Darwin boy's find could rewrite history [Australia-Gun]

Australian Geographic ^ | 10 Jan 2012 | AAP with AG STAFF

[Theoria]

A 500-year-old Portuguese gun has been found on an NT beach, and may suggest Europeans arrived earlier than thought.

A DARWIN BOY may help re-write Australia's history after unearthing what he believes is a 500-year-old Portuguese swivel gun on a Northern Territory beach.

Portugal occupied Timor from 1515 until 1975, although it is hotly debated whether Portuguese explorers made it to Australia, about 700km away.

Christopher Doukas made the discovery at Dundee Beach, about two hours' drive from Darwin. He found the gun when tides dipped to exceptional lows in January 2010, and he could walk out a long way from shore.

The boy, now aged 13, saw the item poking out of mud, dug it out with his father and took it back to his home. Striking resemblance

"As soon as we got it back into Darwin my dad got an angle grinder and nicked a little bit of it. We saw it was bronze, so we knew it was old," Christopher says.

Research on the internet showed the item - about the size of a rifle - bore a striking resemblance to Portuguese swivel guns, used as anti-personnel weapons on ships in the 16th Century.

[Theoria]

[JRandomFreeper]

You'll put your eye out, kid.

/johnny

[JRandomFreeper]

Ping.

/johnny

[ansel12]

Man, talk about a boys fantasy come true, this find is the thing of dreams.

[Little Ray]

What a great find!

[LearsFool]

Let me get this straight: The assumption is that it was lost there in its day, and has been there ever since?

So if John Glenn had lost a Ming vase while out collecting moon-rocks, that would prove what exactly?

[Theoria]

It simply proves that a gun of that age was found at that location.

[Redleg Duke]

And the government arrested him and his Father for illegally owning a firearm.

[BipolarBob]

And the government arrested him and his Father for illegally owning a firearm.

The liberals wouldn't have a problem with that at all. In fact they would approve.

[GrandJediMasterYoda]

500 years? Wow that’s almost as old as Obama saying “the rich must pay their fair share”

[9422WMR]

“He found the gun when tides dipped to exceptional lows in January 2010, and he could walk out a long way from shore. “
Wait just a minute,
they told us the ocean levels are rising due to global warming and everyone would drown. What do you mean the tide level was lower than normal, how can that be? Ocean levels are rising and the cause of hotter weather and earthquakes, tsunami’s and cyclones, and hurricanes. /S

[yarddog]

I used to work with a Filipino who was retired from the Navy. One day we were discussing the college he attended in the Philippines.

He said the college had actually been founded by Portuguese earlier than the Philippines had officially been discovered.

[Darksheare]

And Australian officials haven’t busted him for having a dangerous ‘illegal weapon’ yet?
Considering how stupid they’ve been previously, I’m surprised.

[dog breath]

It is a boy's dream, I used to visit old Civil War battlefields with my dad and would look around for rusting guns. It took me to about 10 or so to realize why I never would find them, but I would of been in heaven to find something like this. Australia has lots of unknown history they genetically trace several different arrivals of aboriginal peoples.

[Ax]

I believe Magellan’s ships were the first westerners who reached the Phillipines. Magellan was a Portuguese explorer who was in the employ of Charles I of Spain. He never got to enjoy the fruits of his labors. He was killed at the battle of Mactan by natives.

[Ax]

There is NO way I’d EVER go barefoot in Australia with all the spiders, scorpions and poisonous snakes there.

[yarddog]

While we were visiting Fort Pickens near Pensacola, I found an old brass button in the sand. It was obviously a really old item.

Later while visiting the museum, I saw another button exactly like mine. They said it was from a Civil War union uniform. I kept it around for years but it finally just disappeared. I doubt it was worth anything but it always intrigued me that I had found an artifact which had actually been used in the war.

[PIF]

The Portuguese had many secret navigation charts - these were the “top secret code word - eyes only” items of their day.

All of them were kept in the Lisbon Library which was totally demolished in the 18th Century by a mega-tsunami. So today, we have no idea what the Portuguese navigators knew or where they sailed.

There was a web site called Mysterious Australia which cataloged lots of stuff which predated the modern discovery of Australia, including, as I recall, many old Portuguese guns, swords, and armor found here an there over time. There are also supposed to be Megalithic structures as well.

But like most of these finds attributed to the Portuguese, there is no real documentation, like in situ photos, etc. So they are continually dismissed by the intelligencia.

[BenLurkin]

bump

[SunkenCiv]

GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach	join list or digest view topics view or post blog bookmark post a topic subscribe
Thanks JRandomFreeper! A 500-year-old Portuguese gun has been found on an NT beach, and may suggest Europeans arrived earlier than thought... I just wanted to excerpt that so no one gets confused. It's the town of Darwin, Australia. :') To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.