The Baffler

By Sean Koetting

Anthropologists Lawrence H. Keeley, Marisa Fontana, and Russell Quick recently published a research paper for the Journal of Archaeological Research entitled " Baffles and Bastions." The paper provides a detailed history of militarized building designs, such as, V- sectioned ditches, bastions (or a bulwark, is a structure projecting outward from the main enclosure of a fortification), and defense gates ancient planners used defend against their enemies.
As one might expect, nearly all of the defensive features analyzed occurred at entry points including peripheries, borders, and thresholds. Referred to as enceintes (A structure or an area protected by an encircling fortification) these barriers built to prevent unwanted access nearly all thwart vision to a specific location and posses other similar functional characteristics.



The archaeological diagrams featured above illustrate, in plan view, the various techniques used to design baffled entryways. These design are particularly interesting because, although they all derived from different cultures and periods in time, many use a similar strategy to expose and take advantage of their enemies vulnerabilities should a breach occur. The architecture forces the invaders to expose their flanks and rear to defenders fire by orienting them to the left, exposing their unshielded right side. Moreover, the spiral staircases found in most of these castles and fortresses spin clock-wise as you go up, making it much more difficult to swing a sword with the central pillar in the way.

Thanks for reading,
Sean Koetting.

Source: http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/baffler.html