Soldiers Sweeping for Land Mines in South Korea Have Unearthed the Country’s Oldest Gun, a 600-Year-Old Inscribed Bronze Tube

Researchers in South Korea have identified the country’s oldest known gunpowder weapon. It’s a hwatong, or “fire tube,” a ten-inch bronze instrument dating to the 14th or 15th century. According to a statement from the Korea Heritage Service, experts have been studying the artifact since 2023, when it was discovered during a routine mine-detection sweep on Geumseongsan Mountain, in Naju.

The Heritage Service translates them to read, “In the 12th month of the Jeongsa year, the Hwangja Hwatong was made. Its weight is one geun and 14 nyang. Supervised by Noksa An Hyu-bo; made by the artisan Seok.” According to the agency’s statement, “Hwangja” is a class designation; “geun” and “nyang” are traditional units of weight; and “Noksa” is the title of the official who oversaw the gun’s creation.

As for the date: Koreans used to measure time in 60-year cycles, and the 57th year in each sexagenary cycle was the Jeongsa year. So researchers analyzing the hwatong determined that it was made in 1377 or 1437. Gunpowder, which is essentially a mixture of sulfur, potassium nitrate and charcoal, was invented by Daoist alchemists in ninth-century China.

The monks were trying to create an elixir of life, but what they made became an instrument of death. Black powder was initially used only in fireworks and signals. In the tenth century, though, Chinese inventors packed it and projectiles into bamboo tubes, creating early, short-range guns.

By the late 1200s, these guns were metal, and the technology had spread. Black powder was the earliest type of gunpowder. In weaponry, it has largely been replaced by guncotton, or nitrocellulose, which is more powerful and doesn’t produce smoke.

Throughout this period, the Korean peninsula was ruled by the pivotal Goryeo dynasty, from which the Western word “Korea” is derived. The 14th century saw firearms’ popularity in the country grow; in 1377—possibly the year of the artifact’s creation—Korean scientist Choi Mu-Seon persuaded the Goryeo dynasty to establish a directorate of gunpowder weapons, the Hwatong Dogam. As for why this hwatong was lying on the ground on Geumseongsan Mountain?