The cannons were abandoned after the Spanish lost a battle in present-day Arizona.
Two cannons found at a 1541 site in Arizona may be the oldest surviving firearms in the United States. They were abandoned by the Spanish when they were defeated by the natives.
A study last month in The International Journal of Historical Archaeology revealed those that could be the oldest firearms ever found in the US.
Archaeologists found two 16th-century cannons while excavating a site called San Geronimo III (also known as Suya), a small town founded by the Spanish more than 480 years ago in Arizona.
As detailed by , both weapons arrived at the site during a Spanish expedition led by Francisco Vazquez de Coronado.
During the expedition, Coronado and his group traveled from present-day Mexico to the present-day American states of Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Kansas, between 1539 and 1542. By that time, the Spanish conquistadors had already conquered much of Mesoamerica and Peru , destroying the Aztec and Inca civilizations.
The expedition invaded San Geronimo III in 1541but the group encountered resistance from Native Americans, which led to a battle in the city that resulted in the escape from the Spanishabandoning the two cannons at the scene.
The first cannon was discovered in 2020. According to archaeologists, it was in excellent condition and does not appear to have been fired during the battle. The second cannon was found in March 2024 and will be analyzed in a future study. Unlike the other cannon, its barrel was burst.
Both cannons were known as hackbut or hook cannons – lightweight bronze cannons that were relatively easy to transport over land.
But the Spanish did not rely solely on cannons to defend the site. Archaeologists found the remains of bullshit made of copper and iron; and still remains of the expedition’s swords, daggers and armor.
Despite these weapons, the Spanish were defeated and the expedition ended up failing. According to researchers, the Spanish only attempted to establish a permanent presence in that region in the 1690s.
The discovery of these weapons thus shows that indigenous peoples opposed organized resistance to the arrival of outsiders since the beginning”, explains the archaeologist to LiveScience Matthew Schmaderfrom the University of New Mexico, who has done extensive work in the region.
