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worker made a surprising find in Poland when they overstretch an early medieval steel from a muddy river bottom while dredging , and some investigator think the arm could have a Viking connective .
The 1,000 - twelvemonth - old blade , which is thought to be older than Poland itself , was found cloaked in silt and in " near perfect " condition in the depths of the Vistula ( also spelled Wisła ) River , which runs through Włocławek , a city in northerly Poland , fit in toWarsaw Point , a Polish magazine .
Images of the early medieval sword as well as an X-ray image.
Local authorities contacted the Provincial Office for the Protection of Monuments about the strange finding . The city ’s Center for Sport and Recreation announced the find Jan. 12 via aFacebook mail service .
go - ray imaging revealed that the sword ’s leaf blade contained an inscription that read " U[V]LFBERTH , " which could be read as " Ulfberht " — " a marking found on a group of 170 medieval brand found mainly in northern Europe " that may be a Frankish personal name , allot toCBS News .
connect : Viking sword from warrior ’s tomb unearth in kin ’s chiliad in Norway
ground on the weapon ’s handle , experts classify it as a " type S " steel , which is characterized by a unbowed metallic element hybridizing guard that widens symmetrically near the end . The top of the steel ’s pommel ( handle ) contain a three - part cap , a style that enable research worker to date the blade to the 9th or tenth 100 , which is around the fourth dimension when the state of the first Piast dynasty was form , marking the first Polish form of statehood .
" This is one of the most famed and at the same time the best — in term of the quality of the vane — former mediaeval blade from Europe,“Mateusz Sosnowski , a specialist with Wda Landscape Park who was affect in the sword sketch , told Live Science in an email . " It would be the eighth sword of this case discover in today ’s Poland . "
Some research worker remain indecipherable as to how the sword get there in the first place and whether it in reality has aVikingconnection .
Sosnowski think that due to Włocławek ’s prime location on the river , it could have been an " important shipping route at the clip " connecting the city to farsighted - distance routes from the Baltic Sea and Scandinavia .
to boot , during a main road construction project in 2007 , workers discovered a nearby burial ground dating to the tenth and eleventh centuries , Sosnowski said .
" During inquiry , many artifacts of Scandinavian blood were found , allowing us to get into that in the necropolis people from Scandinavia were buried there , who may have been in the service of the first Piasts , who were establishing their body politic in this area at that time , " he bring .
— 2 Viking blade buried upright might have plug in the dead to Odin and Valhalla
— confused small-arm of rare Viking blade reunite after 1,200 years aside
— Hoard of Bronze Age jewelry discover in Poland was part of ancient water supply inhumation ritual , survey finds
However , not everyone take is convince that the sword is Viking in origin .
Polish archaeologist Robert Grochowski secernate the Warsaw - based newspaperGazeta Wyborczathat this type of sword is often referred to as a " Viking brand , " even though these swords were counterfeit in what is now France . Many of these weapons came to Central Europe through craft , he add up .
" I do n’t know where the idea that the sword belong to a Viking comes from , " Grochowski enjoin in a translated interview with the newspaper . " Without elaborated research , [ calling it a Viking brand ] is completely unjustified . It is difficult to say anything more than the fact that it is an other medieval blade . "
