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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!
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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. Th is place Akureyri Museum. produced saltpetre from modern chemicals, but being a family busi- As part of the project we also ness they had been in the trade for planned to go to Sicily to locate sul- generations, and aft er a while they phur sources on that island. On Sic- showed the group the old facilities ily the sulphur is embedded in the where, until recently, they had pro- rock and is mined in deep shaft s. To duced saltpetre from the top soil of extract the sulphur they burned it in the fi elds close to river Ganges us- Q Fig. 5a Along the banks of the riv- a pit, in more or less the same way ing the traditional methods. Th e er Ganges the farmers every spring as charcoal is produced. Th is meth- Ho group hired the factory, and the scrapes of the top soil in very thin od is wasteful, but gives a very clean old people reconstructed the plant layers to produce saltpetre end product. Th e quality of the Sicil- and actually produced saltpetre us- ian sulphur could very well be the ing traditional methods, which had reason why this island rapidly took probably been used since medieval over the sulphur production for the times in that area. Due to this eth- world market from Iceland. Later on nological approach we were able, a big fi nd of sulphur in Utah, USA for the fi rst time, to document the was able to be sold and processed so process and take samples for fur- cheaply that it took over the world ther analysis. market, and the economy of Sicily collapsed, because the landowners Aft erwards, we followed the trade had risked everything in the sulphur routes for saltpetre along the Gan- Q Fig. 5b The soil is put into a pit and production. Th e island experienced ges River to Calcutta (or Kolkata). water is poured over so that the salt- very tough times with huge social Here the English had established petre is extracted from the earth problems! themselves at Fort Wilson, and from this stronghold they claimed a mo- Another vital part of gunpowder is nopoly on the saltpetre trade. Th e – as mentioned above – saltpetre. Danish colony Serampore, a little Saltpetre is found naturally along further up the river, was not strong the Ganges River, where for centu- enough to fi ght the English so it ries farmers have scraped the topsoil was sold for a little over one million off the fi elds and extracted the valu- rigsdaler. Th e Ho Group visited this able white powder every spring. Th is old Danish colony, and knowing production was extremely intense, that the fi rst Danish Galathea ship and for centuries Bengal was the and expedition had been here 150 Q Fig. 5c In huge evaporating tanks saltpetre centre of the world until years earlier to hand over the col- the water that contains saltpetre is more eff ective explosives took over ony to the English made the visit a boiled down in modern times. From old English bit emotional! accounts the Ho Group has coordi- nates of a number of old production sites in the Bihar province, but the The Canon places are not easily accessible, and Returning to the experiments that most likely impossible to fi nd with- started it all, (the test shootings with out local help. Th is we got from pro- the Loshult gun) we actually had a fessor Balasubramaniam from the touch of bad conscience on this mat- Indian University of Technology, ter. Th e replica gun was made at a lo- Kanpur. With his students as guides cal foundry, but they had not mas- and a modern GPS, we tried to lo- tered the old techniques, and the Q Fig. 5d Impurities such as com- cate the areas in question, but had barrel had been bored out. Th is did mon salt are removed to give up as it was too dangerous to not have any infl uence on the exper- drive around the diff erent areas. imental results, but there was a wish to see and document bigger bronze Instead, another approach was cho- corpus pieces being made with cire sen. In the areas around the town of perdue or lost wax technique. Agra numerous illegal fi rework fac- tories produce primitive fi reworks In the last couple of years the Uni- for Indian festivals like Diwali. If versity of Moesgaard in Denmark we could get in contact with one of has been experimenting with bell these factories we could potential- founding on the basis of early me- Q Fig. 5e After crystallizing it goes ly follow the saltpetre backwards dieval accounts. Th ey had suc- through a number of cleansing to the producer. Th is approach did ceeded in making a couple of bells, processes before it can be used in not work out, as the farmers were and they agreed to try and make gunpowder production
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the Loshult gun using the lost wax preserve the craft s, but the work is Bibliography technique. Th ey made a couple of enormous and the funds are few. In Vemming Hansen, Peter 2001: Loshult guns but were not that satisfi ed with the workshop of Swamilai we found kanonen – et rekonstruktionsforsøg. the fi nish on the surface – they sim- an unbroken line of 350 years of Middelaldercentret 2001. ply lacked hundreds of years of ex- master bronze casters – the Sthap- Vemming Hansen, Peter 2002: Th e Loshult perience. At this point we contact- athys (which means ‘master’). Mr. gun. Journal of Ordenance Society. Bristol ed the University of Kanpur again Devansenapathy, the present Mas- Ho reports 1- 8: Th e Medieval and were directed to a university in ter of the Workshop, is unmarried Centre research reports – see www. southern India in Bangalore – Th e and devotes his entire life to this middelaldercentret.dk Institute of Advanced Studies – and old craft . Th e workshop produces Smith Douglas, Robert 2009 (in press): Rewriting the story of gunpowder. Dr. Sharada Srinivasan. Th rough religious images in the old tradition Middelaldercentret 2009. her we contacted a highly reputed using lost wax technique. A total of factory in the village of Swamimalai 20% of the earning of the workshop near Tanjavur and later went there goes to the poor people in the vil- Summary to document the lost wax technique lage, another part goes to building Armes à feu et poudre à cannon and to visit a nearby bell-foundry houses for the workers and yet an- - expériences et recherches workshop. other part for running a school to ethnoarchéologiques educate new bronze casters in the Les européens ont développé les premières In India many of the old craft s are old technique. Th is model of pre- recettes de poudre à canon utilisable dans preserved and alive today, even serving craft s is in use in several des armes à feu au début du XIIIe siècle. though they are rapidly disappear- places in India, but in many cases Les expériences modernes ont démontré leur effi cacité. La raison pour laquelle elles ing. Much work is being done to one also sees highly qualifi ed craft s- n’étaient pas utilisées plus fréquemment est men selling their work for the low- probablement la diffi culté de se procurer est price on the streets. Programmes les matières premières. Lancées en 2001, that seeks to unite these craft s in les expérimentations au “Medieval Center” communities, set up distribution sont passées de l’utilisation de matériaux systems for the fi nished products modernes au recours aux matériaux and make it worthwhile so that be- originaux cités dans les sources médiévales ing a craft sman in modern India is et à la production même de ces matières highly prised – not just in India but premières. Les recherches ont été ensuite anywhere where old craft s are in approfondies avec la réalisation d’une arme reconstituée selon la technique originale the danger of disappearing as vic- de fonte à cire perdue. tims of our modern world! Th e visit in the Tanjavur district and to the Frühe Schusswaff en und Schießpulver – diff erent workshops gave the bell- Experimente und ethnoarchäologische and canon founders of Aarhus Uni- Forschung versity a gargantuan jump forward Die Europäer entwickelten die ersten in knowledge and skill and they are Anleitungen zur Herstellung von now producing very good quality Schießpulver für Schusswaff en zu bronzes applying the Indian experi- Beginn des 13. Jahrhunderts. Moderne ence to local tradition. Experimente zeigen, dass die frühen Waff en und das Schießpulver eff ektiv gewesen sind. Der Grund, weshalb sie Q Fig. 6 The reconstructions department from Aarhus The Future nicht häufi ger zum Einsatz kamen, University is making an oven to cast a replica of the mag darin liegen, dass es schwierig Loshult gun in lost wax technique Th e work with early guns and gun- war, zuverlässige Lieferungen der powder has brought the Medieval notwendigen Rohstoff e zu gewährleisten. Centre and the Ho Group quite a Die Experimente im Mittelalter-Zentrum long way, but there is still quite a wurden 2001 begonnen und entwickelten lot of fi eld work and a lot of experi- sich von der Nutzung moderner ments to be done. However, slowly, Materialien über die Herstellung year by year, the group has uncov- originalgetreuer Zusammensetzungen ers more and more knowledge of bis zum Erwerb von Materialien aus den selben Rohstoff quellen wie im Mittelalter; this fascinating subject. A wonder- dabei wurde dann auch die Verarbeitung ful story tells about times when the und die Gewinnung des Rohmaterials blast from a gun was considered a genau beachtet. Weiter widmeten sich die work of the devil. To prove this, a Untersuchungen der Herstellung einer für bishop took two canons and load- die Versuche geeigneten Schusswaff e mit ed them. In one of them he sprayed Hilfe des Gusses in verlorener Form. holy water and, as it would not fi re, he had proven that it was the dev- Q Peter Vemming is a director and il’s making! Today we know a bit founder of the Medieval Centre, more about gunpowder, but study- Nykøbing Falster Denmark. He is Q Fig. 7 In Swamimalai in southern India, the ancient art ing early gunpowder is not a simple especially interested in medieval of bell founding is demonstrated to the Danish museum task and there remains much work mechanical- and gunpowder representatives to be done! artillery.
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