Korea’s Oldest Gunpowder Weapon Found Near a Minefield

In November 2023, a soldier working to clear a suspected minefield on a mountainside in southwestern South Korea found something far older and far more significant than any landmine: a corroded bronze cannon that would turn out to rewrite the timeline of Korean firearms.

An Unlikely Place for a Discovery

The weapon was buried under about 10 centimeters of surface soil along a ridge on Mount Geumseong in Naju, South Jeolla Province, roughly 280 kilometers south of Seoul. The soldier had been detecting unverified landmines ahead of planned hiking trail construction. After the find, the Naju National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage, part of South Korea’s Korea Heritage Service, spent three years conducting scientific analysis and expert review before presenting its conclusions at a press briefing on September 21, 2026, at the National Palace Museum of Korea in Seoul.

What the Weapon Actually Is

Researchers identified the object as a hwangja hwatong, a category of hwatong, meaning a weapon that uses gunpowder to fire an arrow or a ball, generally fired from a wooden handle. This particular example measures about 23.75 centimeters long, has a bore of 1.66 centimeters, and weighs 1,032 grams, translating to roughly 9.3 inches and 2.3 pounds. Scientific analysis confirmed it was cast in bronze, made primarily from copper, tin, and lead. Based on its form, including a rounded rather than stepped interior powder chamber, researchers believe it represents an early type of hwatong that predates later design improvements.

Reading a 600-Year-Old Inscription

The weapon carries 28 characters incised into its bronze surface, 27 arranged in six rows on the socket and one additional character on the muzzle. Translated, the main inscription reads that a hwangja hwatong was made in the twelfth month of a year called Jeongsa. Jeongsa refers to one year within the traditional 60-year East Asian cyclical calendar, meaning the same name recurs once every six decades. To narrow down which cycle applied, researchers searched the historical range between 1356, when hwatong-type weapons first appear in written records, and 1448, the year Korea’s Sejong-era firearm system was considered complete. That search identified exactly two candidate years: 1377 and 1437. Cho Mi-soon, director of the Naju National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage, called the inscription an extraordinary discovery with immense academic, historical, and cultural value. The single character found separately on the muzzle is thought to represent an inventory or production number, pointing to organized, state-run weapons manufacturing rather than individual or improvised production.

Two Possible Stories, Six Decades Apart

If the weapon dates to 1377, it was produced during the reign of King U, near the end of the Goryeo dynasty, the same year Korea established the Hwatong Dogam, a dedicated government agency for gunpowder and firearms production founded through the efforts of military innovator Choe Mu-seon. If instead it dates to 1437, it belongs to the 19th year of King Sejong’s reign in the Joseon dynasty, a period remembered for major, systematic advances in Korean artillery and firearms technology. Researchers say the weapon closely resembles two other known artifacts from this same early period, giving them a basis to treat all three as representatives of a shared early lineage of Korean small firearms, predating the more standardized designs that followed.

Redrawing the Timeline

Whichever date turns out to be correct, researchers say the hwangja hwatong is now the earliest surviving gunpowder weapon ever confirmed in Korea, beating the previous record by at least 118 years. Cho Mi-soon noted the weapon comes from a crucial transitional period between the late Goryeo and early Joseon dynasties, a stretch of Korean history from which physical firearm artifacts are exceptionally rare, since surviving written records from this era vastly outnumber actual surviving objects. That rarity is exactly what makes a single, dateable, securely inscribed weapon like this one so valuable: it offers direct physical evidence for how organized, state-level firearms production in Korea actually took shape, at a point in history researchers previously had to reconstruct almost entirely from text.

Sources

This report draws on the Korea Heritage Service’s own press briefing, with additional coverage from The Korea Times, the Kyunghyang Shinmun, Seoul Economic Daily, and Archaeology Magazine.