A Study on the Ancient Weapons -An Experimental Consideration on the Practical Use-

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When we consider the change of ancient weapons, it is one of the important factors whether they are practical or not. To test it, I made a bow and arrows, which had been main offensive arms, based upon the archaeological remains excavated from mounded tombs, and actually shot them. As a result, they proved to be practical enough in battle. Since Yayoi period, offensive arms and defensive armors were used as actual fighting equipment, and went through changes influencing each other.It was the wooden cuirasses that were adopted first to protect the body against the attack. Then, in the 4th century, the arrows equipped with a heavy iron arrowhead were developed to break the wooden defensive equipment. From the end of the 4th century to the 5th century, the iron armors came to be widely used.In the first half of the 5th century, new forms of battle equipment were introduced. They were socketed pikes, iron arrowheads with long joint of tang, quivers, scale armors and so on. These were originally the equipment for the troopers and it is considered that their origins are in the area from the northern part of Korea to the northeast district of China. They were brought to Japan by way of Korea. But, as unearthed horse armors were very rare in Japan, it seems that there were few battles by the troopers.As the reason for these changes of weapons, it will be possible to point out not only the domestic battles to unify a state but also relations with eastern Asia.