Ritually bent Bronze Age sword unearthed in Danish bog is 'very rare

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The long bronze sword was two times bent nearly double, leading to a compressed S shape that made it difficult to utilize once again as a weapon.
(Image credit: Palle Østergaard Sørensen/ ROMU)

A metal detectorist has actually uncovered a long, bronze sword that was bent into an S shape throughout an ancient routine in what is now Denmark.

The sword and other artifacts– which were discovered in a bog near Veksø, northwest of Copenhagen– date to about 2,500 years earlier, throughout the late Bronze Age. They are believed to have actually become part of a routine sacrifice, although this practice was no longer typical at that time. Upon finding the artifacts, the metal detectorist alerted the Danish museum group ROMU.

“It’s what I would describe as a very rare find,” excavation leader Emil Winther Struvean archaeologist and manager with ROMU, stated in an equated declaration

Such products were frequently transferred in bogs as sacrifices throughout the early and middle Bronze Age in northern Europe, “We don’t know that many from the latter part of the Bronze Age,” he stated. The practice of compromising or eliminating individuals in bogs — leaving remains called “bog bodies” — covers a longer duration, from the Stone Age to the 19th century.

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A couple of days after the sword’s discovery, this big bronze neck ring was discovered close by. Archaeologists believe it was imported into the area from what’s now the Baltic coast of Poland. (Image credit: Palle Østergaard Sørensen/ ROMU)

Routine sacrifice

In addition to the bent sword, archaeologists discovered other Bronze Age artifacts, consisting of 2 little, bronze axes; numerous big, bronze “ankle rings”; and what might be a piece of a needle, according to the declaration.

A couple of days later on, the archaeologists likewise found a big, bronze “neck ring” simply 230 feet (70 meters) away. The neck ring is just the second of its kind discovered in Denmark, and the archaeologists believe from its design that it was imported from what’s now the Baltic coast of Poland.

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The bronze sword’s deal with consists of 2 iron rivets that might be the earliest iron ever discovered in Denmark. The ROMU declaration explained the sword as “almost a physical manifestation of the transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age.”

The sword’s style recommends it was not made in Denmark however rather in more southern parts of Europe that were controlled by the Hallstatt culture throughout the Bronze Age, the declaration stated. The Hallstatt culture flourished from about the 8th to the 6th centuries B.C. and was affected by Europe’s early Celtic culture.

The ritually bent sword was a real weapon and suggested a shift from more light-weight swords utilized primarily for stabbing, Struve stated, “but now they are becoming tougher, more solid and have a different weight, so you can use them more violently and for chopping.”

The Hallstatt culture had a warrior perfect that required conquest, war and dispute. “The sword is perhaps an image of that,” Struve stated.

Tom Metcalfe is a self-employed reporter and routine Live Science factor who is based in London in the United Kingdom. Tom composes primarily about science, area, archaeology, the Earth and the oceans. He has actually likewise composed for the BBC, NBC News, National Geographic, Scientific American, Air & & Space, and numerous others.