Got a Real World Weapons or Armour Question? Mk XI

[Mike_G]

Swords will cut right through bone if you can cut properly. The reality of Medieval Warfare is much, much, much more brutal than in Video games, movies, or RPG's. Why? I have no idea since we have all of the above set in modern or sci fi or apocalyptic eras which are plenty gory.

These are from Kutna Hora in Czech Republic, 14th Century

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These are from Wisby in Sweden (Gotland), also 14th Century


Note a humerus (thigh bone) severed, they found a few bodies in that site which had both legs cut through by the same cut- also severed top of a skull.

Hate to be an anatomy geek, but the humerus is the bone of the upper arm, not leg. The femur is the thigh bone.

The second bone from the left is a humerus, severed near the shoulder joint. It's upside down in the photo, the elbow at the top, but you can see the anatomy here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Humerus_post.jpg

The third bone is a left tibia (shin bone) with a chunk taken out of it. It's upside down. You can see the malleolus of the ankle at the top right of the bore. That's the bump on the inside of your ankle. The blow would have been to the outside of the left lower leg, as one would expect for a guy fighting with a shield, his left foot forward.

Here's a picture:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gray258.png

A femur has a big ball to fit in the socket of the pelvis to form a hip joint. None of these bones show that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Femur
Bones aren't all that hard to cut through with a sharp heavy piece of steel. Butcher do it all the time. I have no trouble believing a blow to an unarmored limb could sever it.

But you generally don't have to cut through bone to incapacitate your enemy. The guy with the divot in his tibia probably had muscle and blood vessels severed by that blow, and likely was out of combat bleeding to death pretty quickly.

Sorry to be pedantic, but there are no severed thighs here.