Carefully crafted sword — 3,300 years old but still shiny — unearthed in German grave
Obscured by dirt and forgotten to time, an ancient weapon sat atop someone’s final resting place in southern Germany. The weapon — and the grave it appeared to guard — went unnoticed for millennia but not anymore.
Archaeologists uncovered the Bronze Age grave during excavations in Nördlingen, the Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Monuments said in a June 14 news release.
Atop the grave, archaeologists unearthed a 3,300-year-old sword. The sword was so extraordinarily well-preserved that it still shined, the release said. Photos show the long, silvery blade sitting amid the buried skeletons.
Experts identified the weapon as an octagonal sword based on its hilt, the release said. Photos show the carefully crafted, green hilt. Most of the handle has a jagged, pointed pattern. The top of the handle is shaped like a horseshoe and opens toward the blade.
Octagonal swords are a type of sword where the hilt is molded directly on the blade, resulting in fewer rivets, the release said. This process is more difficult than the hilt being molded separately and later attached to the blade.
The ancient sword was probably not used to deliver a blow, archaeologists said. Instead, it was a grave good.
Mathias Pfeil, a conservator with the Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Monuments, described it as a very rare find.
Archaeologists found the skeletons of three people buried in the grave: a man, woman and child, the release said.
Officials said further analysis is needed to determine whether the skeletons were related and where the sword was made.
Nördlingen is about 80 miles northwest of Munich and about 320 miles southwest of Berlin.
Google Translate was used to translate the news release from the Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Monuments.
This story was originally published June 16, 2023 at 8:54 AM with the headline "Carefully crafted sword — 3,300 years old but still shiny — unearthed in German grave."
