Gun Lock, ca. 1700

My crew found this gun lock in a cellar hole in Dover, Delaware about ten years ago. The cellar hole was filled in around 1755. The state museum just obtained this x-ray, and based on what they can see they say the lock was made in the early 1700s or even the late 1600s. Flintlock technology was evolving pretty fast in that period, so by the time this went in the ground it had been obsolete for a while. Maybe it spent twenty years hanging over the mantel.