Throwing the Longche

[Kineas]

Craig Manning built a beautiful reproduction of a cavalry spear (see my "spear" thread below) and I hafted it, and then traveled to central PA to visit my friend Ridgely so that we could test some theories about cavalry warfare and practice throwing javelins on horseback. The kit and spear are about 430 BC.
Before I report on what we learned, I'll also say that this was just the first running of this particular experiment--we're going to try again in September with more spears and different weights.

First, some parameters:

We used Craig's javelin, which weighs almost a kilo with the shaft on. The shaft was made of a dense Brazilian wood that was recommended as having the same characteristics as Cornel wood (ie dogwood, Xenophon's choice). We both rode Jack, a 14.3 hand American quarter horse, as being the best horse in Ridgely's stable to represent a Greek cavalry horse. Jack is also used to being ridden bareback.
All riding and throwing was done bareback without stirrups.
The target was a pair of hay bales stacked atop a 55 gallon drum. You'll be able to see them in the pictures below. The target stood about six feet, which was about a foot too short if the vase illustrations were correct.
The ground was very wet, as we'd just had heavy rain. Jack didn't seem to care. However, even in the ring the footing was treacherous enough that we threw only at the walk and trot. In September we'll try the canter, and Ridgely (a vastly better rider than me) will throw at the gallop.
We both threw across the horse from right to left, so we approached the target on our left. this is how the PanAthenaic vases represent the throwing. Ridgely commented, looking at the vase in Boardman's book (which I can't reproduce here) that it was obvious to him that the riders leaned back to throw and he thought that made sense, although we tried various postures, the leaning back posture (ie, the one on ancient vases) did seem the best. Imagine that! I also made some "melee" casts to my right.

Results

Both of us had practiced dismounted and out throwing was pretty accurate--although I'd guess that a real Athenian cavalryman would be much better. I think we hit the target eighteen of twenty times at ranges of between ten and twenty meters. Ridgely, a better horsemen, could place his hits with ease--it was actually chilling to see how accurate he could be. Even I, riding bareback for the first time in my life, hit the target most of the time, even at around 15 meters.

A couple of things to think about...
1) A cavalryman is higher than his target. Okay, this seems self-evident, but with a kilo-heavy weapon, that height advantage allows the cavalryman to throw DOWN with accuracy. This would help range and penetration AND would make defense more difficult.
2) A horseman can carry heavier weapons with less effort. I wonder if the real utility of hamippoi was re-load of javelins? Anyway, a couple of heavy spears would be a real burden for a psiloi, and he'd have to get close to throw them, and thus be vulnerable--the cavalryman with his javelin is safer and more comfortable.
3) Throwing bareback is very natural. I'm NOT the best rider--I had no problems at all. Jack cooperated even when my spear hand caused me to send him some odd signals. (Jack's the horse)
4) Ridgely, who is an experienced survival hunter (the kind of guy who goes out in the woods with a tee shirt and a swiss army knife) said that he thought that Craig's javelin was one of the best hunting weapons he'd ever seen, because it would knock a deer flat at impact and the shock of the wound would keep the animal down--ie, no running off into deep brush. He felt that a weapon of that size and weight would probably kill or knock down a small horse--which would make it FAR more powerful an a cavalry combat than a Scythian bow and arrows.
5) My worst mis-cast punched right through the side of the 55 gallon drum. That's some penetration.

Again, in September we'll do more experiments and post more.





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