Rotating gun platform, from Vier Bücher der Rytterschafft, 1511.
Quick-firing rotating bombard platform, siege engine, woodcut from De re militari libri quatuor (Epitoma rei militaris), by Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus, printed by Christian Wechel, Paris...
Photo one appears to be a revolving canon of some sorts, however, it doesn't look much like the revolving cannon found here. According to the official narrative, the revolving cannon was not prototyped until 1871.
The second photo appears to be a mortar of some sorts, likely similar to the Tsar Cannon, which was created in 1586. That being said, if this were a stand alone photo and not part of a larger battle scene, I would have guessed this was a smelting pot.
Rotating gun platform, from Vier Bücher der Rytterschafft, 1511.
Quick-firing rotating bombard platform, siege engine, woodcut from De re militari libri quatuor (Epitoma rei militaris), by Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus, printed by Christian Wechel, Paris, 1535.
Tormented Machina, Warfare in the Middle Ages, weapons, throwing machine, several cannon shot tubes on a rotating constructions, 1483.
Further search yielded the following (200 years later):
Invented in 1754, this weird device was the creation of Alexei Konstantinovich Nartov, an engineer working for the Russian Academy of Sciences. Forty four 3 pound cannons were arranged in a circle on a cart. The cart had a special gear system where as the wheels turned, so did the turntable mechanism of the cannon. When armed, the forwardmost gun would fire, and as the cart was wheeled forward, the next loaded cannon would turn into position and fire. The purpose of this contraption was to break up enemy columns. As Russian soldiers advanced upon the enemy, the device would continuously fire solid cannon balls, grapeshot, or large grenades. While ingenious, the device was too large and heavy for practical use, and did not see much combat. Nartov’s Battery is currently on display at the Russian Museum Artillery, Engineer, and Signal Corps, St. Petersburg, Russia.
