160-year-old live artillery shell from Civil War found at Gettysburg

Archeologist Steven Brann made a stunning discovery while sweeping the ground at the Gettysburg battlefield in Pennsylvania with a metal detector: a live 160-year-old artillery shell, as new and dangerous as the day it was fired in July 1863, CNN reported.

The shell was found on February 8 at Little Round Top - the hill is significant as it offered the Union forces a tactical position during the Civil War.

How did Brann come across the find?

An 18-month-long rehabilitation project by the National Park Service is underway at the Little Round Top as part of preservation efforts. Brann and his team from Stantec, a consultancy company that also performs archaeological work, were engaged in work when they found seven inches (18 centimeters) long unexploded round that weighed about 10 pounds (4.5 kilograms).

The Army's 55th Explosive Ordnance Disposal Company detonated the shell

"Most of the objects we find are much smaller, such as percussion caps, bullets, and uniform buttons. Much of what we find turns out to be modern trash or objects that were discarded during the construction of monuments, such as iron straps and nails," Brann told Live Science in an email.

"There are procedures in place in case such [artillery] objects are found," he said.

Eventually, the Army's 55th Explosive Ordnance Disposal Company (EOD) from Fort Belvoir, Virginia, was called in to remove and destroy the shell safely.

Matthew Booker, commander of the EOD, identified the object as a three-inch Dyer or Burton shell for a rifled cannon.

"Unexploded ordnance still found on the battlefield is a fairly unique circumstance," Jason Martz, a spokesperson for Gettysburg National Military Park, told Live Science in an email. "It's only the fifth found since 1980."

The park is now researching the shell, hoping to figure out its whole story and if Union or Confederate troops fired it.

"The fact that this shell was found nearly 160 years after the Battle of Gettysburg is a very powerful and tangible connection to the past," Martz added. "It also reminds us that the battlefield still has stories to tell."