Many of the weapons that we think of as belonging to the Medieval Period actually originated in antiquity. Primitive tools for hunting and land cultivation were used aggressively by warring factions. Of these early weapons the first were percussion implements, designed for blunt striking. Examples include the rock, stick, club, and mace.
In class activities:
- Discussed the first recorded fight in history, that of Cain and Abel, and brainstormed which weapons were used
- Looked at images of percussion weapons
- Discussed the difference between the club and the mace
- Examined changes in the shape of the mace and discussed (in very basic terms) why force directed to a single point is more damaging than force spread across a wide area
- Learned about the first forms of protection in battle
- Made our own leather arm-guards
- Attempted to throw light & heavy objects at a target and discussed the results
- Made our own foam "rocks" for use with our siege machines.
Assignment:
- Look up the term "siege engine" (Older students should come to class with a written definition, younger ones may just verbally discuss the term with parents)
- Examine images of the many different types of siege engine machines
Parents - Please SAVE your child's foam "rock." This is the ammunition for their year-end project. Over the course of this class, homework will be focused on walking children through the process of researching and building their own siege engine. They will probably want to jump straight into the building stage, but I encourage you to enjoy the research process first.
For future reference: Our final class will be a siege engine tournament. Children will bring their completed machines and compete to see who can shoot the highest, farthest, and most accurately. These projects can be as big or as small as you would like, but just remember that it needs to shoot the assigned ammunition, and fit inside your vehicle. Parents are expected to help with design and testing, but projects should be primarily kid-built. I will eventually include links to several sources for step-by-step building instructions to help with the design process.
