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Late Roman legionary re-enactor with plumbata, lead-weighted darts that replaced the javelin
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this post was submitted on 13 Oct 2024
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Historical Artifacts
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How would they throw the darts? Like I threw lawn darts as a kid, trying to get them as high as possible in a parabola, or would they throw them shuriken style, right at the charging hordes?
We don't have a clear answer on this. There was a video I saw once that you might be able to find on YouTube still where a guy experimented with him and tried different methods. Frankly didn't really solve the question for me. They all seem somewhat viable. Underhand straightforward seem to work all right. Kind of like a javelin kind of worked although maybe not the best. They also tried kind of loping overhand so it came down on top of them sort of like you're implying. Considering the weight of them I think that might make the most sense.
You throw them in a straight line at short range, mostly at the horses of cavalry charging at you.
Questions like that are often hotly debated in experimental archeology! My thinking is high, in a parabola, as they were meant as harassing weapons, but as far as I know there's no consensus.
I mean, they are versatile, so they probably had different tactics that suited various engagements.