Bronze Age sword discovered in an Italian lake is still sharp after 3,300 years
Archaeologists found several ancient weapons, intact vases and a bronze razor in the volcanic crater lake.
Archaeologists have recovered a well-preserved bronze sword from a volcanic lake in Italy. The 3,300-year-old weapon may have been deposited in the lake as an offering to a deity or for a high-status warrior who lived long before the rise of the Etruscans or the Romans.
The sword was found in Lake Mezzano, which is located in the crater of an ancient volcano roughly 60 miles (100 kilometers) northwest of Rome, according to a translated statement from the Superintendence of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for the Province of Viterbo and Southern Etruria. Dating to the Late Bronze Age (14th to 13th centuries B.C.), the sword has maintained its sharp edge. It is the third such sword found in Lake Mezzano in the past 50 years.
Bronze Age people erected pile dwellings or stilt houses in what is now Lake Mezzano, and archaeologists recovered parts of the submerged settlement during their recent investigations. According to the statement, researchers also found numerous intact vases, axes, arrowheads, daggers, spearheads, pins and a bronze razor.
The bronze sword dates to the Late Bronze Age and may have been a symbol of power.
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The sword and the razor were found near each other, suggesting the two artifacts may have been linked to a person of high social status, such as an elite warrior. But the placement of the metal weapons in a lake may also be related to a wider Bronze Age ritual practice where hoards of jewelry and bent or ritually "killed" artifacts were tossed into bodies of water. This practice continued through the centuries into Etruscan times, when wells were ritually "closed" with artifacts and human sacrifices.
During the 13th century B.C., people in central Italy engaged in trade networks that spanned the Mediterranean. "In this context, bronze weapons were not only instruments of combat, but also symbols of prestige, identity, and power," according to the statement.
The sword and other artifacts discovered in Lake Mezzano are giving archaeologists new information about the people who flourished in prehistoric Italy long before the Romans and Etruscans. Additional research is planned in the coming years, according to the statement.
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Kristina Killgrove is a staff writer at Live Science with a focus on archaeology and paleoanthropology news. Her articles have also appeared in venues such as Forbes, Smithsonian, and Mental Floss. Kristina holds a Ph.D. in biological anthropology and an M.A. in classical archaeology from the University of North Carolina, as well as a B.A. in Latin from the University of Virginia, and she was formerly a university professor and researcher. She has received awards from the Society for American Archaeology and the American Anthropological Association for her science writing.
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