Divers pull a 3,300-year-old bronze sword from an Italian crater lake, and its edge is still sharp
Gizmodo walks through the superintendency's statement and the theories for why such a fine blade ended up in a lake.
Underwater archaeologists have recovered a Bronze Age sword from Lake Mezzano, a volcanic crater lake about 60 miles northwest of Rome, and its blade is still sharp, according to Italy's Superintendence of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for the Province of Viterbo and Southern Etruria, as reported by Gizmodo and Vice. The team, working with the Carabinieri underwater unit of Rome, dates it to the 13th century BCE.
Divers also brought up axes, arrowheads, daggers, spearheads, pins, a bronze razor and intact ceramic vases. It is the third sword found at the lake since the 1970s. The superintendency says a pile-dwelling (stilt) settlement very likely stood there in the Bronze Age. Why the sword ended up in the water isn't known; Vice reports two theories: it belonged to a high-status person (it lay beside the razor), or it was a ritual offering to water deities.
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Lake Mezzano
After exploring Bronze Age Sword FIshed From Italian Volcanic Lake Is Still Sharp, to see where it was found, read about Lake Mezzano.
A small volcanic crater lake in central Italy that formed about 400,000 years ago.
Wikipedia · Wade · 5 min
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Stilt house
After exploring Bronze Age Sword FIshed From Italian Volcanic Lake Is Still Sharp, for the kind of village that likely stood there, read about the Stilt house.
Freestanding houses raised above ground or water on thin pillars, mainly to protect against flooding and to keep out vermin.
Wikipedia · Wade · 5 min
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