Archaeologists have recovered a remarkably well-preserved 3,300-year-old bronze sword from Lake Mezzano, a volcanic lake in central Italy. The weapon may have been deposited in the water as an offering to the gods or in connection with a high-status warrior who lived long before the rise of the Etruscans and Romans.
A Bronze Age sword from a volcanic lake
The sword was found in Lake Mezzano, which lies in the crater of an ancient volcano about 60 miles (100 kilometers) northwest of Rome. According to a statement from the Superintendent of Archaeology, Art and Landscape of the Province of Viterbo and Southern Etruria, the weapon dates to the Late Bronze Age, between the 14th and 13th centuries B.C., and still has a razor-sharp edge.
This is the third similar sword discovered in Lake Mezzano during the past 50 years.
Bronze Age communities built pile and stilt dwellings on what is now Lake Mezzano. Recent excavations have revealed parts of these submerged settlements, along with numerous intact vases, axes, arrowheads, daggers, spearheads, pins and bronze razors, according to the statement.
Weapon, status symbol or ritual offering?
The sword and a razor were found close together, suggesting that the objects may have belonged to a person of high social status, such as an elite warrior. However, the presence of metal weapons in the lake may also reflect wider Bronze Age ritual practices.
Some artifacts placed in bodies of water appear to have been deliberately bent or otherwise “killed” as part of a ritual before being deposited. The statement indicates that this custom continued for many centuries, into the Etruscan period. Ceremonial closures of wells also involved the deposition of artifacts and, in some cases, human sacrifice.
By the 13th century B.C., communities in central Italy were connected to trade networks spanning the Mediterranean. “In this context, bronze weapons were not only instruments of warfare, but also symbols of prestige, identity and power,” the statement said.
Evidence of prehistoric Italy
The swords and other artifacts from Lake Mezzano are providing archaeologists with new information about the people who flourished in prehistoric Italy before the Common Era, centuries before the Etruscans and the Romans. Additional studies are planned in the coming years, according to the statement.
Source: www.livescience.com