Archaeologists working at the Alamo in San Antonio have uncovered a second cannonball believed to date from the 1836 Battle of the Alamo, found just three months after a separate cannonball was recovered from a neighboring excavation unit at the same site. The Alamo Trust, the nonprofit that oversees the Alamo Mission, announced the discovery on June 16, two weeks after the artifact was found on June 2. Because it was recovered at roughly the same depth as the first, researchers believe both projectiles may have lain undisturbed for nearly 190 years.
A Second Find Where One Was Already Remarkable
The newly discovered cannonball was unearthed outside the northeast corner of the Alamo Church, in an excavation unit adjacent to where the first cannonball emerged in March. The two finds in close proximity have surprised the dig team. Tiffany Lindley, director of archaeology at the Alamo, noted the site has endured substantial disturbance over its history — including occupation by the U.S. military quartermaster and commercial development around the historic grounds — making intact battlefield artifacts difficult to find. She described the first discovery as remarkable and the second as genuinely unexpected.
The materials differ between the two. The March cannonball was cast from solid bronze, while the June find is solid iron, covered in heavy rust that gives it an orange-brown appearance. Lindley said the iron cannonball is not as well-preserved as its bronze counterpart because of the difference in metal composition, though she characterized it as still in reasonably good condition. The Alamo Trust is hoping to send both artifacts for professional conservation.
What the Cannonballs Connect To
The Battle of the Alamo was fought between Mexican forces and Texian rebels over thirteen days, from February 23 to March 6, 1836. Texian defenders — among them Davy Crockett and William B. Travis — held the mission against a substantially larger Mexican army before being overrun. The defeat became a rallying cry for the broader Texas Revolution, cementing the Alamo's place as one of the most symbolically charged sites in Texas history.
The possibility that the cannonballs have not been moved since they were dropped — likely during the 1836 siege — is what Lindley said makes them especially significant. Most of the underground record at the site has been disturbed by the layers of activity that followed the battle.
One Artifact Among Many
Lindley was careful to frame the cannonball find within the broader scope of the excavation. The team recovers dozens of historic artifacts daily, alongside far larger quantities of more ordinary material such as nails and brick fragments. The cannonball, she said, represents one small part of a larger project whose full value will emerge after excavations conclude, when analysis of the complete data set can offer insight into the daily lives of the people who inhabited the site across its long history.