A Crusades-era hand grenade was found in Israel. The hand grenade was retrieved from the sea. The family that located the old relic has turned it over to the Israeli Antiquities Authority.
Nothing like the ones made today, this grenade was produced from heavy clay and is has very detailed embossing, it does not explode with shrapnel like the hand grenades of this generation, but it is more like a Molotov cocktail or incendiary grenade. It was filled with naphtha, a flammable adhesive like liquid known as Greek fire, then sealed and thrown at enemies. It was mostly known to be used in naval battles where the fire would easily destroy enemies’ ships. The IAA stated that the grenades were used often in Israel during the crusades, which took place between the 11th to 13th century, and they were used until the Mamluk era, between the 13th and 16th century. The late Marcel Mazliah, a worker at the Hadera power plant in northern Israel, located the grenade. But this wasn’t the only item that was in Mazliah’s collection. Archaeologists were very surprised to find ancient artifacts that date back 3,500 years. Marcel’s family told them that he found most of these treasures while working at the power plant that was near the sea, he collected them for many years. Some of his other finds were the head of a knife which dated back to the Bronze Age, along with candlesticks, two mortars and two pestles dating back to the 11th century. “The items were apparently manufactured in Syria and were brought to Israel,” Ayala Lester, a curator with the Israel Antiquities Authority, said in a statement. Archaeologists believe that the metal objects fell overboard while on a metal merchant’s ship in the Islamic period (638-1099)