Title: A Beginner s Guide To Medieval Weapons Word Count: 401 Summary: Technological conditions and nature of availability of raw

materials form the ba sis of any culture s arsenal at any point of time in the history of mankind. Prehi storic human race, often better known as the Stone Age civilization were known f or their intelligent usage of grinding tools, stone and shaping axes, and creati ng arrows and spears as weapons for survival strategies. But these implements im proved over the years as the technological skills of these cultures improved. ... Keywords: medieval swords, medieval weaponry, world war II weapons Article Body: Technological conditions and nature of availability of raw materials form the ba sis of any culture s arsenal at any point of time in the history of mankind. Prehi storic human race, often better known as the Stone Age civilization were known f or their intelligent usage of grinding tools, stone and shaping axes, and creati ng arrows and spears as weapons for survival strategies. But these implements im proved over the years as the technological skills of these cultures improved. The development of the metallic tools, implements and weapons that persisted thr ough the Middle Ages were actually originated during the Bronze and Iron Ages an d following that, these implements have dramatically altered over time. Eventual ly, with the appearance of gunpowder in Europe in the early 14th century most of these weapon were rendered useless and the castle too took a backseat to the ex tent of becoming redundant. The castle was considered to be one of the most formidable weapons of medieval w arfare while if we consider the smaller weapons, there were also a lot of lethal ones, the ones that were movable and capable of wreaking havoc and death of an opponent. Thus despite having played a key role in the deaths of many people dur ing the Middle Ages, it is a category of its own and hence will be kept out the following discussion on medieval weaponry. The Middle Ages witnessed the dominance of double edged swords, metal-headed spe ars and axes among weapons while arrows and short bows were also in vogue. A ver y interesting fact that is pretty well known in this regard is that the Saxons v alued swords very highly to the extent of considering the value of a sword to be equivalent to the value of 120 oxen or 15 male slaves and thus according great importance and status to a man possessing a sword. Because of these weapons bein g simple to construct and easy to wield, throughout the Middle Ages these weapon s remained popular. In spite of the three weapons of the sword, the spear (or lance) and the battleaxe being very prevalent during the 12th century, yet the crossbow quickly gaine d popularity. Compounded with the rapidly rising popularity of the horse warfare that supposedly made movement easy and allowed a benefit to its martial riders who held spears and the beginning of massive siege engines, eventually these han d-held weapons helped invaders like the Normans to overpower these less technolo gically advanced people.