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This 3,000-Year-Old Sword Was So Well Preserved That It 'Almost Still Shines'

Archaeologists uncovered the pristine-looking ancient weapon in a burial site in Germany. It's already providing more than a glimmer of what life was like during the Bronze Age.

BySean Mowbray
(Credit: Archäologie-Büro Dr. Woidich / Sergiu Tifui)

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Often, when archaeologists dig up an artifact that's thousands of years old, it requires some imagination to picture what it might have looked like back then. That certainly wasn't the case for a team of scientists who peered into a gravesite in southern Bavaria.

In 2023, archaeologists in Germany unearthed a Bronze Age grave containing a 3,000-year-old sword that’s so extraordinarily well-preserved that it "almost still shines," says Bavaria's State Office for Monument Protection in a statement, according to Google Translate.

Discovered in Nördlingen, in the Donau-Ries region of Germany, archaeologists hope the remarkable find can offer a glimmer into Bronze Age life.

Johann Friedrich Tolksdorf, an archaeologist with the Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Monuments, explained that the grave site (and the sword itself) date back to the 13th or 14th century B.C.E.. Discoveries of this kind are rare, he explained, as most known burial mounds were ...

  • Sean Mowbray

    Sean Mowbray is a freelance writer based in Scotland. He covers the environment, archaeology, and general science topics. His work has also appeared in outlets such as Mongabay, New Scientist, Hakai Magazine, Ancient History Magazine, and others.

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