Oldest US firearm discovered with link to Spanish explorer500 years ago

It’s the oldest gun in the West.Scientists have exhumed a nearly 500-year-old bronze conquistador cannon in Arizona that’s the oldest gun ever discovered in the United States, per a combustive new study published in the International Journal of Historical Archaeology.“Consultation with experts throughout the continent and in Europe reveal that it is also the oldest firearm ever found inside the continental USA,” said Deni Seymour, an Arizona archaeologist who discovered the blaster from the past, according to ZME Science.Measuring 42 inches in length and weighing about 40 pounds, the ancient artillery piece was discovered at a repository in the Santa Cruz Valley of Arizona, Phys.org reported.It was located on the floor of a Spanish stone-and-adobe building that was part of San Geronimo III, the first European settlement in the Southwest, which was founded during the Spanish conquest in 1541.By employing radiocarbon dating and other cutting-edge techniques, researchers were able to date the historical smoking gun back to Francisco Vázquez de Coronado’s doomed campaign between 1539 and 1542.This notorious Spanish conquistador notably led 400 soldiers, their families and approximately 1,500 Indigenous allies northward from Mexico in search of the legendary “Seven Cities of Gold.”Like predecessor Ponce De Leon’s ill-fated search for the so-called “fountain of youth,” the Southwest incursion ended in disaster after Coronado found only sparse settlements instead of the gilded metropolises he had envisioned.During that time, the conquistador established San Geronimo III, an outpost that was notably defended with bronze cannons like the newly found weapon.

The firearm — which was the first gun ever recovered from the Coronado expedition — was a marvel of engineering that was designed to be mounted on a wooden tripod.While meant primarily as a wall gun used to protect fortifications, the two-person cannon was also portable and could breach wooden ...