During many ages Europa was the scene of the most extensive battles fought in human history. With the growth of populations and the evolution of technology the very early battles became larger and used more types of (metal detectable) material. By the rappid invention of new combat technologies different era's and battles can be identified. Besides projectiles of all shapes and sizes, pieces of soldiers gear and uniforms can also be found scattered around Holland.

Projectiles

During the past years I was able to find most types of projectiles used from the early ages up unto modern warfare. As can be seen below the evolution of the small arms bullet had several era's before ending as the now used metal bullet with metal casing.

Before the old type musket bullet the so called Harquebuss ('Haakbus') and Blunderbuss ('Donderbus') were the very first rifles used. The Harquebuss merely was a pipe sealed at the end, it could hold gunpowder, fuse and a rudely crafted lead bullet. The bullet was larger and did not exactly fit the pipe - pipes and bullets came with slightly different shapes. The Blunderbuss had the same mechanism and bullets, only this type had a pipe crafted upon a wooden stick (rifle) which could be aimed more directly with a large pedestal.

As can be seen above the projectiles history started with the early type musket bullet; although nicely shaped it still had the molding rod attached to it. Later era musket bullets had these removed. In transition to the gunpowder cased rounds, the minie ball types were used - many different shapes existed. By shaping the old musket bullet into a projectile it acquired more balance, accuracy and distance.

The next step into its evolution was the standard gunpowder satchels being used with the minie balls. This transformed slowly into one projectile body, as the gunpowder satchels were implemented with the minie ball into one paper cartridge. It did not take long for a primer to be integrated into the base of the paper cartridge.

Before ending up with the nowadays base primer cap different primers were invented. Among these were precussion caps (with gunpowder set off by the riffles hammer), pinfire (were as the primer was ignited by a pin triggered by the riffles hammer) and rimfire (as with the percussion cap, only the the gunpowder was in the rim and set off by the riffles hammer, which aimed only for this rim).  

Late 19th century and early 20th century the already known paper cartridge minie ball was evolved into a more bullet shaped lead projectile. The paper cartridge was replaced by a brass cartridge to make it more durable. A centre primer was implemented into the base of the cartridge.

Eventually technology evolved into producing metal bullets instead of lead, which led to the modern era riffle round. 

Arquebus

First gunpowder driven fire arms in Europe were the Arquebus and Blunderbus. The Arquebus was merely a metal pipe casted upon a piece of straight wood - sometimes just the pipe - with a hole in the back to light the gunpowder. There were no calibres yet - lead round balls were used as projectiles and ranged from 0.25" to 0.89" (6.4 - 22.6 mm).

Above: oversized ball projectiles shot with a smooth bore musket rifle which had a smaller calibre. Projectiles which were too large were often adjusted. Needless to say due to these practices is was quite common to have musket balls stuck inside the bore. These were removed by scre-like tools and resulted in musket ball projectiles which were deformed and had an hole in one of their sides; as can be seen below.

The (removed) musket ball below on the utmost right has a very clear ball-shape inside its diameter, which has its flanks forcefully expanded around it. This ball was definitely not adjusted correctly (still too big) which resulted in getting stuck and being removed. 

Musket rifles with Flintlock

And if you're really lucky you could find parts of the musket riffles/ pistols themselves! As can be seen below: a locking plate opposite the rifle of the firing mechanism which held it in place. This one has a mark inside, unfortunately too much worn to read. This particular rifle is a French M1822 (late musket rifle) which resembles the found locking plate most - although it could very well be an other model of around this era. i.e. the M1822 was derived from the US Springfield M1816. And to be honoust, judging the ketches below of pistol and rifle parts, you could already have found a part which is not easy to identify as originating from a pistol/ rifle!

To give an impression of some weapons used with lead 'musket balls':

Rifled ball projectiles

Minie ball projectile

In 1846 Claude-Etienne Minie ivented one of the first 'cylindro-conical' projectiles: a more bullet shaped projectile for rifled weapons - henze the name 'Minie-ball'. Rifled bores just were invented and the flintlock was not used any more - for fusing percussion/ rimfire/ pinfire and centrefire became the new technology.

Many new rifles were developped in the 19th century. During this period no large scale combat was seen in Holland. At the start of the 19th century Napoleon occupied Holland without real combat and 15 years later they would be driven back to their homeland all the way from Russia - some skirmishes took place in the area were I found these bullets. 

I found large quantities of interesting Minie-ball type bullets all in one area. Nearby are old exercising grounds for 19th century Dutch troops and a 'Kogelvanger' (shooting range with a large hill as bullet trap). So either this area was also some kind of exercising area of dirt from the other areas were scattered here. I could not find any good explanation at this moment. Still, it was a finding place of really nice bullet relics! (unfortunately a large residential area is built on top of it now).

Dutch colonial troops (late 19th century) on their way to their transports for the Dutch East Indies. These troops used the Beaumont rifles (among other types).

Large caliber projectiles

A more rare, but not impossible, find can be cannonballs. And by the dimensions, weight and known battlefield these can be identified by nation and type of artillery used. I was lucky to find two good samples, both able to identify:

The first was a 'Halve Kartouw' type cannonball (24-pounder), weighing 10,5kg with a diameter of 12cm. This one was found on a field exactly were a small Spanish ramp used to be during the Siege of Breda 1624-1625. Much can be found about this famous siege. Both armies had the Halve Kartouw cannon in their service. So either it could be a well aimed shot from the Breda Garrisson, or, more likely, one of the Spanish ammo inventory cannonballs somehow lost near their own artillery. It must be noted that the Halve Kartouw needed much logisitics for usage and transportation - for merely transportation it needed 19 horses! This was the most heavy gun used during military campaigns, and once in place it could not be re-positioned easily.

The second cannonball is a 1/8 Kartouw (6-pounder) found near Bergen op Zoom. The field it was found on was a scene of fierce battles during the Siege of Bergen op Zoom around 1747 by the French armies. The so called used artillery cannon was a Falconet.

Recovery of a Canonball