gunsmith
June 28, 2007, 07:25 AM
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070624/NATIONWORLD/706240375/1083/LIVING01
I'm surprised they didn't find a way to blame Bush and global warming
Gunshot victim: hemisphere's 1st?
Inca probably killed by Spanish conquerors in early 16th century, researchers say
By Randolph E. Schmid
Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- The musket blast was sudden and deadly, the killing nearly 500 years ago of what may have been the first gunshot victim in the Western Hemisphere.
"We didn't expect it. We saw this skull and saw the almost round hole and thought people must have been shooting around here recently," said Guillermo Cock, an archaeologist who found the remains near Lima, Peru.
But he realized that the skull was ancient and that a recent bullet strike would have shattered it, Cock said in a telephone interview.
The skull was found among a large group of bones of ancient Incas who died violently in the early 1500s as Spanish conquistadors battled the native empire.
The bones were in shallow graves, leading the archaeologist to speculate that the burials were done hurriedly during conflict, perhaps an uprising against the Spanish in 1536.
To be sure this was a gunshot wound -- making it the earliest one documented in the Americas -- forensics expert Tim Palmbach at the University of New Haven studied the skull and brought in other experts.
Al Harper, director of the Henry C. Lee Institute of Forensic Science in New Haven, Conn., said the team "tried to rule out all kinds of causes of the hole -- a rock from a slingshot, spear, sledgehammer." Harper and Palmbach studied the skull with a powerful scanning electronic microscope.
"We all thought it was a million-to-one chance that we would find any traces of metal on a skull that old, but it was worth a try," Harper said in a statement.
But there they were: fragments of metal from a musket ball surrounding the hole.
Cock and archaeologist Elena Goycochea discovered the burials in a Lima suburb in 2004 and have since recovered 72 apparent victims of violence there.
"Some of the bodies also showed signs of terrible violence. . . . and several had injuries on their heads and faces that looked as if they were caused by gunshots."
One skull in particular had an entrance and exit wound, suggestive of a musket ball. A plug of bone from one of the holes was recovered nearby, Cock said.
The conclusion: A musket ball less than an inch in diameter struck the back of the skull and passed through the head.
Cock discussed his find during a visit to the National Geographic Society, which supported the work. His findings will be detailed Tuesday on a NOVA/National Geographic television special, "The Great Inca Rebellion."
I'm surprised they didn't find a way to blame Bush and global warming
Gunshot victim: hemisphere's 1st?
Inca probably killed by Spanish conquerors in early 16th century, researchers say
By Randolph E. Schmid
Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- The musket blast was sudden and deadly, the killing nearly 500 years ago of what may have been the first gunshot victim in the Western Hemisphere.
"We didn't expect it. We saw this skull and saw the almost round hole and thought people must have been shooting around here recently," said Guillermo Cock, an archaeologist who found the remains near Lima, Peru.
But he realized that the skull was ancient and that a recent bullet strike would have shattered it, Cock said in a telephone interview.
The skull was found among a large group of bones of ancient Incas who died violently in the early 1500s as Spanish conquistadors battled the native empire.
The bones were in shallow graves, leading the archaeologist to speculate that the burials were done hurriedly during conflict, perhaps an uprising against the Spanish in 1536.
To be sure this was a gunshot wound -- making it the earliest one documented in the Americas -- forensics expert Tim Palmbach at the University of New Haven studied the skull and brought in other experts.
Al Harper, director of the Henry C. Lee Institute of Forensic Science in New Haven, Conn., said the team "tried to rule out all kinds of causes of the hole -- a rock from a slingshot, spear, sledgehammer." Harper and Palmbach studied the skull with a powerful scanning electronic microscope.
"We all thought it was a million-to-one chance that we would find any traces of metal on a skull that old, but it was worth a try," Harper said in a statement.
But there they were: fragments of metal from a musket ball surrounding the hole.
Cock and archaeologist Elena Goycochea discovered the burials in a Lima suburb in 2004 and have since recovered 72 apparent victims of violence there.
"Some of the bodies also showed signs of terrible violence. . . . and several had injuries on their heads and faces that looked as if they were caused by gunshots."
One skull in particular had an entrance and exit wound, suggestive of a musket ball. A plug of bone from one of the holes was recovered nearby, Cock said.
The conclusion: A musket ball less than an inch in diameter struck the back of the skull and passed through the head.
Cock discussed his find during a visit to the National Geographic Society, which supported the work. His findings will be detailed Tuesday on a NOVA/National Geographic television special, "The Great Inca Rebellion."
