Heilongjiang hand cannon
Chinese bronze hand cannon dated to 1287
The Heilongjiang hand cannon or hand-gun is a bronze hand cannon manufactured no later than 1288 and is the world's oldest confirmed surviving firearm. It weighs 3.55 kg (7.83 pounds) and is 34 centimeters (13.4 inches) long. The Heilongjiang hand cannon was excavated during the 1970s in Banlachengzi, a village in Acheng District, Heilongjiang province, China. It was found alongside other bronze artifacts made in the style of the Jurchen Jin Dynasty (12th–13th century). The hand cannon was probably used in battles fought nearby in Banlachengzi in 1287 and 1288. The History of Yuan states that a Jurchen commander by the name of Li Ting led a group of soldiers equipped with hand cannons into a military camp in 1288, as part of an anti-rebellion campaign for the Yuan dynasty. The cannon currently resides at the Heilongjiang Provincial Museum in Harbin, China.
Description
The Heilongjiang hand cannon is 34 centimeters (13.4 in) long without a handle and weighs 3.55 kg (7.83 pounds). The diameter of the interior at the end of the barrel is 2.6 cm (1.02 inches). The barrel is the lengthiest part of the hand cannon and is 17.5 cm (6.9 inches) long.
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This entry incorporates text from “Heilongjiang hand cannon” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.