Glued Linen Armour- a simple test

[Benjamin Abbott]

I have to say I find those energy figures for classical projectiles laughably low. It looks like the myth of the shortbow all over again. What evidence leads people to assign such weak draw weights to Scythian and Persian bows? We know cultures across time and space used much stronger bows made with similar technology. It's extremely dangerous to apply modern notions about material progress to ancient and medieval times. Things really didn't change much. There's no reason whatsoever to assume the existence of fabric armor implies feeble bows. The English wore quilted jacks on battlefields teaming with 130-joule arrows. Crusader shields and armor performed similarly to the ancient Greek kit against swarms of arrows. You see the same in countless cases. The dynamics between armor and projectiles remain constant for hundreds of years.