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Archaeology/Lead Cannonball

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Expert: - 3/23/2011


Question

Made of Lead, I believ
Hello, I found this Lead cannonball in the Mountains near Oak City, Utah close to the sight of Black Hawk War of 1865. And I was wondering could this possibly be a cannonball from that time frame? Or if this is even a cannonball.
I read somewhere that the older cannonballs were made of lead but they found out that they were to expensive to make and melted to easily. It has a hole in it about 1 1/2 inch deep.
Please let me know, Thank You Kindly !!!

Answer
Hi Terry,

This is typically called canister shot. These are generally between 3 and 4" in diameter and several would have been loaded into a "can" which would then have been loaded into a cannon.  The cannon, either a 4" or 6" pulled artillery unit would have used these canister shots to fire into groups of people or horses with rather devistating effect.  

These would have been cast on site or in a local forge at the fort since lead is easy to melt and cast into pre-existing moulds.  This looks fairly rough so I think it may have been cast on site.  It is impossible to determine if it was used in  the war of 1865 and given that there are no dents or other features indicating use, I'm of a mind to say it was never fired.  Hard to know since these did not always show use damage.

The holes are due to the fact that the lead was not well melted when cast and chunky stuff was still floating in the molten lead when it was poured into the mould.  
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Ralph Salier

Expertise

Archaeologist for the last 30 years. Norh American generalist and Hopwell culture/Red Ocher culture specifically. Lithics Expert and Ground Stone tools.

Experience


Past/Present clients
Numerous museums in US and Canada. Several University Anthropology Departments.

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