Melbourne, Jan 11 (ANI): A 13-year-old Darwin boy has found what is believed to be a 500-year-old Portuguese swivel gun on a Northern Territory beach.
His finding may help re-write Australia's history.
Christopher Doukas made the discovery at Dundee Beach, about two hours' drive from Darwin, when tides dipped to exceptional lows in January 2010, and he could walk out a long way from shore.
The boy saw the item poking out of mud, dug it out with his father and took it back to his home.
"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," the Herald Sun quoted Christopher as saying.
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.
In July last year, Christopher's mother, Barbara, alerted staff at the Darwin Museum to the find, and sent in photos that she was told seemed to indicate it was the genuine article.
But it has only been in the past few weeks, after speaking to her local MP, that she has been asked to bring it in for further examination.
Christopher said a similar item had sold in Britain for 8000 pounds and he would be interested in selling the gun to a museum.
Portugal occupied Timor from 1515 until 1975, although it is hotly debated whether Portuguese explorers made it to Australia, about 700km away.
Early maps from France in the 1500s appear to show part of Northern Australia, which some have cited as evidence Portuguese explorers arrived during that period, although that interpretation is controversial.
Local historian Peter Forrest was sceptical Portuguese explorers reached Northern Australia in the 1500s, but if the find was a genuine swivel gun from that period it would be grist for the mill for people that believed the theory, he said. (ANI)
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