Heilongjiang hand cannon
The oldest surviving firearm
This bronze barrel of about 3.5 kg was dug up in Manchuria in 1970 and is linked to a Yuan campaign of 1288. It is the oldest surviving firearm in the world; Europe would not see guns for several more decades.
Wikipedia (English) · 13th century
Did you know
The oldest surviving gun is Chinese, made no later than 1288, and weighs 3.5 kg. Europe's first picture of a cannon appears only in Walter de Milemete's English manuscript of 1326. Share →
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- c. 1300 Onset of the Little Ice Age — 12 years later
- 1309–1377 Avignon Papacy — 21 years later
Oceania
- c. 1280 Polynesians settle New Zealand — 8 years earlier
Alive at the time
- Kublai Khan (aged 73)
- Marco Polo (aged 34)
- Dante Alighieri (aged 23)
- Rudolf I (aged 70)
- Edward I Longshanks (aged 49)
- Osman I (aged 30)
- Philip IV the Fair (aged 20)
- Mansa Musa (aged 8)
- Orhan (aged 7)
- Emperor Go-Daigo (aged 0)