Our Trebuchet

Trebuchet Quiz

Trebuchet Game

Man has thrown stones since prehistoric times.  Stones were a simple weapon, easily picked up and thrown towards an enemy.  Eventually someone came up with the idea of the sling, which simply uses a piece of cloth or looped strap in which a stone is whirled and then let fly.    Next came the idea of the catapult- a simple machine that throws a stone or other projectile further and harder than a human could.  

Compared to the basic catapult, the trebuchet is pretty young.  The other similar types of machines, including the mangonel and ballista are much older.  For example, the ballista- a type of catapult built like a very large crossbow, was first reported near Syracuse, Italy, around 400 BC.  The mangonel was being used by the Romans around  the first century, AD.  We don't find the trebuchet until the second century AD, where it was first used by the Chinese.

How are the trebuchet, ballista and mangonel similar?
All are catapults- machines that throw items.

How are the trebuchet, ballista and mangonel different?  
One major difference between these types of machines is how the force of the projectile is achieved.  The mangonel and ballista get their force by twisting a cord and then letting it loose.  The trebuchet gets its force from gravity with a heavy weight, which is then released.

(Click here for a NASAExplores lesson on how to build and compare two simple machines: the trebuchet and the catapult)

Our research indicates that the first trebuchets were used in China and places near China around 2000 years ago.  These types of machines became popular as both siege (attack) and defense weapons.  They made their way through many cultures, probably moving from China, to the Avars- a nomadic (moving) Mongolian people to the Byzantine Empire.  Though focused around Turkey and the Balkans, the Byzantine Empire had ties with Europe.  Ties and fights to settle!  That's probably how the trebuchet finally made its way to Europe.  We know that in 1216, Prince Louis of France used the trebuchet to attack Dover Castle in a bid for the English throne.

As a matter of fact, it was the French that helped to make improvements to the trebuchet to make it the siege machine of choice in the middle ages.  It was these improvements that helped to increase projectile range and accuracy in the trebuchet.   It became so reliable that trebuchets were still being used after the introduction of cannons.

However, the trebuchets were most well known in medieval times.  These were the times of the castles for fortifications.  These machines were well suited for attacking castles: they could be set up at a safe distance from archers on the castle walls; they could be moved to sections of the walls that had weakened, and they could throw almost anything over the walls and into the areas of the hold.