Xanadu Gun

Discovered in the ruins of Xanadu (Shangdu 上都), the Mongol Summer Palace, Inner Mongolia. The Xanadu Gun is 34.7cm in length and weighs 6.2kg. Dated to 1298 CE.

The oldest extant gun bearing a date of production is the Xanadu Gun, so called because it was discovered in the ruins of Xanadu, the Mongol summer palace in Inner Mongolia. The Xanadu Gun is 34.7 cm in length and weighs 6.2 kg. Its dating is based on archaeological context and a straightforward inscription containing an era name and year that correspond with the Gregorian Calendar at 1298. Not only does the inscription contain the era name and date, it also includes a serial number and manufacturing information which suggests that gun production had already become systematized, or at least become a somewhat standardized affair by the time of its fabrication. The design of the gun includes axial holes in its rear which some speculate could have been used in a mounting mechanism. Like most early guns with the possible exception of the Western Xia gun, it is small, weighing just over six kilograms and thirty-five centimeters in length.^[1] Although the Xanadu Gun is the most precisely dated gun from the 13th century, other extant samples with approximate dating may be older.

References

Bibliography

• Andrade, Tonio (2016), The Gunpowder Age: China, Military Innovation, and the Rise of the West in World History, Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0-691-13597-7 .