Thursday, October 22, 2015

Surprise - it's Sharp and Pointy

Goran Olsen was out on a hike in Haukeli, not far from Oslo, Norway, when he spotted something poking out from under a rock.

It turned out to be an eighth century iron sword - and one in such good condition that it could be restored to a fighting edge. Well, if you replaced the hilt, which is missing - probably it was mostly leather or wood.

Amazingly, the sword had been sitting there next to a fairly popular hiking trail for 1200 years. Archaeologists aren't sure how it got there, but suspect it was either part of a burial or somehow lost by a traveler, perhaps after an ambush.

The surprise is how long it stayed there without being found.

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