Current knowledge concerning the introduction of shipboard artillery in Europe is limited. A small, muzzle-loading cast copper-alloy gun recovered off Marstrand on the west coast of Sweden may, however, provide some important leads regarding this development. The cannon dates back to the 14th century CE and is believed to come from a shipwreck.
In the summer of 2001, a small, archaic-looking cannon was found in open sea, approximately 5 km south-west of the island of Marstrand on the west coast of Sweden.
It was lying at the foot of the large shoal Hannehakarna, partially buried in sediment at a water depth of approximately 20 m.
The discoverer, a local scuba diver who at first did not understand what he had found, managed to bring the heavy piece to the surface.
Some time later, after having realized the importance of the find, he notified the Maritime Museum in Gothenburg about his discovery.
Archaeologists concluded that it was a shipboard cannon, and not a cannon that was being transported as cargo, because it still had parts of a charge left in its powder chamber when it was found.
This means the cannon was loaded and ready for use in combat at the time it ended up on the sea floor.
Thanks to the preserved remains of the charge, it has been possible to use radiocarbon dating to establish the age of the find.
“The lack of reliable typologies often makes isolated finds of early pieces of artillery difficult to date,” said University of Gothenburg maritime archaeologist Staffan von Arbin and colleagues.
“However, thanks to the cloth fragment, the Marstrand find offers a rare dating opportunity, as radiocarbon dating of the textile would indirectly also date the gun.”
“Fiber samples were for this reason extracted for radiocarbon analysis. The result came back as 635 years before present, which provides a likely date to 1285-1399 CE.”
“This could potentially date the gun as far back as the 13th century, although a 14th-century dating is much…
Read the full article here