Sword Found Four Years Ago By Norway Man Was 3,000 Years Old

Archaeologists have surprised a man in Norway, telling him the old abandoned sword he found by the roadside is in fact 3,000 years old.

Four years ago, Ernst Skofteland found an old sword lying by the side of a lumber track in a forest near his home in Lindesnes, southern Norway. Skofteland told UPI that when a team of archaeologists began digging on a farm near his home, he asked them to take a look at it. The experts said the sword dated from the Scandinavian Bronze Age, 1,100-900 B.C. He said:

When they told me how old it was, I thought they were kidding me!

According to the FVN website (photo) the sword is 57 centimetres (about two feet) long and 4.3 centimetres (about two inches) wide at its widest point. About 20 such swords have been discovered in Norway. The earliest swords, dating back to 3,300 B.C., were really long daggers made of copper and were then made of bronze alloys. The technology was at first limited to the Middle East and then spread to Europe around 1,300 B.C.