Real-Life Weirdness

[William]

A popular wish in pre-modern games is some sort of ancient hand grenade, a weapon which GURPS High-Tech dates to TL4. Welp, tell your GM to take a gander at this, in PLoS One from four researchers at Lakehead University in Canada:

The sherds derive from four small, thick-walled, sphero-conical vessels recovered from a destruction layer, dating between the 11th and 12th century, Jerusalem. ... The unique fourth sherd is from a stoneware sphero-conical vessel with very thick walls, no decoration and the residue supports the possibility it was used for the storage of chemicals or may have held the chemical ingredients for an explosive device, consistent with a medieval grenade.

11th/12th century is square in the middle of TL3, so this could push the timeline back at least one TL. Of course, there's no evidence that they were widely used, and the tech wouldn't be very mature yet, but as an advanced oddity from those wacky Holy Land scholars at the crossroads of East and West, hey, your would-be medieval mad bomber could yet ride!

See also the phys.org commentary, and acknowledgement that I was pointed to this by the latest Kobold Courier.