Oldest firearm found in the U.S.

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bpd303

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Not really a cannon but close. A wall gun (cannon) found in Arizona interesting story.
"The gun is an important artifact, and is no doubt the earliest known surviving firearm in the United States and one of, if not the earliest found in a reliable context in the New World," the researchers wrote.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/oldest-known-firearm-u-unearthed-151851267.html
 
Not really a cannon but close. A wall gun (cannon) found in Arizona interesting story.
"The gun is an important artifact, and is no doubt the earliest known surviving firearm in the United States and one of, if not the earliest found in a reliable context in the New World," the researchers wrote.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/oldest-known-firearm-u-unearthed-151851267.html
These are pretty iconic for the early 16th century in Europe, so its really cool to see one used in the New World. They are often called Doppelhaken and have a large range of size and weight.
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Hakenbüchsen_geschmiedet_16._Jh.jpg


Illustrated examples from Maximillian's Armory, around 1502
https://www.loc.gov/item/2021667793/
MaximillianArmoryForwardSerpentine.jpg

Hackenbusche.jpg
 
Not really a cannon but close. A wall gun (cannon) found in Arizona interesting story.
"The gun is an important artifact, and is no doubt the earliest known surviving firearm in the United States and one of, if not the earliest found in a reliable context in the New World," the researchers wrote.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/oldest-known-firearm-u-unearthed-151851267.html
A while back there was a full article about this gun in The American Rifleman mag. It showed the archaeologist who found it, etc. Very interesting story covering many years.
 
These are pretty iconic for the early 16th century in Europe, so its really cool to see one used in the New World. They are often called Doppelhaken and have a large range of size and weight.
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Illustrated examples from Maximillian's Armory, around 1502
https://www.loc.gov/item/2021667793/
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The article mentioned a "wooden tripod" which appears in that 2nd illustration from Maximillian's Armory
 
I wonder where they could find lead to cast shot or balls. And the possibility of a foundry here about the same time.

They probably had to recourse to using stone projectiles - lead in North America seems to be a Northern thing, you even have a town named after the stuff - Galena Illinois. I also found this article about native American usage that might be of interest, or not.


Hopewell Culture Galena​

Hopewell Culture National Historical Park

A white square box filled with small, square pieces of a gray/silver rock-shaped mineral.


A box filled with cuboidal pieces of galena, from the park's resource collection.
NPS Photo / Tom Engberg
Written by Park Guide Sarah Hinkelman


Galena’s unusual properties have made it a commonly used mineral throughout human history. It’s shiny, breaks apart into perfect cubes, and way heavier than it looks- no, it’s not a silver Rubik’s cube, it’s an octahedral mineral, galena!

Known as lead-sulfide (PbS), galena is a common mineral found throughout the world. Silver sometimes accompanies galena, offering a shine that is quite eye-catching. As the most common source of lead ore, galena has been used in eastern North America for about 8,000 thousand years by American Indians!

For the people of the Hopewell culture, galena was found at many of their sites- Hopewell Mound Group contained 200 pounds! Because galena is known for its high density, here’s a way to picture how heavy a small piece would be. If you had some galena that was about the size of a baseball, that galena-ball would feel more than ten times heavier! A typical baseball is almost one-third of a pound, the galena-ball would be about 3.4 pounds!

Galena was rarely found as intricately worked artifacts from 2,000 years ago. At most, the pieces were ground, showing shiny surfaces, probably from grinding into powder. In more recent history, American Indians had been known to use powdered galena as body paint or to throw into the sun, while some were known to have carried these silver stones. Similar to other exotic materials found at Hopewell sites, galena was not a locally mined material. Sourcing studies have determined much of the galena was from near Galena, Illinois--in the Upper Mississippi Valley. Nearby, pipestone sources have also been found, which strengthens the connection between this area and the Scioto River Valley.
 
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Deni gave a presentation on the status of her Coronado project a couple of years ago to members of the Jornada Research Institute, based in Tularosa, New Mexico. I was a member of the JRI board, and the institute is a financial supporter of Deni's work. Pretty fascinating stuff, and she included maps of the location of projectiles and other artifacts that told the story of fierce battles between the indigenous people and the Spaniards left to defend outposts on the trail.

https://www.deni-seymour.com/vasquez-de-coronado
 
I wonder where they could find lead to cast shot or balls. And the possibility of a foundry here about the same time.
It’s extremely unlikely they had a foundry to cast the gun here. It was still a somewhat advanced process back in Europe and after casting the gun barrel, they would need specialized tools to finish boring out the barrel. This shows an iron example, but it would be the same for bronze:
IMG_1144.jpeg
 
Deni gave a presentation on the status of her Coronado project a couple of years ago to members of the Jornada Research Institute, based in Tularosa, New Mexico. I was a member of the JRI board, and the institute is a financial supporter of Deni's work. Pretty fascinating stuff, and she included maps of the location of projectiles and other artifacts that told the story of fierce battles between the indigenous people and the Spaniards left to defend outposts on the trail.

https://www.deni-seymour.com/vasquez-de-coronado
Lucky you! I bet it was interesting hearing the story from her.
 
Of the 6 guns of this type recorded as having been fielded with Coronado's expedition, 3 are known to have been found: 2 in Deni's excavations and another in the hands of, I believe, the National Park Service. The gun covered in the Rifleman article was the first Deni found, and is the best specimen. Her second find, while essentially identical, was burst in service, and inspection shows flaws in the casting as the probable cause of failure. The third, which I have not seen, is said to have been purposely destroyed by being externally beaten and deformed - this gun is not currently on display. Both of Deni's guns were featured in presentations by her and her co-author, Bill Mapoles, to the membership of the Historical Arms Society of Tucson, AZ (HAST), of which I am also a member. Many of the other artifacts she recovered were also exhibited. It does appear that the guns were cast in the New World - they are crude by comparison with existing European specimens of similar type, and were quite obviously cast in a horizontal, rather than the conventional vertical, position. As to boring after casting: the crude nature of the guns makes it difficult to tell whether they were fine bored or simply left as-cast - further inspection may clarify the point. That, and the obvious lack of sophistication in their manufacture, make it unlikely that they were produced by the experienced founders of Spain. As to the metallurgical analysis of the bronze, which might tell more about the origin of their substance: I did ask Deni about the origins of the copper and tin in the alloy, and she said that she intends to have the analysis done, but has not yet done so. Native copper was available in the Americas, but the tin in the alloy would almost certainly come from Europe. Casting, while done in an odd manner, would not have been beyond the ability of the Spanish then residing in the Americas, considering how much looted gold and silver had already been smelted, melted and cast for shipment to Spain. And lead, in the quantities needed for Spanish firearms, could have been, and likely was, imported.
Another issue for the Spaniards in the New World, made evident by other artifacts recovered in the Coronado sites, was their lack of non-imported iron, as many (apparently all) of the recovered crossbow bolt points were rather crudely made, not of iron, but copper.
In all, Deni's work has provided a window into the historical events and conditions surrounding the Coronado expeditions, and in the Spanish conquests in the Americas.

mhb - MIke
 
Of the 6 guns of this type recorded as having been fielded with Coronado's expedition, 3 are known to have been found: 2 in Deni's excavations and another in the hands of, I believe, the National Park Service. The gun covered in the Rifleman article was the first Deni found, and is the best specimen. Her second find, while essentially identical, was burst in service, and inspection shows flaws in the casting as the probable cause of failure. The third, which I have not seen, is said to have been purposely destroyed by being externally beaten and deformed - this gun is not currently on display. Both of Deni's guns were featured in presentations by her and her co-author, Bill Mapoles, to the membership of the Historical Arms Society of Tucson, AZ (HAST), of which I am also a member. Many of the other artifacts she recovered were also exhibited. It does appear that the guns were cast in the New World - they are crude by comparison with existing European specimens of similar type, and were quite obviously cast in a horizontal, rather than the conventional vertical, position. As to boring after casting: the crude nature of the guns makes it difficult to tell whether they were fine bored or simply left as-cast - further inspection may clarify the point. That, and the obvious lack of sophistication in their manufacture, make it unlikely that they were produced by the experienced founders of Spain. As to the metallurgical analysis of the bronze, which might tell more about the origin of their substance: I did ask Deni about the origins of the copper and tin in the alloy, and she said that she intends to have the analysis done, but has not yet done so. Native copper was available in the Americas, but the tin in the alloy would almost certainly come from Europe. Casting, while done in an odd manner, would not have been beyond the ability of the Spanish then residing in the Americas, considering how much looted gold and silver had already been smelted, melted and cast for shipment to Spain. And lead, in the quantities needed for Spanish firearms, could have been, and likely was, imported.
Another issue for the Spaniards in the New World, made evident by other artifacts recovered in the Coronado sites, was their lack of non-imported iron, as many (apparently all) of the recovered crossbow bolt points were rather crudely made, not of iron, but copper.
In all, Deni's work has provided a window into the historical events and conditions surrounding the Coronado expeditions, and in the Spanish conquests in the Americas.

mhb - MIke
Excellent information! I disavow my previous comment. When I mentioned that it was “fairly advanced” for casting firearms, my main evidence for that was that Europeans were still varying the composition of the metal and had more recently figured out the proper orientation to cast gun barrels (in addition to the tool for finishing the barrel, which now looks like a moot point), but it sounds like both of those were less of a concern, considering they cast it at such a non optimal orientation.
 
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