Early Guns and Gunpowder – Experiments and Ethnoarchaeological Research

ITEMS Q Fig. 1 (left) Employees from the Medieval Centre re-enact medieval sulphur mining in Iceland Q Fig. 2 (right) Excavating animal dung from a pit at the Medieval Centre. The dong is used for producing saltpetre - unfortunately with little luck so far! Early guns and gunpowder – experiments and ethnoarchaeological research Experiments testing early gun gal area in India. Th e third ingre- stations. Th ey are dated to the 14th powder recipes has grown into dient – sulphur – is found in vol- century, and it was not only the raw a complex study researching canic areas. sulphur that was traded at these sta- the gaining and processing of tions, it was also cleaned and proc- raw materials needed for gun It took around 200 years for gun- essed by heat-treatment into a form powder production and the powder to reach Europe. Here the which was useful for gunpowder casting of bronze medieval English monk and philosopher Rog- production. Sulphur was excavated guns. er Bacon speaks about it in a crypto- from the huge deposits in northern gram dated to 1267, which presents Iceland and brought to the coast Q Peter VEMMING the fi rst gunpowder recipe: “but from and from the trade stations on- (DK) saltpetre and sulphur you make light- wards to Europe. ening, if you know the art!” From the beginning of the 11th cen- Introduction It can hardly be questioned that tury sulphur was being exported Nobody knows for sure where the invention of gunpowder was from Iceland. It was used in the wine gunpowder was invented, but the brought to Europe by the Arabs, production in the south where bar- Chinese already knew about it and that in the fi rst couple of hun- rels were cleaned with sulphur be- around 1000 AD when it was used dred years aft er its invention it fore being fi lled with wine. Howev- for fi reworks and in primitive fi re- came to the West via the old cara- er, it is not until aft er 1300 AD that weapons. Gunpowder is made of van roads from India. When the Europeans really begin to demand three simple ingredients, which by Turks took Constantinople in 1453 huge amounts of sulphur for gun- themselves are relatively harmless, these old trade routes were cut off powder production. but put together act extremely vio- and it became necessary to fi nd lently and dangerously. Th ese in- the seaway to India to get the valu- Sulphur was sold in diff erent quali- gredients are sulphur, saltpetre and able and precious saltpetre – and of ties: charcoal. Th e saltpetre provides course spices! oxygen for the pyrotechnical mix- 1 barrel raw sulphur ture, and the charcoal and sulphur Sulphur is found in areas with vol- = 1 barrel fl our or 30 fi sh deliver the fuel. Th e charcoal can canic activity, and to understand 1 barrel washed sulphur be acquired easily, but it is much how sulphur was mined and proc- = 2 barrels fl our or 60 fi sh more diffi cult to get hold of the essed one has to go to Iceland to the 1 barrel heat-treated sulphur other two ingredients. Th erefore, big thermal areas in the northern = 3 barrels fl our or 90 fi sh a reason for placing the invention part of the country. At the local- of gunpowder in China is probably ity Gásir local archaeologists from So much for the Icelandic peasant, because saltpetre exists in a natural the Museum of Akureyri have exca- but when the sulphur reached Eu- form there, as well as in the Ben- vated the fi rst known sulphur trade rope its value increased 30 times! 7/2010 euroREA 23 ITEMS Early guns and gunpowder the French were most likely won work. Th e charcoal we were able to by the tactical use of the longbow make ourselves with no problem. rather than by gunpowder weap- However, we had to go to Iceland to ons. However, modern experiments get sulphur from the same sources at the Medieval Centre in Denmark used in medieval times. At the same with early guns and contemporary time we started the work of making gunpowder recipes shows that these saltpetre from old animal dung, a fi rst canons and gunpowder mixes work that has not been successful were extremely effi cient on the bat- as yet. Th erefore, we sourced our tlefi eld. Today it is commonly rec- sulphur from Iceland from original ognized that the Europeans quickly sources, acquired homemade char- Q Fig. 3 The Loshult gun is fired with learned how to use the gunpowder coal as well as saltpetre from Chile, a lead ball and 20 grams of gunpow- eff ectively, and we can see that these which was the saltpetre we believed der. The ball reaches 1050 meters. early gunpowder recipes are on the came closest to the medieval saltpe- Everything is documented by Mili- same level as modern ones. Th e pri- tre. Th e fi rst experiments were re- tary radar mary reason as to why these early peated with the new materials, and gunpowder weapons did not at once we designed new experiments for dominate the battlefi elds is not be- refi ning the sulphur with old meth- The Europeans cause Europeans did not understand ods. Th ere is no doubt that Europeans how to use these new weapons, but developed their fi rst truly eff ective because it was initially very hard to The Galathea 3 gunpowder recipes for use in guns establish steady and reliable deliver- and canons at the beginning of the ies of the raw materials necessary for Expedition 13th century. Th ese recipes took gunpowder production, namely salt- A couple of years later these experi- hold with such a speed that by the petre and sulphur. ments were still going on, and the 1350s the armouries in Europe al- Ho Group was formed. At that time ready contained vast stores of guns For the past seven years an inter- the Danish government started and gunpowder. In 1350 the monk national group of scholars has been the third Galathea Expedition and Francesco Petrach writes about the working at the Medieval Centre with called for projects. Every 50 years or fi rst canons on the battlefi elds of gunpowder and canons in conjunc- so, a refurnished Danish battleship Europe: tion with the Danish Army. In an sails around the world packed with extensive process the early guns and Danish scientist, collecting data for Th ese instruments, which fi re metal gunpowder recipes were tested at further research. Now the govern- balls with enormous bangs followed the army’s fi ring grounds. Slowly the ment had decided it was time for a by lightening, were very rare a few group has opened up a small win- third Galathea expedition. Th e Ho years ago and were looked upon dow into understanding early gun- Group suggested a project on ear- with great admiration and aston- powder production and the use of ly guns and gunpowder, and got on ishment. Now they are as common gunpowder weapons. Th ere has also board the ship for the Artic areas as any other weapon. How fast and been a growing understanding of and the Bengal Bay of India. Un- ingenious the human brain learns how people developed trade routes fortunately, prior to the ship leav- even the most diffi cult of arts! in order to get the valuable raw ma- ing Denmark for the trip round the terials for gunpowder production, world, Denmark ran into the so- Scholars have always considered as well as how the invention of gun- called ‘Mohammad Crisis’ and the early guns highly ineff ective and powder – as important as the inven- expedition ship changed its route diffi cult to properly aim. It is in- tion of the modern microchip – was away from ‘troubled waters.’ Th is deed true that great English battles the instrument in the rapid globali- meant that the Ho Group suddenly in the “Hundred Year War” against sation and development of the world became a land-based project, and we live in today. the group was not able to use the research labs on board the ship. The First Experiments Th e aim of the project was to docu- When the Medieval Centre under- ment all the places in Iceland where took the fi rst experiments in 2001 sulphur deposits had been exploited with a replica of the small Loshult in historical times and take samples gun – perhaps the oldest surviving from them all for further analysis. gun in the world, found in Sweden Th e fi rst samples from Iceland, col- – we used diff erent medieval gun- lected a few years ago, indicated that powder recipes with very interest- the Icelandic sulphur contained quite ing results. However we quickly a bit of silicon and therefore water, realised that even though the old as silicon is a hydrophilic (it attracts gunpowder recipes were used, in water). Th is meant that the cleansing order to get the highest possibility process would be more eff ective be- statement in our experiments we cause ‘wet’ sulphur is not the best for Q Fig. 4 Sulphur from Iceland – It needs to be cleaned needed to use original, not modern, gunpowder production. Th e cleans- purified before it can be used for gunpowder raw materials in the experimental ing process of Icelandic sulphur thus 24 euroREA 7/2010 Early guns and gunpowder ITEMS became a part of the project and the extremely suspicious of us, but we process was reconstructed from his- managed to get an address of a torical sources in cooperation with modern saltpetre factory.

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