Jerusalem has been the site of violence since time immemorial, and archaeologists have another bit of evidence of that history. Archaeological digs have uncovered many ceramic "sphero-conical" vessels, meaning the shape of a ball with a point. These vessels were storage for many types of materials, from oil to perfume, but now some have been found, dating to the 11th or 12th century CE, that may have been used as hand grenades. Dr. Carney Matheson of Griffith University tells us about them.
“These vessels have been reported during the time of the Crusades as grenades thrown against Crusader strongholds producing loud noises and bright flashes of light.”
“Some researchers had proposed the vessels were used as grenades and held black powder, an explosive invented in ancient China and known to have been introduced into the Middle East and Europe by the 13th century.”
Chemical analysis shows that locally-made explosive mixtures of fatty acids, mercury, sulfur, aluminum, potassium, magnesium, nitrates, and phosphorous, could have been used for the hand grenades. Read more about this study at Sci News. -via Fark
(Image credit: Robert Mason, Royal Ontario Museum)