Other early finds of crossbows were discovered in Tomb 138 at Saobatang, Hunan Province, and date to mid-4th century BC. Bronze crossbow bolts dating from the mid-5th century BC have been found at a Chu burial site in Yutaishan, Jiangling County, Hubei Province. They have also been found in Tombs 3 and 12 at Qufu, Shandong, previously the capital of Lu, and date to 6th century BC. In terms of archaeological evidence, crossbow locks made of cast bronze have been found in China dating to around 650 BC. From Bi Maokang 畢懋康, Jun qi tu shuo 軍器圖說, ca. Illustration of another Ming crossbow volley fire formation. From Cheng Zongyou 程宗猷, Jue zhang xin fa 蹶張心法 ca. Illustration of a Ming volley fire formation using crossbows. China Han dynasty crossbow (2nd century BC). The lock refers to the release mechanism, including the string, sears, trigger lever, and housing. The stock is the wooden body on which the bow is mounted, although the medieval tiller is also used. Peterson, the prod came into usage in the 19th century as a result of mistranslating rodd in a 16th-century list of crossbow effects. The lath, also called the prod, is the bow of the crossbow. Īrrow, bolt and quarrel are all suitable terms for crossbow projectiles. Terminology Han crossbow trigger pieces Crossbow trigger piecesĪ crossbowman or crossbow-maker is sometimes called an arbalist or arbalest. There is a theory that medieval European crossbows originate from China but some differences exist between the two trigger mechanisms used in European and Chinese crossbows. Hunters continued to carry crossbows for another 150 years due to its silence. During the 16th century military crossbows in Europe were superseded by gunpowder weaponry such as cannons and muskets. From the 11th century onward, crossbows and crossbowmen occupied a position of high status in medieval European militaries, with the exception of the English and their continued use of the longbow. Crossbows are not mentioned in European sources again until 947 as a French weapon during the siege of Senlis. An assortment of other ancient European bolt throwers exist such as the ballista, but these were torsion engines and are not considered crossbows. The small body of evidence and the context they provide point to the fact that the ancient European crossbow was primarily a hunting tool or minor siege weapon. It's not clear how widespread crossbows were in Europe prior to the medieval period or if they were even used for warfare. Pictish imagery from medieval Scotland dated between the 6th and 9th centuries AD do show what appear to be crossbows, but only for hunting, and not military usage. Other than the gastraphetes, the only other evidence of crossbows in ancient Europe are two stone relief carvings from a Roman grave in Gaul and some vague references by Vegetius. He believed it was the forerunner of the catapult, which places its appearance sometime prior to the 4th century BC during the Classical period.
In the Western world a crossbow known as the gastraphetes was described by the Greco-Roman scientist Heron of Alexandria in the 1st century AD. Even as late as the 17th century, military theorists were still recommending it for wider military adoption, but production had already shifted in favor of firearms and traditional composite bows. Although the crossbow never regained the prominence it once had under the Han, it was never completely phased out either.
The crossbow countermarch technique was further refined in the Song dynasty, but crossbow usage in the military continued to decline after the Mongol conquest of China. One Tang dynasty source recommends a bow to crossbow ratio of five to one as well as the utilization of the countermarch to make up for the crossbow's lack of speed. The crossbow lost much of its popularity after the fall of the Han dynasty, likely due to the rise of the more resilient heavy cavalry during the Six Dynasties. In China the crossbow was one of the primary military weapons from the Warring States period until the end of the Han dynasty, when armies composed of up to 30 to 50 percent crossbowmen were not unheard of. It is not clear where and when the crossbow originated, but it is believed to have appeared in China and Europe around the 7th to 5th centuries BC.
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