(NewsNation) — A 480-year-old gun researchers discovered in Arizona is likely the oldest known firearm in the continental U.S. and will have a new home at the Arizona State Museum.
A bronze cannon, or wall gun, was recovered in an excavation at the former settlement of San Geronimo III in southwest Arizona.
Using radiocarbon testing and other scientific techniques to determine its age and origin, the gun likely came from Mexico or the Caribbean nearly five centuries ago during the 1539-1542 expedition led by Francisco Vázquez de Coronado.
Coronado was a Spanish conquistador exploring the modern-day American Southwest.
“This wall gun is the first gun known to be associated with the Coronado expedition and is the oldest firearm ever found within the continental USA, and perhaps the oldest cannon currently known on the continent,” the authors, Deni J. Seymour and William P. Mapoles, wrote in a research study published in the International Journal of Historical Archaeology on Nov. 21.
Though the research was publicly released recently, the firearm was found in the fall of 2020 embedded in a Spanish stone and adobe structure, along with other Spanish artifacts: Broken swords and daggers, fishhooks, clothing fasteners and more.
The 42-inch 40-pound gun did not have any bullets and was likely never fired. Researchers said they believe the settlement where the gun was found was abandoned hundreds of years ago.
“This final blow seems to be the precipitating event that led to the abandonment of the wall gun, where it remained snugly encased in an eroded Spanish adobe-and-rock-walled structure [ruin] for 480 years,” the researchers said.
