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SHOT
Unique ID: NLM-ABDD65
Object type certainty: Certain
Workflow
status: Awaiting validation 
Lead shot. Cast ball with light faceting across its entire surface, patinated, and with two light nicks perhaps arising from post-depositional damage. The mass and size exceed to be expected of the 12 bore musket ball of the English Civil War, and also those of other types of shot deemed to have been of military specification. This, and the battered appearance of the ball, could suggest it to have formed part of a charge of case or canister shot fired from a field gun, or from a gun mounted on a ship. This would comprise a large number of lead balls contained in a tin can, which, when fired, would spread from the muzzle of the gun in the manner of a shotgun load. Case was an anti-personnel weapon, though it was also used against the rigging of ships. Suggested date: Post-Medieval, 1600-1700
Diameter: 21.5mm, Weight: 51.05gms
Notes:
The find spot occupies a loop in the River Trent, which would have been a strategic location when the passage of the Trent was contested during the Civil War. This find might therefore hint at the proximity of a battery or fort intended to close the river, at an exchange of fire as a vessel forced a passage, or perhaps merely fired on a random target of opportunity. Such an incident was recorded near Barton-upon-Humber, North Lincolnshire, on 19 July, 1642, as the Parliamentarian defenders of Hull engaged Royalist besiegers in the opening stages of the war: 'We sent out a small pinnace towards Barton, where espying some of the Cavaliers that would starve us we shot two or three guns amongst them; and now resolved to kill them if we can' (Howes, A. and Foreman, M. 1999, Town and Gun: The 17th-century defences of Hull, Kingston Press, Hull, page 28).
Class: Case
Subsequent actions
Subsequent action after recording: Returned to finder
Chronology
Broad period: POST MEDIEVAL
Period from: POST MEDIEVAL
Period to: POST MEDIEVAL
Date from: Circa AD 1600
Date to: Circa AD 1700
Dimensions and weight
Quantity: 1
Weight: 51.05 g
Diameter: 21.5 mm
Discovery dates
Date(s) of discovery: Wednesday 24th July 2019
Personal details
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Other reference numbers
Other reference: NLM43181
Materials and construction
Spatial metadata
Region: Yorkshire and the Humber (European Region)County or Unitary authority: North Lincolnshire (Unitary Authority)
District: North Lincolnshire (Unitary Authority)
To be known as: Amcotts
Spatial coordinates
Grid reference source: GPS (from the finder)
Unmasked grid reference accurate to a 1 metre square.
References cited
No references cited so far.
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Timeline of associated dates
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