Ballista elephant

The discussions as to the origin of the Asian crossbow has been, to a lesser extent, applied to the ballista as well as almost identical war machines have been observed in China.

However, it was a combination of various elements of Chinese warfare equipment, which was upcycled by creatively mounting it on the back of a war elephant.

In both cases, they appear only in the great military parade which may suggest that the elephant ballista never made it to the battlefield for practical reasons.

[2] First of all, the complexity of the elephant ballista which was represented in the Bayon and not in Angkor Wat was one of the factors that led Georges Coedes to doubt his own chronology.

The elephant ballista also helped archeologists better understand the role, influence of and relationship of the Khmer civilization with China.

Ballista war elephants attacking the Chams.
Khmer elephant mounted crossbow.
Large mounted crossbows known as "bed crossbows" were used as early as the Warring States period as Chinese siege weapons . Mozi described them as defensive weapons placed on top the battlements.