‘Pinned to the ground’: Badly-fractured 700-year-old skeleton could be first ever casualty of giant medieval catapult

Forensic analysis revealed that a 700-year-old skeleton in Scotland could be the first ever recorded casualty of a trebuchet. Europa Press via Getty Images He was catapulted to fame 700 years later. A 14th-century skeleton with 167 fractures could be the first recorded casualty of a powerful medieval catapult known as a trebuchet. “It looks like he was hit from behind by something traveling at a great velocity,” Jo Buckberry, a bioarchaeologist at the UK’s University of Bradford told Science Magazine. “It’s likely the individual was killed by a siege engine.” She reportedly unveiled this so-called first ever instance of “trebuchet trauma” at the biannual European meeting of the Paleopathology Association in Berlin. A view of Stirling Castle in Scotland on May 30. De Agostini via Getty Imag