Image: Workers recovered this cannon from the Savannah River in 2022. Savannah District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers via Flickr under CC BY 2.0
The centuries-old artifacts emerged from the riverbed between 2021 and 2022. Experts spent several years carefully restoring 17 of them, which will make their public debut in a new exhibition
By Ellen Wexler
As crews worked to deepen a section of the Savannah River, they used a clamshell dredger to scoop up mud. One day, when the machine rose from the water, it was dragging a centuries-old cannon covered in rust.
Two more cannons emerged from the riverbed soon after. By the following year, workers had recovered 19 of the weapons. Each weighed more than 1,000 pounds.
At first, archaeologists traced them to a Civil War-era ship that had sunk nearby. But they quickly realized the artifacts were even older. The guns date to the Revolutionary War, and they’d been underwater for more than two centuries.
Since then, experts from Texas A&M University have been carefully restoring 17 of the cannons. On July 2, they’ll make their public debut at the Savannah History Museum.
Read the full article on the Smithsonian Magazine:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/workers-dredging-the-savannah-river-stumbled-upon-19-cannons-that-had-been-underwater-since-the-revolutionary-war-180988928/
