A 500 Year Old Ammunition Depot Excavated in Germany
 

In the course of excavations going on since July 2009, several clusters of thousands of iron quarrel points for Gothic war crossbows were salvaged from the grounds of Werburg Castle, Westphalia, Germany, together with 39 limestone cannon balls, calibers varying between 8, 10, and 12 cm, and three cast iron cannon balls.

In the photos below, the cannon balls, as well as the clusters of rusty red iron quarrel points, are easily indentifiable. The latter's wooden hafts had of course gone long ago.

Best,
Michael

Wow
 

Wow, more treasures unearthed. Thank you for sharing, this is most interesting.
Do you know how this started, was it just a hey let excavate or was the water pipe in the image leaking and someone stumbled across a piece to kick off the search??

Gav

Hi Gav,

As far as I could find out on their city website, they have been deliberately digging to trace back their archeological origins since at least 2008.

Best,
Michael

excellant stuff, wish every city was so interested in excavating and preserving historical sites..

Very well said, carlitobrigante,

I am afraid however that most cities over here simply lack the money to dig out their history. On the other hand, weapons related finds are not exactly what German museums are fond of (sigh). They mostly store them in their reserve collections right away and sometimes I feel they would just throw them away if only they were allowed to.

Best,
Michael

For crossbow bolts (quarrels) preserved in perfectly original condition, please see my former thread

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=7457

Best,
Michael

This is fun! :eek: .
Somebody has just suggested me that, if i were close from this scenario, i might have snatched one or two of these limestone balls.
He just wouldn't realize that, if he counted the balls between the day they were posted and now, there's quite a few missing ;) .
I am not sleeping here :cool: .

Hi 'Nando,

I sure wish you could have been there, amigo! :D :cool:

Best,
Michael