another couple of ones that I'm doing and Matt's doing things. Interesting bloke. But what
we have discovered about Alexander while we've been playing, is he can throw further than us,
so that's his role today. So I'll show you the whole setup here. So we have this dart
and as you can see in the manuscripts you've got a leather thong, now I've tried it with string and
it sort of tangles around your finger, it doesn't work so well and so leather actually really,
really works well. I've just slit it at the top there and that makes that sort of adjustable,
it can slide up and down and that means that you can actually clinch it to where you want it to be,
because actually we all throw it a little bit differently and then when you throw it you don't
hook your finger right through, that doesn't work, just the pad of your finger like that
and then hold it like a dart. So I'll go first up oh that's good oh that is a nice one right there.
So that's my first one out and it is I don't know, eight or nine meters short of the 32
meter mark where the helmet is so Matt take it away. Oh that's kicked right now interestingly
Matt's one really kicked up now that's because the thong is in slightly the wrong position for him so
I'd suggest that he moves it slightly forward on the next one but we'll find out Alexander.
oh
Nice! So that one is a couple of meters short, so I'm going to say about 30 meters
but what's interesting about Alexander's is the thong position was obviously slightly different
to Matt's and mine in fact mine weren't much flatter Alexander's went much higher and down
so you can change the thong position even on the same dart for whether you want it flat and hard
into somebody's face or up over the top of shields and down onto them. As an experiment now for Matt
I think if you take one and you put the thong on the green mark and then you move it maybe
a hand's breath further forward on the second one, okay? Just see what difference it makes.
That was pretty good actually that one kicked up again for Matt but I'm guessing
where's it so. Big difference is I threw more upwards so that first one I threw two straight
because I'm too used to aiming at target so I think I was thinking about range. We'll go again,
so move this one further forward okay? Forward of the green mark yeah, so uh no I'll go another bit
more same again yeah about a bit further forward again because it does make quite a difference.
okay? And then also just uh just the tip of your finger okay like that that's it.
Nice that's gone beyond,
that's gone beyond! So that is so I'm not just a weakling it's a technique.
Actually Matt won that round, so sorry Alexander you're all done,
but what we're going to do now is we're going to take the thong off and we're going to repeat this.
It just uh loosens off you can pull it off past the fletchings and we're going to throw it now
unaided and see what kind of distance we got so if you want to take that one Matt and you throw.
Ah it slid through my hands I swear but not quite sure. Alexander you go. Oh that was awful,
throwing is not my thing. Yes but you did win that round. Other than that being very
cool the actual takeaway from that is that his arrow is now, I don't know 15 meters shorter
of the one that he threw before, now 15 meters for the cost of a little bit of leather thong?
That is a bargain. What we can tell from that really is that the use of the throwing loop on it
extends distance massively. The fact that they're really quite small doesn't alter the fact that
they're dangerous, I think you'd agree with that absolutely, I mean I wouldn't want one of those
hitting me. No the arrowhead suggests to me the spearhead, dart head is that it's against flesh,
not against armour, I think that's evident as well. Yeah big shields and multiples; skirmishing.
Yeah I mean I think against likely you know people with no armour or
at most kind of you know clothing or maybe fabric armour or indeed against horses. The
next question I would have is how fast can you throw? We're going to assume that the guy's taken
them out of the shield and we're going to send five of them down there and see what happens.
Aims not so good
Oh well done, so I don't know how long that was we'll put this count up on screen. Well here we
are. Mariano Taccolas' throwing darts. What did you make of the whole thing? Yeah really really
cool, I mean I suck uh with the with these loops I mean it's the first time that I've tried to use um
them on this size of object uh clearly I'm having a kicking problem the way that they're coming out
when I'm releasing I should be adding extra energy to the throw which I think in one of my
throws it definitely everything came together and it worked, but in a lot of my throws the energy is
just pulling the back of the projectile down but that is a little bit of practice. Yeah yeah and
a little bit of loop adjustment, tweaking where they are on the shaft
maybe, maybe the length of this, I don't know yeah various things and also
how you put your finger into the ring, how deep you put it and that kind of stuff. Yeah I must say
that's something that I noticed, you, your natural reaction is to put your finger right in,
yeah and actually it it can't you just gotta have the tip of your finger on it and it works much
because it needs to come out more easily listen to it. So in terms of Mariano Taccola's invention,
thought, doodle, I mean I think it actually seems really practical, why shouldn't it work you know
we've got this idea that the Romans had plumbata attached to shields perhaps, and why shouldn't,
why shouldn't that be a thing and I think having light small projectiles that you can reel off into
either an enemy who are charging you or an enemy that you're charging or cavalry are annoying you,
coming near your lines and you can just sort of make the horses not want to do that anymore,
it's giving you another option in your toolbox. Yeah I think it is and for relatively little
cost. Absolutely that is in the world of weapons, that is a cheap item yeah you know yeah and a lot
of fun as well, a lot of fun and and contemporary with the the more common and larger darts that we
just don't see these days you know, in museums or on reenactment battlefields or in films but were
everywhere in the artwork, but I guess they were disposable things and they were just you know once
they were used they were thrown away and nothing survives. Well I've wondered about these that the
heads I suspect because this is on about an 18 mm shaft that's on about 15, the heads people just
write off as being springald heads or something like that. Okay the shaft well after 500 years of
cleaning and doctoring in the museum nobody will ever know if there were fletchings on it no and so
it comes through as a javelin and I suspect that if museums went and looked at the ends of their
javelin shafts and really studied to see if there was any bonding residue from glues, I suspect
you'd find a lot in your museum collections that did have that, because they're in the artwork,
but they're not in museums yeah? Why not yeah? Why not? Just to conclude then, Mariano Taccola's
invention? Yeah it's a good thing, it seems pretty practical to me. I have one surprise for you
Matt because I know that you like these fletched throwing thingies. I have some plumbata with me.
Take it away Matt. Oh, oh they're quite heavy actually aren't they?
Yeah they're heavier than I expected, let's try an overarm one. Whoa!!!
Wow they go far! They're good aren't they? That's really effective.
It's fun throwing it like a sort of uh hand grenade on side. yeah yeah
Wow those are awesome they are awesome.
Oh I'm really aiming for that, helmet. Wouldn't be the first time.
Wonderful, they are so fun to throw! So there's only one thing that you really,
really have to do. Well you have to try underarm okay and then you have to do four in one go.
Wow it goes further, I would not have expected that.
I think it goes further but it's less accurate, I wouldn't beat yourself up too much.
Ha ha and they are awesome, I mean why they were ever dropped from infantry warfare I do not know,
but can you imagine castle battlements with barrels of those? Why wouldn't you?
Though I mean they're fantastic aren't they and you know relatively cheap and
relatively easy to make. They're small so you can store tons and tons of them,
yeah amazing things. Right, so Matt the one that you have to try because it is
strangely compelling, is throw all of them together. Okay uh overhand, underhand I
don't care. Grab them by the fletchings that's fantastic, throw them in one hit.
They went well actually.
But very effective. If you've got a bunch of charging Gauls coming at you or Britons then
just boom. Yeah brilliant, anyway thanks a lot, thank you. Yeah
Matt Easton Scholar Gladiatoria. Little cameo there by Alexander Holloway. And I got to throw
some plumbata which I've always wanted to do, yes I have to get some. I know where you can.......