Talk:History of crossbows

message: "The payment for a crossbow mercenary was higher than for a longbow mercenary, but the longbowman did not have to pay a team of assistants and his equipment was cheaper. Thus the crossbow team was twelve percent less efficient than the longbowman since three of the latter could be part of the army in place of one crossbow team"
Where does the 12% come from and it kind of contradicts itself saying "Yeah, it was more expensive, more people, more everything and less efficient" so why was it done then? Obviously contemporary people disagree on the efficiency claim because they did pay more, did not mind all the hassle and more mouths in the army. The 12 % is not even straight forward like "3 archers for 1 crossbowmen", but some weird mental arithmetics.
The entire calculation sounds shady and is completely unsourced and should be at least heavily qualified --2001:A61:2A98:7201:177:8A14:E1F4:735F (talk) 12:22, 11 December 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Weird mathematical claim without source 

message: Hiya. So I happened to be studying Joseph Needham's Science and Civilization in China, and took some notes on the history of crossbows. They're at User:Gwern/Crossbow. Feel free to use those quotes! --Gwern  (contribs) 19:06 5 May 2009 (GMT)
:That's very good that you provide refernces from such a hard to access book. However, while I'm totally for implementing it can you also help with some other sholars opnions on the subject in order to avaoid an unbalanced article. Thanks Wandalstouring (talk) 11:44, 6 May 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Sourcing 

message: The first sentence of the Europe section seems somewhat suspect, as the crossbow is a weapon whose power is derived from tension, whereas the ballista's power comes from torsion, two entirely different concepts.  If this is the case, how can the ballista be a larger version of a crossbow?  Anyone have any thoughts on this?  If no one has objections, I'll be editing this soon..... Meatwaggon (talk) 02:19, 5 June 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Please discuss what you want to delete or change before ripping out whole sections, please. Thank you,⋙–Berean–Hunter—► ((⊕)) 11:22, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

text: I'm surprised there is no mention of the Oxybeles. Perhaps what the author was thinking of a ballista such as can be seen on this page. It seems to be a large crossbow.⋙–Berean–Hunter—► ((⊕)) 12:17, 4 August 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Giant Crossbow? 

message: I am surprised there is no mention of the theory, prevalent in ancient times, of the Levantine, more specifically Syrian, Phoenician or Cretan, origin of the crossbow. There is some evidence to back this up, such as the machines that could hurl stones and arrows at besiegers mounted on the walls of Jerusalem in the 8th century BC under king Uzzia, at the time the Sidonians, known for their manufacturing skills, were working on the Temple. Given their reliance on fortifications and a navy, a Punic origin for crossbows and ballistas has some logic. Cf. Plinius Naturalis Historiae 7.201; L. Alexander “The origin of Greek and Roman artillery” in The Classical Journal vol. 41, no. 5 (1946) 208-21287.212.52.128 (talk) 10:14, 21 February 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Levantine origin of Hellenistic crossbow 

message: And I am surprised there is no mention of the yantra from the Vedic literature of India, probably a giant crossbow, that could lent support to a Southeast Asian origin for the Chinese crossbow, by assuming it spread from there both to India and to China. Crossbows have long been popular in the jungles of Southeast Asia, Africa and South America. Cf. S.D. Singh Ancient Indian Warfare with Special Reference tot the Vedic Period (Leiden 1965) 112-687.212.52.128 (talk) 10:23, 21 February 2015 (UTC)
replies: text: Okay, but that would have to predate Chinese literature mentioning crossbows from the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC (i.e. Warring States, Qin, and Han era sources). Moreover, Warring States Period Chinese crossbow bolts and full bronze crossbow trigger mechanisms from as far back as the 5th or 6th century BC have been excavated by archaeologists. Are there any such archaeological finds in Southeast Asia that predate these, or are even contemporaneous? Crossbow trigger mechanisms represent a pretty high technological development that requires a civilization at about the same level as the Chinese at the time (for instance, the Greeks, who also invented the crossbow in the form of the gastraphetes). What kingdom verified by the written record even existed in Southeast Asia during the 6th century BC? The Kingdom of Funan and Champa didn't even exist until roughly the 1st century AD.--Pericles of AthensTalk 15:43, 21 February 2015 (UTC)
replies: text:  pretty much contemporary is indian relief from 2nd centuries BC of the indian cross bow, i think cross bow has much more ancient origin than we think, this technology is clearly widespread from europe to china even in 2nd centuries BC 202.188.53.210 (talk) 07:17, 11 December 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Southeast Asian origin of Chinese crossbow 

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message: How did the Islamic World not mention Crossbows before the 14th century but it was in use since before then? The picture used even contradicts this by having a Mamluk using one in the 12th century. Is this claim verifiable? Is there an expansion on this claim? If not, then there might have to be deletion of the phrase. 2001:1970:5163:1200:0:0:0:D48B (talk) 20:35, 9 September 2022 (UTC)
replies: text: The source of the picture is of glass in black and white. It is not of a text. No additional sources or content were added for the above claims and cannot be confirmed. Qiushufang (talk) 10:03, 10 October 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  12th century vs 14th century