Recently, a research team in Australia claimed that they found evidence of the use of "grenades" during the Medieval Crusades, which caused an uproar in the archaeological community. The research team from Griffith University in Australia analyzed four fragments of Israeli conical pottery excavated in the 1960s, and on the inner walls of 3 pieces of pottery, benign substances such as drugs and spices were detected, while in the fourth piece of pottery, there were residues of gunpowder components such as nitrate, mercury, sulfur and phosphorus, and the shape of these pottery was also very convenient for hand throwing.
The excavation sites of these pottery objects happen to be located in the destruction layer of the Crusader fortress destroyed by the Arabs. According to some medieval sources, the Arabs attacked the Crusader fortresses in the course of their battles against the European Crusaders by means of an explosive throw borrowed from the Byzantine Empire (also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, 395-1453), while Chinese black powder was only introduced to Europe in the 13th century. Therefore, the team believes that the emergence of these conical pottery shows that europe and the Middle East have begun to develop their own gunpowder weapons by the 11th century at the latest, much earlier than the introduction of Black Powder in China.
On the one hand, these conical artifacts are not pottery, its texture is thicker and harder, it should belong to the thick section of the ware, and its thickness and shape are not suitable for making grenades, so the conclusion of the so-called grenades is too hasty. On the other hand, even if these artifacts do contain gunpowder ingredients, it does not mean that they are not from China, and it is possible that as early as the 13th century, Chinese black powder had already appeared in the Middle East and was used in warfare.
