Somehow I fail to see how this is surprising.
There’s possibly something there though, even if the steak tartar version is incorrect. Bret Deveraux claims the aim was to preserve meat into a kind of jerky: “On the move, meat could be placed between the rider’s saddle and the horse’s back – the frequent compression of riding, combined with the salinity of the horse’s sweat would produce a dried, salted jerky that would keep for a very long time.”[1]
His stuff is very well sourced, but also he’s self-admittedly talking outside his area of expertise there. So who knows.
[1] https://acoup.blog/2020/12/11/collections-that-dothraki-hord...
I had always assumed they had the same etymology. It didn't help that in Spanish all of these words maintain the 'r' between the 'a' and 't': tártaro, ra, Tártaro, Tartaria.
Here there are 3 different etymologies: https://dle.rae.es/t%C3%A1rtaro and here there's another one: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sauce_tartare
Although I don't know if the Wikipedia article should be trusted, since the English version one (Tartar sauce) states: "The word Tartar is a Turkic word that is the name of Tatar people."
Seems like a western adaptation of tatziki or tarator sauce, plus some orientalist confusion over who to call “tartars”. Interesting stuff!
Validating assumptions is useful science.
At all levels they found a significant number of skeletons with bone fractures.
For lower classes, regular street brawls will produce a lot of injuries. Upper class people will get into some street violence, but the presence of retinues will drastically reduce their incidence. On the other hand, for upper classes (but not monks) war and training for war will produce a ton of injuries, many fatal. Learning to fence and joust are very dangerous activities even in modern times.
Horses. Even today, horses are profoundly dangerous. Go to any hospital warn dealing with neck injuries. Young men fall off motorcycles, and so are generally a little older (16+). Young girls break their necks falling off horses. That particular fall (head first off a horse) is horrible. The neck takes all the load. Helmets protect the skull, not the neck. Obama once said that if he had sons there would be a conversation about them playing football. If I had daughters, they would not ride horses.
0 - https://i.pinimg.com/originals/4a/15/22/4a1522079ba2951466fb... This type is necessary if you wish to practice with steel swords, among other protective equipment. Steel can cave in regular fencing masks.
1 - Against cutting blows, which is the main issue in practice. Such a plate would be disastrous in actual war, since it would guarantee that any arrow making contact would “bite” rather than deflecting.
Epee fencing, on the other hand, uses a heavier, stiffer sword, so when you poke somebody it can bruise.
Sabre fencing is the third modern fencing style, and allows you to score points with the blade (slashing) instead of just the point as with foil and epee. I've never done it but have heard it is the most physical style of the three.
This photo is of an epee match, but displays the still considerable flexibility of the weapon and the electrification wires that trail behind each combatant. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89p%C3%A9e#/media/File:Fin...
For comparison’s sake here[0] is a very high quality practice fencing blade in a historically correct style. The weird shape is to help maintain the correct balance after the edge and point have been thickened to avoid injury.
We didn’t really go for point based scoring, since we were attempting to replicate a historical fencing school. In actual fights it is incredibly common for both combatants to fatally injure each other in an exchange, so we recognized the idea of dual hits where both combatants were struck. With both steel and plastic weapons the impacts are loud enough to not require any special detection equipment.
[0] - http://www.albion-swords.com/swords/albion/maestro/sword-pra...
Yes! who cares about the lives of such lowly peasants.
/s