Trebuchet at Château de Castelnaud and a nearly identical device in China in the 5th century

Remember the trebuchet? A genuine siege engine straight out of Age of Empires, Cossacks and Stronghold: Crusader may be seen, for instance, at the open-air war museum in the French Château de Castelnaud. What I remember the trebuchet for most is its spectacular shot with a dead cow, giving off a stench and disease. This throwing engine is sometimes called a fundibula, that is, a sling, though I rather prefer the name "scales with a rocker beam". The engine is known in many cultures; in fifth-century China, for instance, an almost identical mechanism was used as well.

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September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

In the finale of the Strugatskys' Roadside Picnic, the Golden Ball is told: "Happiness for everybody, free, and let nobody go away unsatisfied!" I do not promise to offend nobody, but the digest really does come free of charge. So, here is the main business of the

Frederic Leighton

Frederic Leighton. “Daedalus and Icarus”, 1869 Daedalus warns his son not to climb too high: the heat of the sun may melt the wax, but Icarus is already gazing into the distance, and the lamentations of a foolish old man interest him not in the least

Trebuchet at Château de Castelnaud and a nearly identical device in China in the 5th century

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September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

Frederic Leighton

Attempts to resolve the problems of many years of uncontrolled mass migration

Characters from Gogol's "Petersburg Tales" on the pedestal of the monument to Nikolai Gogol on Nikitsky Boulevard, photograph of the 1960s