GEORGE TOWN, Feb 20 — Two historical cannons were discovered during the excavation of the moat and outer defensive structures of Fort Cornwallis, here yesterday.
Director of the Global Archaeological Research Centre at Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Professor Datuk Mokhtar Saidin said the two cannons, which were 2.35 metre and 2.2 metre in length, were unearthed adjacent to the Esplanade on the western side of the fort.
“After the Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng’s visit in August last year, we continued to relook all the structure that had already been in map 1877. Actually, we wanted to look for the main entrance here (Fort Cornwallis) but we found the two cannons. In both cannons we found the symbol of GR (the symbol of King George III),” he told a press conference, here today.
He said the cannons would be sent to USM for conservation work and further analyses soon.
Mokhtar said the finding of the two cannons would change the early interpretation of the Fort Cornwallis itself.
Meanwhile, Lim who also attended the press conference said the area would be protected to allow the work to continue and security would also be set up in the area to avoid the cannons from being stolen.
The excavation works were endorsed by Jabatan Warisan Negara and it was part of an effort to reinstate the historical moat and other defensive outworks that surround the 232-year-old monument.
The moat, which was a channel dug around the fort for defensive and drainage purposes, was backfilled in 1922. — Bernama
