Burnswark Battle Science! ─ JoergSprave

Link to "Lekkerwissen": https://www.youtube.com/lekkerwissen
Link to Lekkerwissen video about this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ju_gv...
German/Deutsche version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qs0K0...
Link to original Burnswark video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vJBK...
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When Dr. Reid from the Trimontium Trust visited a few months ago, we did some tests regarding the ancient Battle of Burnswark. In the second century, 3000 Roman soldiers attacked a fortified hilltop, defended by a few thousand Caledonians. The Romans bombarded the hill fort with thousands of lead bullets, thrown by slingers. We tested (among other things) the damage caused by 60 gram lead bullets travelling at 35 m/s, which we assumed would be the speed of the "arriving" lead ball.

Many people complained about the tests because they were made at close distance (point blank). That was unavoidable as it is next to impossible to hit a head size target from 120 meters distance. But we decided to verify if the speed of the arriving ammo did indeed reach 35 m/s.

Two young physicists from Cologne offered their help. They do have their own channel called "Lekkerwissen", and they tried to calculate the trajectory. But we were skeptical and therefore decided to perform field tests. Believe it or not, they had an error in their numbers! The tests did not confirm their calculations.

After the error was corrected, it turned out that the 35 m/s were indeed correct if a bit on the weak side. But it also came out that the Romans chose a launch position that was as far as possible from the enemy, so just the slingers could just reach the enemy lines - even one step more and they would have been out of reach. Clever soldiers!

A "The Slingshot Channel" production!