Weapons of the Mongol Age, 1250 to 1300: A Bomb Painted Too Late?

The most famous picture of a bomb from the Mongol invasions of Japan may have been painted about five centuries too late. The bombs themselves were real: divers have lifted clay shells from the seabed off Takashima. The film follows the weapons of the Mongol age, c. 1250 to 1300, from a bowyer’s bench to the beach at Hakata: the composite bow of horn, sinew and wood; Carpini’s account of Mongol arms; Song and Goryeo crossbows; the fire lance and the heaven-shaking thunder bomb of Kaifeng; the counterweight trebuchets said to have helped end the siege of Xiangyang; the Mamluks at Ayn Jalut; the burning oil called naphtha, and knights and crossbows in the West; and the Japanese yumi, ō-yoroi and tachi. It keeps three kinds of evidence apart (texts, pictures and objects): the Takashima shells come from the wrecks of 1281, while the bomb in the Suenaga scroll, argues the historian Thomas Conlan, was added in the eighteenth century. Draw weights and prices are called undocumented, not invented, and the Takashima wrecks are never called Mongol. Follow the full route, east to west (The World of Wayward):    • Start Here: The 1270 Silk Road Journey (Ea...   The novel behind this series is Wayward, a trilogy set along this road. Trailer:    • WAYWARD | Epic Silk Road Historical Fictio...   Part of Silk Road Cities, documentaries on life along the Silk Road around 1270. Watch the series:    • Silk Road Cities   Chapters 0:00 The Bowyer’s Bench 1:24 The Riders 3:14 Powder and Engines 4:57 The Wider World 6:34 Hakata, 1274 8:42 What Changed Sources Reference and scholarship: John of Plano Carpini, History of the Mongols (via De Re Militari); Rashid al-Din on Ayn Jalut (via De Re Militari); James Delgado, “Relics of the Kamikaze,” Archaeology 56(1), 2003; Thomas Conlan on the Suenaga scroll; Wikipedia (Mongol invasions of Japan, Thunder crash bomb, Fire lance, Siege of Baghdad (1258), Battle of Ain Jalut, Yumi, Crossbow, Battle of Falkirk). The Goryeosa, the Hachiman Gudōkun, the Jin Shi, Joinville’s own text and Conlan’s book were not read first-hand; what comes from them is attributed in words. The Wayward trilogy These films grew out of the Wayward trilogy, historical novels by Fred Suh set on these roads around 1270. The books on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/6502032990?... Music (YouTube Audio Library): “Tiburtina” by Schwartzy; “Sleep Music No. 1” by Chris Haugen; “Jomon Grove” by The Mini Vandals; “Curse Of Old” by Density & Time; “From Here on In” by Everet Almond; “A Distant Call” by Dan “Lebo” Lebowitz, Tone Seeker; “Rain Over Kyoto Station” by The Mini Vandals. AI disclosure Narration: AI voice (Kokoro). Images and short clips: AI-generated (Google Flow); diagrams: drawn for this film. These are illustrations, not photographs or archival footage, and were reviewed for historical accuracy. Corrections are welcome in the comments. Subscribe for more of the 13th-century Silk Road:    / @wayward-trilogy   Topics: medieval weapons, Mongol composite bow, Takashima shells, Suenaga scroll, Thomas Conlan, fire lance, heaven-shaking thunder bomb, trebuchets at Xiangyang, Ayn Jalut, samurai armor #MedievalWeapons #MongolInvasions #SilkRoad