section_path: Early Middle Ages/Military and technology
section_name: Military and technology
paragraph_text: Military and technology
  
  The creation of heavily-armoured cataphract -type soldiers as cavalry was an important feature of the later Roman military, although the deployment of highly-specialised troops continued. The invading tribes had different emphases on types of soldiers, ranging from the primarily-infantry Anglo-Saxon invaders of Britain to the Vandals and Visigoths, who had a high proportion of cavalry in their armies. The greatest change in military affairs was the adoption of the Hunnic composite bow in place of the weaker Scythian composite bow. The Avar heavy cavalry introduced the use of stirrups in Europe, and it was adopted by Byzantine cavalrymen before the end of the 6th century. Another development was the increasing use of longswords and the progressive replacement of scale armour by mail and lamellar armour.
  
  The importance of infantry and light cavalry began to decline during the early Carolingian period with the increasing dominance of elite heavy cavalry, although a large proportion of the armies appear to have been mounted infantry rather than true cavalry. The use of militia-type levies of the free population declined. One exception was Anglo-Saxon England, where the armies were still composed of regional levies known as the fyrd. In military technology, one of the main changes was the reappearance of the crossbow as a military weapon. A technological advance with implications beyond the military was the horseshoe, which allowed horses to be used in rocky terrain.