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Caltrop
(a.k.a. Crowsfoot, Calthrop,
Jack Rock, Star Nail)
 The artifact shown on the left is a caltrop that was unearthed in an excavation near Jamestown, and is a great example of the simplistic design of a caltrop. The weapon was generally crafted from scrap iron and forged into shape with 4 iron points. This design insured that no matter how the caltrop may land, 1 point will always project upwards.
Since most sailors tended to work barefoot on board a ship to avoid slipping on wet decks and for general comfort, Pirates would sometimes toss caltrops or
crowsfeet onto the deck of a ship they
were preparing to board. The spikes could inflict terrible injuries or extreme pain if trodden on, and
at the very least add confusion and
chaos to a ship as it tried to defend
itself.The military device,
sometimes written and said caltrap,
appears to have been named after one of
a number of plants with spiny burrs. For
obvious reasons it’s another name for
the star thistle (Centaurea calcitrapa).
It’s a local name for the curled
pondweed (Potomageton crispus), which
produces lots of winter seeds that are
hard and burr-like. A plant called the
water chestnut (Trapa natans) is also
known as the water caltrop, which has
fruit with two spines that are hard
enough to penetrate the hooves of stock
as well as human feet.
The word derives from the Old English
calketrippe, for any plant that tended
to catch the feet. In turn this comes
from the medieval Latin calcatrippa, a
compound either of calx, “heel” or
calcare, “to tread”, with a word related
to “trap” that came from one of the
Germanic languages. The military sense
of the word probably came into English
from French usage. |
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