‘Extraordinarily’ Well Preserved 3,000-Year-Old Sword Unearthed in Germany

Archaeologists have hailed the discovery of an “extraordinary” bronze sword found at a burial site in Bavaria, the weapon incredibly well preserved by the fine soil of the area.

A sword of the 14th century B.C. “Middle Bronze Age” — making the weapon over 3,000 years old — has been unearthed in a state of “extraordinary” preservation. According to a statement of the Bavarian State Office for Monument Protection who investigated the “very rare” find, the two-and-a-half-foot-long sword does not have signs of use but appears to have been made for practical rather than ceremonial purposes and is balanced fore-heavy to suggest it was meant for a slashing type of attack.

According to the body, the octagonal form of the sword’s hilt is typical to historical southern Germany, where it was found. Such swords are also found in the north, but it is claimed these were either imports from “wandering craftsmen” who carried their art with them, or copies of the design made locally. Swords were of an advanced type, as noted by the Monuments office: “The production of octagonal swords is complex because the handle is cast over the blade (so-called overlay casting). The decoration is made with an inlay and using hallmarks.”

Other goods were found in the grave containing a man, a woman, and a child, and an image of the sword still embedded in the mud clearly shows other items including two bronze arrowheads with prominent backwards-facing barbs, designed to make pulling the arrow from flesh difficult and destructive.

The items are in such a good state — the state office says the sword “is so exceptionally well preserved that it almost still shines” — because of the local soil, reports Augsburger Allgemeine. Because the soil has an extremely fine sediment, the sword was tightly packed underground thereby excluding oxygen from reacting with the metal, similar to how objects of extraordinary antiquity can be found well preserved in ancient bogs.

A bog find was declared in the United Kingdom last week, when a man laying foundations on his land discovered what is believed to be the oldest-yet-found piece of carved wood in Britain ever. The panel is believed to be over 6,000 years old.