Grim milestone: New World’s first gunshot victim discovered
posted at 7:50 pm on June 20, 2007 by Allahpundit
Share on Facebook | printer-friendly
If he’d had a musket of his own, this never would have happened. It’s like a Second Amendment missing link! Click the image to watch.
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Blowback
Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.
Trackbacks/Pings
Trackback URL
Comments
Comment pages:
Right! Also ATF doesn’t require background checks for black powder guns! What was that poor sap thinking?
Drtuddle on June 20, 2007 at 8:05 PM
Prosecute the SOB!
Attila (Pillage Idiot) on June 20, 2007 at 8:18 PM
Boom!
LOLheadshot!!!1
Friggin’ Spanish campers…
askheaves on June 20, 2007 at 8:23 PM
I say it was suicide.
For not developing a high technology and instead chasing poor beavers.
profitsbeard on June 20, 2007 at 8:25 PM
What BS.
That looked suspiciously smooth cut and the bone fragment was pushed in without shattering.
According to this page (http://www.geocities.com/trepanationz/) the Inca’s were doing trepanation 4,000 years ago. This just looks like the first case that these stone age people were given an iron tool. Note that the other 500 buried there had the more conventional Incan mutilations.
pedestrian on June 20, 2007 at 8:29 PM
He was probably in a musket-free zone. If muskets are outlawed….well, you know.
RedWinged Blackbird on June 20, 2007 at 8:41 PM
I hope that musket rots in hell.
infidel4life on June 20, 2007 at 8:47 PM
Interesting, the indigenous claim of some, that the border crossed them, but them iron filings don’t lie.
Speakup on June 20, 2007 at 8:59 PM
So, did the Spanish not use lead in their musket balls? Or was that a later development?
serenity on June 20, 2007 at 9:03 PM
I think trepanation leaves rather distinctive tool marks. Also, the bone fragment she found inside the skull not only showed signs of “blooming” (I’m sure that’s not the technical term, but it’s clear more bone was dislodged from inside the skull than outside, which suggests an impact moving inward), but the bone from a trepanation wouldn’t even be present at all, presumably having been discarded after the ritual/operation.
There’s no question that some Incans were shot. I don’t see why it’s especially controversial to conclude that this was one of them.
Blacklake on June 20, 2007 at 9:07 PM
I’m pretty sure iron came first.
Blacklake on June 20, 2007 at 9:10 PM
Pedestrian-
I would buy your suggestion if the graves had some kind of offerings or other ritual trappings…apparently they did not. I’m wondering if these poor souls were actually buried there by the Spanish after the fight.
As to your comment about the shattering…that’s a good one. If this were a trepanation site, would there be a plug for the hole that was knocked out? Trepanation is usually a scraping or drilling action…not a blunt force driven through the skull. It’s hard to gauge the size of the hole but it is pretty clear the ball was either moving VERY fast(point blank perhaps) or perhaps this was a soft part of the skull. The story said the ball came out the front of the skull in the nose area. I think this would point to the point blank shot. Perhaps this victim was wounded and left on the field as the battle line moved past him. The Spanish , when approaching, took an easy shot to put him down? Who knows but I don’t think this was trepanation.
Pilgrim on June 20, 2007 at 9:12 PM
The Romans used lead in their slings. It seems strange to me that someone would take the time to make musket balls out of iron. Polishing off the slag from the mould would take quite awhile. A lot easier to use lead and a lot cheaper too.
Limerick on June 20, 2007 at 9:15 PM
So let me see if I got this right. You mean to tell me that Spanish Conquistadors lead an invasion of South America. Totally eleminating the indegenious people. Wouldn’t that be considered racist. I feel it is my duty to inform Lindsey Grahmn to notify LaRaza about this injustice….. Oh wait LaRaza represents the Spanish people of South America? Well then never mind.
sonnyspats1 on June 20, 2007 at 9:26 PM
I think sonnyspats1 just got the point of this post.
RushBaby on June 20, 2007 at 9:30 PM
I just lol’d so hard!!!!11!!11!!1
what ever happened to FPS Doug? They should do a show on that guy……
liquidflorian on June 20, 2007 at 9:36 PM
Profitsbeard’s point is worthy on its own. However, I want to add that, accidents aside, one has to have legislated the right political conditions in order to obtain rapid advances in physics, chemistry, and biology, and in order to be able to take advantage of them by incorporating them into technologies. Technology, as important as it is, is probably very nearly last on a chronologically ordered list of new modes and orders; if you get everything else right, you get technology, but not otherwise. Technical stability or stagnation seems to be the usual condition; indifference to the knowledge of the conditions of technical advance allows the required conditions to decay and promotes a return to stability or stagnation.
Kralizec on June 20, 2007 at 9:41 PM
askheaves FTW!
Bad Candy on June 20, 2007 at 10:14 PM
The Spanish probably were using what they brought.
Iron balls can be made from or back into nails, chain or any number of things to build with.
Lead was used to make drinking vessels, utensils or items that are made into smaller or more intricate things easier.
Lead is much heavier than iron and therefore loads down a ship quicker and is more precious for household uses.
Early muskets didn’t have much accuracy or much range anyway why waste lead?
If indeed this was a gunshot to the head it was highly improbable that it was purposeful unless it was point blank.
Speakup on June 20, 2007 at 10:31 PM
Kralzec-
Couldn’t have said it better.
I was trying to condense the thrust of the idea about “why do some cultures remain unscientific”.
And emphasiize the vital need for a people to eschew delusional superstitions or wishful thinking in favor of hard and deadly inventiveness.
Europe was a crossroads and cauldron of a hundred competing power struggles, which honed the predatory cunning to a rapier point.
The “New World” was lost in fantasies of Turtle island and feeding the sun with human hearts, and so neglected their more important human task: developing better weaponry to stave of the bastards next door.
A lesson we’d better learn ourselves, since our “neighbors” burning effigies of Salman Rushdie in the islamic Zones aren’t going to be placated with 24 dollars worth of trinkets.
profitsbeard on June 20, 2007 at 11:30 PM
musket beats machete!
Ropera on June 20, 2007 at 11:38 PM
Rocks don’t kill.
Shy Guy on June 21, 2007 at 12:53 AM
Never bring a sacrificial dagger to a flint-lock fight
SilverStar830 on June 21, 2007 at 12:56 AM
Alla, I like Hot Airs layout a heck of lot better than the new one Michelle has. Really. Pardon me MM but it sucks. Big time. Who’s bright idea was it to change it to something so schmucky. It is hard as hell t read. What was wrong with the other one? I thought it was pretty darned nice. Really M. Go back to the original. Quickly. Thank You.
auspatriotman on June 21, 2007 at 1:28 AM
I am a bit puzzled by the iron trace on the bone…iron balls in the gun? That seems very strange to me.
Interesting stuff, however.
Bob's Kid on June 21, 2007 at 1:29 AM
Good shot.
pat on June 21, 2007 at 1:48 AM
I need more sentences with the word ‘trepanation’ in them!
Coronagold on June 21, 2007 at 6:47 AM
We need to outlaw muskets immediately! Where is the Brady crew when you need them…
BadBrad on June 21, 2007 at 8:11 AM
Poor guy. I bet he was one of those advocates for musket control. If they only had the NRA back then he would have been educated properly and could have protected himself.
Planet Boulder on June 21, 2007 at 8:53 AM
There’s one problem with this! Musket balls are NOT made of iron, they are made of lead! The ball does not just “drop” or roll down the barrel, it has to have a tight fit, or you get no compression, and no compression means no BANG! Also the ball would fall out of the barrel, and what good would that be! An iron ball will not conform to the shape of the barrel, but lead will! Unlike a cannon the powder is not contained in a tight bag, but is poured down the barrel. The ball is then rammed on top of the power charge to force a tight fit between the barrel walls, and to keep the powder from falling out of the barrel.
Anyway, it’s obvious these people know nothing about black powered weapons.
Confederate on June 21, 2007 at 9:11 AM
Oh please, I need that like I need a hole in my head.
James on June 21, 2007 at 9:17 AM
Charlton Heston fired that musket!
and Michael Moore has it on tape!
Ropera on June 21, 2007 at 9:18 AM
Actually, musket balls were notoriously loose-fitting, which accounted for some (but not all) of the range deficiency of the musket over the rifle. Even early rifle balls were able to be ‘rammed’ down the barrel by tapping the butt of the rifle against the ground if time was of the essence. For the shots that had to be truly accurate and powerful, rifle balls were wrapped in greased leather patches to catch in the barrel’s grooves to impart maximum spin…this was really the only time a ramrod was the only way to get the ball down the barrel.
James on June 21, 2007 at 9:27 AM
In muzzle loading weapons the compression is provided by a patch that wraps around or proceeds whichever kind of projectile is pushed down the barrel.
Africans used a short piece of something like rebar with a patch to hunt dangerous game using a musket at one time, before they started cutting their teeth on AKs.
Steel core and even solid steel bullets were not uncommon for African game before .458 Winchester or .460 Weatherby came along.
Speakup on June 21, 2007 at 9:48 AM
I don’t know why we’re worried about early Incan murder victims.
My mind is still trying to wrap itself around the murder of Otzi the Iceman and his death by arrowhead. I had no idea that things other than guns could kill people. I was under the impression that, prior to the invention of guns, people died of old age, heart break, and nothing else.
JadeNYU on June 21, 2007 at 11:34 AM
Speakup,
You are right but not all black powder weapons use a patch to help create a seal, such as a revolver, or a rifled musket. Many of these fired what is called a maxi bullet. It looks like a modern bullet in most respects. I would think that the musket used by the Spanish in that time would have been a match lock or wheel lock. I have fired a reproduction match lock, and the ball did not use a patch. But all that is beside the point, the point is that the ball was not made of iron.
Confederate on June 21, 2007 at 12:28 PM
I was under the impression that, prior to the invention of guns, people died of old age, heart break, and nothing else.
I’m sure Julius Caesar would be happy to hear that!
Veni, vidi, vici
Confederate on June 21, 2007 at 12:34 PM
I guess the Incans should have guarded their borders better – perhaps the Incan king had passed an Amnesty bill instead of enforcing Incan immigration laws…
darkpixel on June 21, 2007 at 1:23 PM
Cut the Incas some slack, pal. The Incas HAD to give the Spanish conquistadors amnesty. Otherwise, they would have been RASCIST!!
Funny how all those great native American civilizations have essentially disappeared from the face of the earth.
CyberCipher on June 21, 2007 at 1:53 PM
…which puts the lie to everything behind the whole reconquista movement and the Spanish language question at the same time.
James on June 21, 2007 at 2:26 PM
Another hate crime. The spanish were there too illegally!
Bearhopi on June 21, 2007 at 4:23 PM
Comment pages: