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• 04 / 18 / 2009

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Archeologist Raul Villavicencio from the Environmental Services and Studies Center in the province told ACN that the cannon, over one meter long weghing about one thousand pounds, is very well preserved and that it could have been part of the Spanish coastal artillery or off a ship.

He explained that the piece is likely to have been kept for around two decades in the Oven Factory of this city, where iron is collected to be reused for production.

The most diverse iron-made items from the central and western territories of the island were collected in the foundry, opened in 1982, where the piece was discovered. It had been left by the Iberian colonizers after they abandoned the island.

Berthold Schwarz, a German monk born on the 14th century, is attributed as the inventor of the cannon, a weapon that was loaded with gunpowder to la0unch rocks or metal balls.

Villavicencio said that the huge iron pot, made with a very fine technique, had been used in sugar mills late in the 18th and early in 19th centuries.

(Juventud Rebelde)