Viking sword discovery: Hunter finds a 1,100-year-old weapon on Norwegian mountain
Viking sword discovery: Hunter finds a 1,100-year-old weapon on Norwegian mountain
Researchers find that the sword dates back to 850-950 AD and possibly belonged to the Viking swordsman.
In Norway, reindeer hunters were shocked to find an amazingly well-preserved Viking sword while hunting in a high altitude area.
Secrets of The Ice, a Norwegian glacial archaeological organization whose reports that reindeer hunters have discovered a 1,200-year-old Viking sword in Norway. hunter Einar Åmbakk and two friends were hunting in the high mountains of Oppland County, Norway when they stumbled across this ancient sword.
The sword was wedged between the two rocks in a plain filled with the small rocks that pepper the Norwegian countryside, known as scree. While the blade was rusty, and any organic material attached to it including leather straps or bone and wood adornments had rotted away many years ago, it was remarkably well preserved. The extreme cold and low pressure may have prevented further rusting or degradation from occurring.
He then posted a picture of this sword on social media, which spurred researchers to further investigate the sword, as well as the site of the find.
Researchers were able to determine that the sword dates back to 850-950 AD, and was likely owned by a Viking swordsman.
Researchers also returned to the scree-covered mountains with the reindeer hunters, a local metal detectorist and a local archaeologist.
This team investigated the site, but were unable to find any further artifacts. However, they were able to determine that the blade had not been covered by any permafrost or had been buried under the rocks.
Rather, they realized that the sword must have been simply left on the surface of the mountain thousands of years ago.
Why the Viking was traveling in this desolate countryside, and how the sword, an incredibly valuable tool and commodity at the time, came to be left there, we will never know, but researchers theorize that it may have been left there after a Viking got lost during a particularly horrible blizzard.
Though we’ll never know exactly what happened, this sword provides us with a glimpse into the past, capturing a moment when a sword was abandoned on a barren hill over a thousand years ago.