Medieval Torsion Catapults

[Sean Manning]

I have always wondered why historians of technology so neatly divide between classical and medieval war machines.

The problem is that between Amianus and the late 12th century we have only literary sources for artillery in Latin Christendom, and the authors of those sources tried hard to imitate ancient descriptions of artillery. The sources from the neighbouring cultures are not much better. Filling this gap is very difficult. See See DeVries' Medieval Military Technology or W.S. Tarver “The Traction Trebuchet” Technology and Culture 36.1 (1995) for an introduction with references.

This is definitely an area where people who understand different cultures, periods, and languages can work together, but it is very hard..