Oldest US firearm discovered with link to Spanish explorer 500 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.

Scientists have exhumed a nearly 500-year-old bronze conquistador cannon in Arizona that’s the oldest gun ever discovered in the United States. Pictured is a lithograph of Francisco Vázquez de Coronado’s exploration. Universal Images Group via Getty Images

While designed primarily as a wall gun used to protect fortifications, the two-person cannon (pictured) was also portable and could breach wooden or light adobe walls of domiciles in the towns the conquerors encountered. phys.org

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.

“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 (pictured), an Arizona archaeologist who discovered this blaster from the past Deni Seymour

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 cannon helped shed light on the conquistador Francisco Vázquez de Coronado’s ill-fated campaign in the U.S. Southwest.

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 or light adobe walls of domiciles in the towns the conquerors encountered.

The cannon (pictured) was the oldest firearm found in the continental US. phys.org

The lightweight gun was also deceptively powerful, able to propel a massive lead ball some 700 yards through the flimsy structures.

It discharged its shot with a percussive blast that likely instilled terror in an enemy unaccustomed to firearms.

Researchers deduced from the shooter’s somewhat spartan appearance that it may have been cast in Mexico or the Caribbean as opposed to Spain, where more ornate firearm designs were the norm.

Interestingly, the loose cannon was found unloaded without any signs that it had even been fired, suggesting that it was abandoned.

It’s yet unclear what prompted this silence of the blams.

However, historical accounts indicate that the indigenous Sobaipuri O’odham people attacked San Geronimo III, prompting a Spanish retreat.

That theory is supported by the discovery of lead shot, Spanish armor and weapons and Sobaipuri arrowheads at the site.

“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,” wrote Seymour and her colleagues.

On a larger level, the decisive victory delayed Spanish colonization of the area by more than 100 years, making the virgin cannon a symbol of Spain’s impotent campaign in the region.