German archaeologists have unearthed a very rare find during a dig in Nördlingen, Bavaria: a bronze sword believed to be over 3,000 years old still preserved in remarkable condition.
The sword has an ornate octagonal hilt made of pure bronze and is “so extraordinarily well-preserved that it almost still shines,” the Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Monuments remarked in a June 14 press release, translated from German. Office head and general conservator professor Mathias Pfeil added that a find like this is “very rare.”
Experts have provisionally dated the sword to the end of the 14th century B.C., during the Middle Bronze Age. Prior examples from this era were mostly dug out from deliberately opened burial mounds during the 19th century or have surfaced as single, “presumed sacrificial,” finds….