All posts by Archaeology World Team

ASIA, CHINA, WORLD

Chinese mummy suggests brain surgery was carried out 3,600 years ago

Chinese mummy suggests brain surgery was carried out 3,600 years ago

A three-and-a-half-millennia-old skull has uncovered evidence of an early form of brain surgery. The mummified woman’s perforated skull was discovered in the Xiaohe tomb in China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

Experts said that the hole, which measures around 2 inches (50mm) in diameter, was most likely an early form of craniotomy. The amount of skull removed depends on the type of surgery being performed, and the flap is later replaced using screws.

It may have also been a form of trepanation, which involves the removal of a piece of bone from the skull. This procedure has been performed since prehistoric times, and cave paintings indicate that ancient people believed the practise would cure epileptic seizures, headaches and mental disorders.

The perforated skull (pictured) was discovered as part of a mummified body of a woman in the ‘Little River’ Xiaohe tomb complex.  Experts said that the hole, measuring around 2 inches (50mm) in diameter, was most likely an early form of craniotomy – a procedure that involves removing bone to get access to the brain
The wound suggests that the female (pictured), who died in her 40s, must have lived for at least a month, or even longer, after receiving the surgery

Lead archaeologist Zhu Hong who made the discovery said: ‘[The wound] suggests the female, who died in her 40s, must have lived for at least a month, or even longer, after receiving the surgery.’

He added there were also signs of healing tissues around the wound. The mummy dates back to 1,615 BC and is one of the hundreds discovered in the Xiaohe ‘Little River’ Tomb complex.

Lying 108 miles (175 km) west of the ancient city of Loulan, the site was first explored in 1934 by Swedish archaeologist Folke Bergman, but not fully excavated until 2005.

Dating of the area has shown it goes back to approximately 2,000 BC, although tests have revealed the bodies contain DNA from the east and west. 

In particular, males were found to have chromosomes typically found in Northern and Eastern Europe, alongside DNA found in Siberia. The massive burial site has more than 330 graves and contains the largest number of mummies ever found in the world.

These tombs include adults and children as well as 15 intact mummies, although approximately half of the tombs were said to have been looted by grave robbers. 

The majority of the coffins found on the site were made of wood, and were shaped like boats, buried upside down. This practice is similar to how the Egyptians believed boats would take Pharaohs to the land of the ‘Gods’

The massive burial site has more than 330 graves and contains the largest number of mummies ever found in the world. These tombs include adults and children as well as 15 intact mummies. The majority of the coffins found on the site were made of wood, and were shaped like boats (pictured) buried upside down

Clothes and jewellery found in the tomb were also buried alongside the mummies, in small baskets, and the bodies were wrapped in cowhide and wool. 

This prevented sand from getting inside the corpses.  In addition to the wood coffins, four clay-covered rectangular coffins were also found, surrounded by stakes. 

And six of the coffins were found to contain wooden ‘bodies’, rather than corpses.  Each of these wooden sculptures was the same shape and were designed to look like males.  Sexual iconography was everywhere at the site, with posts representing phalluses and vulvas placed in front of each grave. 

Sientists recreated ancient brain surgery to understand medical techniques that existed almost 2,500 years ago. A team of experts in Russia spent the past year examining skulls found with intricate surgical holes in a bid to fathom out how early nomadic doctors carried out their work.

This practice is similar to how the Egyptians believed boats would take Pharaohs to the land of the ‘Gods’. Clothes and jewellery found in the tomb were also buried alongside the mummies, in small baskets, and the bodies (pictured) were wrapped in cowhide and wool. This prevented sand from getting inside the corpses
Scientists recreated ancient brain surgery on a modern skull (shown) to understand medical techniques that existed almost 2,500 years ago. A team of experts in Russia spent the past year examining skulls found with intricate surgical holes in a bid to fathom out how early nomadic doctors worked.
Evidence from ancient skulls (pictured) suggest they are among the earliest ever examples of trepanation – an ancient form of neurosurgery

Evidence suggested they were among the earliest ever examples of trepanation – the oldest form of known neurosurgery – with the procedures skillfully carried out. The oldest samples of skulls with boreholes drilled into them were found in a burial site in France dating back to 6500 BC.

But it was also used by the Ancient Egyptians, Chinese, Indians, Romans, Greeks and the early Mesoamerican civilisations. Even the ‘father of medicine Hippocrates advocated the process in his 400 BC tome ‘On Injuries of the Head’.

The procedure was carried out by Aleksei Krivoshapkin according to ancient methods used in the Altai Mountains on the skull of a woman who had died of natural causes shortly before.

Analysis of the skulls of ancient patients found that the operations were carried out with only one tool, a bronze knife, with the surgeons, carefully scraping at the skull, yet leaving behind only minimal traces of their work.

CHILE, SOUTH AMERICA, WORLD

The Oldest Mummies in The World Are Turning Into Black Slime

The Oldest Mummies in The World Are Turning Into Black Slime

Climate change is converting the world’s oldest mummies into black slime, which were buried more than 7,000 years ago in the arid desert of northern Chile. Increasing humidity has been observed to cause an outbreak of bacteria living on the preserved skin of Chinchorro mummies, according to scientists.

The Oldest Mummies in The World Are Turning Into Black Slime
The preserved skin on the outside of Chinchorro mummies in Arica, northern Chile, have begun to rapidly degrade as bacteria and humid air is turning it into black slime, as can be seen in the photograph above

The bacteria then feeds on the ancient skin, causing it to break down into black slime. Researchers say that rising humidity levels in Arica, Chile, is putting the 120 Chinchorro mummies at the University of Tarapacá’s archaeological museum at risk.

However, they warn that hundreds of other mummies buried just beneath the sandy surface in the valleys throughout the region are also under threat. Professor Marcela Sepulveda, an archaeologist at the University of Tarapacá, said: ‘In the last 10 years, the process has accelerated.

‘It is very important to get more information about what’s causing this and to get the university and national government to do what’s necessary to preserve the Chinchorro mummies for the future.’

The Chinchorro mummies are in some cases nearly 4,000 years older than those found preserved from ancient Egypt. The oldest mummy discovered in the Atacama desert dates to 7020BC while the oldest in Egypt dates to 3,000BC.

However, the practice of preserving the dead with mummification became popular among the Chinchoro around 5,000 BC, with children and babies often being the most elaborately preserved. The Chinchorro were prehistoric people who lived in scattered communities and used fishing to help them survive on the desert coast of Chile and Peru.

It is thought they began preserving their dead though mummification as part of a religious act designed to bridge the world between the living and the dead.

An estimated 282 mummies have now been recovered from the dry, sandy soil in the region, but scientists say there could be hundreds more buried there.

Preserved corpses are often found as the shifting sand exposes their bodies. Arica and the surrounding Atacama Desert is one of the driest places in the world and the town receives less than 0.02 inches of rain a year.

The skin on the head of this Chinchorro mummy at the San Miguel de Azapa Museum in Arica, Chile has begun to break down due to the damage being caused by bacteria growing as humidity in the area increases.

It is this dry climate that has helped preserve the mummies for more than 7,000 years. However, the region has been growing slowly damper in recent years.

Scientists at the University of Tarapacá museum first noticed black slimy patches appearing on the preserved skin of the Chinchorro mummies around ten years ago.

As time has gone on they have degraded at ‘an alarming rate’ as the preserved skin has broken down into black slime.

Researchers at Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences have now conducted a series of tests to find out what was causing the degradation. They found that bacteria normally found growing on the human skin appeared to become ‘supercharged’ when placed on mummy skin in high humidity.

They found that mummies need to be kept at between 40 per cent and 60 per cent humidity to prevent degradation from occurring. If the humidity falls below this level, acidification could also damage the mummies.

Some of the Chinchorro mummies, like the one above buried in a coffin made from reeds, show highly sophisticated preservation thousands of years before mummification began to be used in ancient Egypt

Museum staff are now fine-tuning the temperature and humidity to help preserve the mummies in their extensive collection. Professor Ralph Mitchell, a biologist at Harvard who led the work, said: ‘We knew the mummies were degrading but nobody understood why.

‘This kind of degradation has never been studied before.

‘With many diseases we encounter, the microbe is in our body, to begin with, but when the environment changes it becomes an opportunist.’

Professor Mitchell and his colleagues are now keen to find ways to help protect the mummies still preserved out in the desert.

AFRICA, EGYPT, WORLD

Ancient Christian settlement discovered in Egypt’s Bahariya Oasis

Ancient Christian settlement discovered in Egypt’s Bahariya Oasis

The Egyptian antiquities ministry announced Saturday that a French-Norwegian excavation team uncovered new Christian ruins in Egypt’s Western Desert, exposing monastic life in the area in the fifth century AD.

During its third excavation campaign at the Tal Ganoub Qasr al-Agouz site in the Bahariya Oasis, the team discovered “several buildings made of basalt, some carved into the bedrock, and others made of mud bricks,” according to the ministry said in a statement.

The complex is comprised of “six sectors containing the ruins of three churches and monks’ cells”, whose “walls bear graffiti and symbols with Coptic connotations”, said Osama Talaat, head of Islamic, Coptic and Jewish Antiquities at the ministry.

The complex is comprised of ‘six sectors containing the ruins of three churches and monks’ cells’, whose ‘walls bear graffiti and symbols with Coptic connotations’, said the ministry’s head of Islamic, Coptic and Jewish Antiquities, Osama Talaat. Pictured: Christian religious inscriptions and biblical passages decorating the walls of the ancient church
Archaeologists in Egypt have uncovered an ancient Christian monastery (pictured) complete with three churches, monks’ cell and biblical graffiti dating back some 1,500 years

Mission head Victor Ghica said, “19 structures and a church carved into the bedrock” were discovered last year.

The church walls were decorated with “religious inscriptions” and biblical passages in Greek, revealing “the nature of monastic life in the region”, Ghica said, according to the statement.

The finds at the Tal Ganoub Qasr al-Agouz site in the Bahariya Oasis shine a light on monastic life in the area in the fifth century AD, the team said. Pictured, an ancient Christian inscription

It clearly showed that monks were present there since the fifth century AD, he said, adding that the discovery helped understand “the development of buildings and the formation of the first monastic communities” in this region of Egypt.

The remote site, located in the desert southwest of the capital Cairo, was occupied from the fourth to eighth centuries, with a likely peak of activity around the fifth and sixth centuries, according to the French Institute of Oriental Archaeology (IFAO), in charge of the mission.

Previous excavations undertook in 2009 and 2013 shed light on subjects including “the production and preservation of wine as well as the husbandry of animals” in a monastic context, according to the IFAO.

Cairo has announced several major new archaeological discoveries in recent months with the hopes of spurring tourism, a sector that has suffered multiple blows, from a 2011 uprising to the coronavirus pandemic.

In February, it said a high-production brewery believed to be more than 5,000 years old had been uncovered at a funerary site in the country’s south.

Also last month, an Egyptian-Dominican archaeological mission working near Alexandria said it had discovered mummies from around 2,000 years ago bearing golden-tongued amulets.

In January, Egypt unveiled ancient treasures found at the Saqqara archaeological site south of Cairo, including sarcophagi over 3,000 years old, in a discovery that “rewrites history”, according to famed Egyptologist Zahi Hawass.

EUROPE, ITALY, WORLD

Archaeologists discover ancient Rome may have been much larger than previously believed

Archaeologists discover ancient Rome may have been much larger than previously believed

The discovery made in 2015 of a large, 2500-year-old residence, in the central part of Rome, points to the possibility that the ancient city was considerably bigger than previously thought during its archaic period.

Found on the Quirinal Hill, somewhere between modern-day Via Veneto street and the Termini train station, the ancient rectangular house is remarkably well-intact, complete with clay-smeared walls, wooden beams and even a roof.

Although currently the location of the official residence of Italy’s Head of State, Sergio Mattarella, the Quirinal Hill was originally included within the city’s borders during the reign of the sixth Roman king, Servius Tullius.

Tullius was known for instituting the famous Servian Constitution, which made a departure from the ‘tribal’ institutions of curia and gentes and divided the society into five different classes (classis) according to wealth.

In any case, up until now, historians believed that the Quirinal was a sacred place, housing a number of temples and also a necropolis.

Ancient ruins on Quirinal Hill, Rome. Representational image.

The residential areas, it was previously thought, were situated close to the Forum, towards the south of the city. Speaking about the find, Francesco Prosperetti, of the Archaeological Heritage of Rome, said (in 2015):

This is an exceptional find, among the most important of the last 10 years… The remains of this house from the beginning of the sixth century BC is an almost unparalleled example of ancient archaic architecture in this city.

Constructed atop a commonly-found volcanic stone, known as tufa, the newly-uncovered house consisted of two rooms, with the porch acting as the main entrance. Further, the site contains several distinct clues that suggest the building was used for residential purposes.

According to Mirella Serlorenzi, the head of the excavation team, it could have been the residence of a custodian in charge of looking after a nearby temple, which was unearthed back in 2013. Serlorenze said:

At the beginning of the sixth century BC, Rome was much larger than we previously thought before this latest discovery.

In addition to being centered at the Forum, archaic Rome, researchers think, was spread over a much larger area than originally believed.

Darius Arya, an archaeologist who was then involved with the excavation works at Ostia Antica, added:

Many grand projects of restoration going on now are focused on the monuments we know, like the Colosseum and the Trevi Fountain, but there is much of Rome’s history that is not so well-preserve. What is so amazing is that this discovery dates back to Archaic Rome, a crucial period – the regal period — that made Rome so great.

ASIA, ISRAEL, WORLD

Sunken treasure? Divers stumble upon a priceless ancient gold

Sunken treasure? Divers stumble upon a priceless ancient gold

The biggest cache of gold coins ever uncovered off Israel’s Mediterranean coast has been discovered by scuba diving, with around 2,000 pieces dating back over 1,000 years, according to the country’s antiquities authority.

A scuba diver holds some of the gold coins recently found on the seabed in the ancient harbour in the Israeli town of Caesarea.

“The largest treasure of gold coins discovered in Israel was found on the seabed in the ancient harbour in Caesarea,” the authority said in a statement.

It was by pure chance that members of a diving club in the Roman-era port had come across the coins, which the authority said weighed 9kg but described as “priceless”.

The largest hoard of gold coins found in Israel was discovered in the seabed of a harbour in the Mediterranean Sea port of Caesarea National Park.

“At first they thought they had spotted a toy coin from a game and it was only after they understood the coin was the real thing that they collected several coins and quickly returned to the shore in order to inform the director of the dive club about their find,” it said.

Experts from the authority called to the site uncovered “almost 2,000 gold coins in different denominations” circulated by the Fatimid Caliphate, which ruled much of the Middle East and North Africa from 909 to 1171.

Kobi Sharvit, director of the marine archaeology unit at the Israel Antiquities Authority, said excavations would be carried out in the hope of shedding more light on the origin of the treasure.

“There is probably a shipwreck there of an official treasury boat which was on its way to the central government in Egypt with taxes that had been collected,” said Sharvit.

“Perhaps the treasure of coins was meant to pay the salaries of the Fatimid military garrison which was stationed in Caesarea and protected the city.

“Another theory is that the treasure was money belonging to a large merchant ship that traded with the coastal cities and the port on the Mediterranean Sea and sank there,” he said.

The Israeli Antiquities Authority declined to put a cash value on the coins, which it said had been exposed as a result of winter storms.

The find was “so valuable that its priceless,” spokeswoman Yoli Schwartz said, adding the haul was now the property of the state, and that there was no finder’s fee.

ASIA, OMAN, WORLD

3,000-Year-Old Weapons Cache Unearthed In Arabia

3,000-Year-Old Weapons Cache Unearthed In Arabia

In the Arabian Peninsula, an impressive hoard of bronze weapons dating back nearly 3,000 years has been discovered. Bows, arrows, daggers, and axes were discovered strewn around the ruins of what is thought to be an ancient religious building.

Are these all replicas? They are intriguing because they are crafted from metal and considered sacred in some people’s cultures, as a possible offering to a god of war.

They were found inside the ruins of an Iron Age building first discovered in 2009 near Adam, in the Sultanate of Oman.

3,000-Year-Old Weapons Cache Unearthed In Arabia
An incredible cache of bronze weapons dating back almost 3,000 years has been unearthed in the Arabian Peninsula, including two bronze quivers full of arrows (pictured above)

Experts believe the weapons, which date from 900 to 600 BC, were once displayed on shelves, furniture, or hung on walls before they fell off and were discovered alongside ritualistic objects. Two collections of items are of particular interest to archaeologists – small quivers entirely made of bronze, each containing six arrows and other metal weapons. 

They measure 14 inches (35cm) tall, making them small-scale replicas of the real objects, which would have been made of leather and are not usually found in archaeological excavations as they degrade over time.

The site where the weapons were found is known as Mudhmar East and consists of two main buildings located near one of the largest valleys in Oman. The layout of one where the weapons were found is shown.
Archaeologists found five bows (one pictured) which are of a smaller scale than usual and were made of metal, including a bronze string

The fact the quivers are made of metal supports the idea they were ornamental objects, rather than of practical use. Quivers of this kind have never been found in the Arabian Peninsula and the Middle East, and are extremely rare elsewhere.

Experts are also intrigued by other metal weapons, which were also mostly non-utilitarian given their slightly reduced size, material, or unfinished state.

They include five battle-axes, five daggers with crescent-shaped pommels characteristic of the Iron Age, around 50 arrowheads, and five complete bows.

The bows are made up of a flat, curved stave bent at both ends which are connected by a string made of bronze. The size of the bows – 28 inches (70cm) on average – and above all the material used, shows that they were imitations of the real things made of perishable materials such as wood and tendons.

French archaeologists first discovered the site near Adam, which was completely unexplored from an archaeological point of view until the French mission headed by Dr. Guillaume Gernez, of Pantheon-Sorbonne University, began in 2011.

The site is known as Mudhmar East and consists of two main buildings located near one of the largest valleys in Oman which lay at the crossroads of several trade routes.

With a length of 49 feet (15 meters) the larger of the two buildings is located on the slope of Jabal Mudhmar and is made of cut sandstone blocks and earth bricks. 

The cache of metal weapons includes five battle-axes, five daggers with crescent-shaped pommels characteristic of the Iron Age, around 50 arrowheads and five complete bows (shown) as well as two quivers

It is in this building, in a small, apparently doorless room, Dr. Gernez uncovered the bronze weapons.

‘This exceptional discovery provides new information about weaponry during the Iron Age in the eastern Arabian Peninsula and about social practices at the time,’ he said.

‘The non-utilitarian nature of most of the weapons may indicate that they were designed to be offered to a deity of war, and/or as a key element in social practices not yet understood.

‘The first hypothesis is reinforced by the presence in the site’s second building of several fragments of ceramic incense burners and small bronze snakes, objects often associated with ritual practices at that time.’

He said the cache of weapons was made at a time when metallurgical production was on the rise in the eastern Arabian Peninsula during the Iron Age.

‘This economic and technical development went hand-in-hand with an increasingly complex society, as shown by the proliferation of fortified sites and monumental architecture,’ he explained.

‘However, understanding the political system and social structure of this pre-literate society remains a difficult task.

‘Continued archaeological exploration of the site and its immediate surroundings, as well as of the central region of Oman, will be key to reconstructing the dawn of history in the Arabian Peninsula.’

Experts said the weapons were made at a time when metallurgical production was on the rise in the eastern Arabian Peninsula during the Iron Age. This image shows an unfinished axe made of copper and bronze
ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

Human Proteins Detected on Medieval “Birthing Girdle”

Human Proteins Detected on Medieval “Birthing Girdle”

Live Science reports that biochemist Sarah Fiddyment of the University of Cambridge analyzed the surface of a medieval birthing girdle—a ten-foot-long strip of narrow parchment covered with Christian imagery including the wound on the side of the crucified Christ, dripping blood, crucifixion nails, a sacred heart and shield, and a human figure that may represent Jesus.

Human Proteins Detected on Medieval “Birthing Girdle”
The medieval birthing scroll has illustrations from Christian imagery to protect a woman from the dangers of childbirth, including the wound on the side of the crucified Christ, dripping blood (upper left); a rubbed-away crucifix and holy monograms (lower left); and a tau (headless) cross adorned with a sacred heart and shield, alongside a standing figure that may be Jesus.

On the surface of the strip of parchment — called a “birthing girdle” or “birth scroll” — the researchers found traces of plant and animal proteins from medieval treatments used to treat common health problems during pregnancy, and of human proteins that match cervico-vaginal fluid. Those traces suggest the girdle was worn by women while they gave birth.

“This particular girdle shows visual evidence of having been heavily handled, as much of the image and text have been worn away,” biochemist Sarah Fiddyment of the archaeology department at the University of Cambridge told Live Science in an email. “It also has numerous stains and blemishes, giving the overall appearance of a document that has been actively used.”

Fiddyment is the lead author of the new study, which was published on Wednesday (March 10) in the journal Royal Society Open Science. 

The long and narrow parchment was originally made, probably in the late 15th century, from four strips of sheepskin that had been scraped thin and stitched together. The resulting strip is illustrated with Christian imagery, including pictures of the nails of the crucifixion; the holy monogram IHS, which is a way of writing Jesus’ name; a standing figure, possibly Jesus; and his crucifixion wounds, dripping with blood. The text of Christian prayers also appears on both sides.

The birthing scroll has text from Christian prayers on both sides, and heavily worn illustrations — including the three crucifixion nails of Christ — that may have been pressed or kissed by its wearers.

Birthing girdles

The birthing girdle described in the study is a rare surviving example held in the Wellcome Collection, a museum and library of science, medicine, life, and art in London. 

Such girdles were once commonplace as magical remedies to protect women from the dangers of childbirth, which was a leading cause of death for women in the medieval period.

There are several references to their use in medieval England, and churches and monasteries often loaned them out to pregnant women in return for a donation; when the wife of the English king Henry VII became pregnant, the sum of six shillings and eightpence was paid “to a monke that brought our Lady gyrdelle to the Queen,” according to historic records.

Women would wear the scrolls of illustrated parchment or silk wrapped around their waist and pregnancy bump in one of several configurations; the scrolls were about 4 inches (10 centimeters) wide and just about exactly 11 feet (3.3 m) long — it was thought that such a girdle would fit Mary, the mother of Jesus.

But birthing scrolls and other church rituals were targeted for destruction during Henry VIII’s so-called “Dissolution of the Monasteries” that began in 1536. Protestant reformers considered the rituals of childbirth as “sanctuaries for forbidden religious practices,” and they actively tried to suppress them — although recalcitrant midwives continued to use birthing girdles on the sly, wrote the researchers.

“One of the great anxieties of the Reformation was the adding of aid from supernatural sources beyond the Trinity,” study co-author Natalie Goodison, a historian at the universities of Durham and Edinburgh, explained in an email. “The birth girdle itself seems to have been particularly worrisome because it seems to harness both ritualistic and religious powers.” 

Birthing scrolls were long and narrow strips of parchment or silk, decorated with prayers and illustrations, that women could wear around their bodies during the late stages of pregnancy and during childbirth.

Telltale proteins

The researchers made a non-invasive examination of the birthing girdle by applying dampened small disks of plastic film to its surface so that chemical traces from the material are transferred onto the disk — a technique that has been used previously to study fragile paper documents and even ancient mummified skin.

Their tests showed traces of proteins from honey, cereals, legumes — such as beans — and milk from sheep or goats, which are all ingredients from medieval treatments for childbirth and its associated health problems.

For example, beans were said to heal lesions of the womb and to start the flow of breast milk; and milk from goats was thought to give strength after blood loss, a frequent occurrence in childbirth, wrote the researchers.

The researchers also found traces of 55 human proteins on the parchment of the birth scroll, but only of two on a control sample of parchment that was known not to have been used in childbirth.

The proteins on the birthing parchment were overwhelmingly those found in the human cervico-vaginal fluid, the researchers wrote: “This can provide a further possible indication that the role was indeed actively used during childbirth.”

This particular birthing girdle dates to as far back as the early 15th century, and it was either forgotten or quietly stored away during the Dissolution of the Monasteries about 60 years later.

It is now one of only a few birthing girdles to have survived that initial purge and the fluctuations of power between subsequent Catholic and Protestant monarchs of England who influenced birthing practices during their reigns, including the use of birthing girdles.

“If it was employed by midwives on the sly, it could have been used for 150 years, but we think that the longer date is less likely,” Goodison said. “The very fact that this manuscript is so obviously worn indicates that it was very well used. … My impression is that it was used in hundreds of deliveries.”

DENMARK, EUROPE, WORLD

Archaeologists Discover “Unique” Ceremonial Bronze Age Sword in Denmark

Archaeologists Discover “Unique” Ceremonial Bronze Age Sword in Denmark

In the village of Håre on the Danish island of Funen, archaeologists uncovered a rare Bronze Age ritual sword. The sword dates from Phase IV of the Bronze Age, about 3,000 years ago, making it an incredibly rare discovery. What makes it much more impressive is that it is completely preserved, from bronze blade to wood grip.

Even the plant fibres it was wrapped in are extant.

The site was excavated as part of a year-long project to survey the 37-mile-long route of the Baltic Pipe gas pipeline.

Archaeologists carefully extracting the sword from the excavation site in Håre, Denmark

Odense City Museums archaeologists were on the last leg of their excavations in west Funen when they discovered the remains of an ancient settlement where the sword was ritually deposited 3,000 years ago.

The swords were removed to the Odense City Museums for cleaning and conservation in controlled conditions. Because of the diversity of materials used in its construction, the sword had to be dismantled to see to the different preservation needs of each piece.

The fibre grip winding, which may be bast from linden wood, was unravelled and the wood and horn components separated from the metal of the blade. Samples were taken to identify the materials.

Archaeologists Discover “Unique” Ceremonial Bronze Age Sword in Denmark
The sword was found in excellent preservation, and a delicate process of conservation has taken place.

The sample from the plant fibre will be radiocarbon dated to determine when the sword was made.

The sword weighs almost three pounds (1.3 kilos), a large and very expensive amount of bronze to secure at that time. The grip was cast together with the blade shaft of the sword and covered in wood and antler/bone for a comfortable hold.

The metal was likely imported from Central Europe and then crafted by a local blacksmith. The sample from the bronze alloy of the sword will be tested to identify its exact composition and its source location.

The object includes metal, wood, horn and bast in its construction.

When conservation and study are complete, conservators will reassemble the sword and put it on public display, probably at the Odense Møntergården museum which has permanent exhibits on the ancient history of Funen.