Perfectly preserved Viking sword found in Norway

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Europe

A Viking sword believed to be over 1,000 years was found in perfect condition by a hunter in Norway, newspaper Aftenposten reported Saturday.

Reindeer hunter Einar Ambakk stumbled upon a brown object sticking out of a mass of stones when he and his fellow hunters were following reindeer tracks in Reinheimen, an area in central Norway they had never hunted in before.

The Viking sword /Photo via secretsoftheice.com

"When you arrive to this age, you have to watch where you step. There were a lot of loose stones and you had to look down. That is when I saw that there was a brown object in front of me," Ambakk said.

"I bent down to see what it was. At first it looked like a rusty iron rod. But when I pulled it up, I saw that it was a sword," he said.

"We understood that it was an old sword, but considered it must have been made in recent times, even though it was roughly wrought and well made," he said.

Ambakk informed local archaeologists and experts, who thought it was "too good to be true" and wanted to see the location of the discovery for themselves.

The sword was found 1,640 meters above sea level and had been halfway visible for over 1,000 years.

"When the pictures were shown on the phone, I jumped in the chair. There has, as far as I know, never been found a sword in that height. It is very rare to find such a well-preserved sword," said archaeologist Lars Holger Pilo.

"We have investigated, and it is a Viking sword. The hilt – the sword handle – consists of two types of handles. Probably the sword has been repaired, but we assume it is from the 800s or early 900s," he said.

The sword handle /Photo via secretsoftheice.com

According to Pilo, it is challenging to speculate about the reasons for why it took so long for the sword to be found.

"People have probably moved outside this area. And you could not see the sword from a distance. The mountain is big, and in these areas it is probably only reindeer hunters that walk around. Fortunately for us, these hunters have their eyes open," he said.

"The context itself – that it was found so close to the mountains – makes this extra special. What kind of Viking leaves his most precious thing in the mountains? Probably the owner disappeared or lost the sword. Perhaps he first lost the sword and died somewhere else, perhaps in bad weather or a snow storm," Pilo added.

The sword was examined Monday by the archaeologists in Lillehammer and it will soon be transported to the Cultural History Museum in Oslo for further research and conservation, Aftenposten reported.

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Source(s): Xinhua News Agency