When digging in the Puruchuco cemetery in the suburbs of Lima of Peru, archaeologists uncovered a human skull of what they believe is the earliest known gunshot victim in the New World.
The Inca victim was thought to be killed by a musket ball from Spanish conquistadors' firearms in a battle in 1536, based on the fact that the skull bears a round gunshot hole with less than an inch in diameter and some minuscule iron particles only detectable using the powerful scanning microscope. Excerpts from NYT:
The National Geographic Society announced yesterday the discovery of the gunshot victim by the independent Peruvian archaeologists Guillermo Cock and Elena Goycochea, who have conducted research at the Puruchuco cemetery for years. A NOVA-National Geographic television program on the research is scheduled for next Tuesday.
No similar evidence of a death by gunshot this early has been found elsewhere in the Americas, Dr. Cock said. The musket shot appeared to have entered the back of the man’s skull, punching a piece of bone from outside to inside, and emerged through the face.
