I have seen very large quantities of lead canister shot from a 1940s
context; I was told it was from surplus artillery rounds, made for but
not used in World War II, then fired as training rounds by National
Guard units from the late 1940s to the 1960s.  The shot is usually an
irregular sphere, 1.0 to 1.5 cm diameter, about 1/4 ounce (10 grams?) in
weight, often with one side slightly flattened, where, I was told, the
cooling shot sat on a flat plate after being molded.  I've also seen
this shot partly packed into artillery rounds, which varied in diameter,
but which were larger than 20mm.  The lead shot was between two round
plates, joined by a central spindle, between the propellant charge in
the base of the shell and the detonator in the tip of the shell, both of
which, fortunately, were missing.  Comment?

D. Babson.



-----Original Message-----
From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Carl
Carlson-Drexler
Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2007 2:24 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Earliest Gunshot Victim in New World Is Reported

A couple of points to add to this conversation:
1. The Spanish did use iron musket balls early on, so finding iron in
the
wound track would not be inconsistent with an incidence of gunshot
trauma
for that era. A similar effect for modern weapons is referred to as
"lead
wipe."
2. Generally, significant use of canister (picture a coffee can full of
balls) is attributed to Gustavus Adolphus's wars of the early 17th
century.
Lead was widely used for canister shot up through the American
Revolution.
Iron became the standard material in the 19th century. This would
suggest
that canister might not be the culprit
3. Unfortunately, the article only shows one hole, and provides no real
description of the other. With gunshot trauma, the entry would tends to
be a
more regular hole than the exit wound, so the little information
presented
wouldn't appear to rule out gunshot trauma.
4. Would a crossbow bolt be able to sustain enough energy to puncture
two
holes on opposite sites of a skull? When I was a kid (way back in the
80s),
I vividly remember seeing a news story about a guy in Kansas City who
was
shot in the back of the head, accidentally, by someone playing with his
crossbow. The bolt entered the inferior aspect of the cranium, traveling
upwards to just barely poke through his right brow (supraorbital torus,
if
you prefer), enough to push up but not break the skin. That was at a few
feet's distance, not moving through the entire skull. Surprisingly, he
lived, and the bolt didn't do any lasting damage (cue snarky joke here).
5. Stripped of so much context, it is really difficult to state whether
the
person shot was kneeling, running with his/her head down, was simply
below
the shooter on the landscape, or was lying prone and shot from a
distance.

CGCD

-- 
Department of Anthropology
College of William and Mary
Williamsburg, VA 23187