Hammer blows to the head

Analysis of Greek prehistoric combat in full body armour based on physiological principles: A series of studies using thematic analysis, human experiments, and numerical simulations

“…Core body(36.4-37.7˚C) and mean skin (29.1-36.1˚C) temperatures indicated minor hyperthermia, while heart rate (57-166 beats/min) suggested a moderate-to-high effort during simulated combat (up to ~80% of maximum heart rate;Fig 5 and S11 Fig in S1 File). The force generated by participants during combat hits was relatively high (3.5±0.9 kN; Fig 6 and S12 Fig in S1 File) and could inflict serious injury.Previous studies have shown that fracture risk begins at any stroke with >2 kN impact force[52] (i.e., >99% of hits in our study), while hits between 3.3[53] and 4.8[54] kN (i.e., >89% of hits in our study) lead to severe fractures. There was a moderate decline in blood glucose levels across time (r = -0.234, p = 0.017), from an average of 105.5±14.0 mg/dL in the morning to 89.4±9.0 mg/dL at the end of the 11-hour combat simulation protocol (S13 Fig inS1File).…”