Archaeologists have found sherds from four small sphero-conical vessels in a destruction layer, dating between the 11th and 12th century CE, in Jerusalem, Israel. One of the sherds was from a stoneware sphero-conical vessel with very thick walls and no decoration; it may have held the chemical ingredients — including fatty acids and notable levels of mercury, sulfur, aluminum, potassium, magnesium, nitrates and phosphorous — of an explosive device.Alas, we used up the Holy Hand Grenade jokes on the last Crusader-era hand grenade, found in 2016.
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