Cool Finds

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

The artifact was found in 2023 during a metal detecting survey. Experts have been analyzing it since and recently confirmed its authenticity

Sonja Anderson | Daily Correspondent

October 5, 2026 8:00 a.m.

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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. 

“This is an extraordinary discovery with immense academic, historical and cultural value,” Cho Mi-soon, director of the  Naju National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage, said at a recent press event, per the Korea Times’ Jhoo Dong-chan. “It comes from a crucial transitional period between the late Goryeo and early Joseon dynasties, when physical artifacts of firearms are exceptionally rare.”

The weapon weighs a little more than two pounds and is carved with 28 Korean characters. 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. “Either way, it is the earliest gunpowder weapon found in Korea,” per the Heritage Service. 

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.

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? It might have been used by Koreans defending their land. Eo Changsun, head of academic research at the Naju National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage, tells the Chosun Daily’s Heo Yun-hee that Japanese pirates once sailed up the Yeongsan River to plunder and the mountain was a geographical stronghold against them. 

Lee Sang-hoon, the former deputy director of the Korea Army Museum, tells the Chonsun Daily that the artifact fills a gap in the country’s firearm-development history. Per the Heritage Service statement, “Physical examples of gunpowder weapons from the late Goryeo and early Joseon periods are also exceedingly rare, making it highly valuable in terms of heritage.” 

Sonja Anderson is a daily correspondent for Smithsonian magazine who covers art, archaeology and culture, from newly discovered artifacts to the latest art heists.