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# A Trebuchet Left 160 Fractures in a Medieval Skeleton. The Closest Modern Match Is a Car Crash.
- URL: https://www.gottabekidding.me/a-trebuchet-left-160-fractures-in-a-medieval-skeleton-the-closest-modern-match-is-a-car-crash/
- Published: 2026-09-25T10:01:41.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-25T10:01:41.000Z
- Description: A forensic pattern so specific it crosses seven centuries. What leaves that kind of signature on a medieval skeleton buried under a Scottish castle?
- Author: Deep Time
- Tags: History

A man died at Stirling Castle sometime around 1304\. Something massive struck him from behind while moving at tremendous speed, and his skeleton absorbed more than 160 fractures, most of them concentrated in the skull and ribs. The injuries were sustained at or around the time of death. When bioarchaeologist Jo Buckberry of the University of Bradford went looking for comparable cases in the forensic literature, the closest matches she found were car crashes and people hit by trains.

She was looking at the right kind of force. Just the wrong century.

The question was simple: what could move with that much force, at that speed, in 1304? The answer was already in the history books. That year, Edward I of England besieged Stirling Castle using powerful trebuchets, including the War Wolf, a massive siege engine reportedly capable of hurling stones that weighed more than 300 pounds.

The young man's remains were discovered in the Stirling Castle chapel alongside eight other medieval burials in 1997\. Buckberry says this is the first confirmed case of trebuchet-caused trauma ever found in the archaeological record. The bones cannot identify the exact siege engine, but an English trebuchet launching a stone into the castle fits both the date and the direction of the injuries.

Seven hundred years later, the skeleton still carries the impact pattern of a weapon built to knock down castles.

**Read the full story at** [Smithsonian Magazine, August 14, 2026](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/a-medieval-mans-injuries-reminded-one-archaeologist-of-modern-day-car-crash-victims-they-turned-out-to-be-the-work-of-an-english-trebuchet-180989346/?ref=gottabekidding.me)

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**Hot Take:** Somewhere, an Age of Empires player is looking at the trebuchet damage stats and thinking, “Yeah, that tracks.”