It's a story that could have come straight out of a Disney film.
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During a school field trip in Norway, a six-year-old student spotted an object protruding from the ground. According to the New York Post, the rusty item turned out to be a Viking-era sword, estimated to be over 13 centuries old.
The Boy Found a Sword in the Stone
Henrik Refsnes Mørtvedt was with his first-grade class on their trip to Hadeland, located in the southeastern part of Norway. The area is known for its savage wilderness and scenic mountain ranges.
Archaeologists have been drawn to the area because of its "fertile landscape, old farms, burial mounds and Iron Age remains."
As the class made its way across a field, Mørtvedt noticed the sword. Rather than attempt to yank it out, much like a certain Arthurian legend, the teachers reached out to a local archaeology team so they wouldn't destroy the object.
When they arrived, the team shared that it was a single-edged sword from Scandinavia's Merovingian Period, which lasted from 550 to 880 A.D. This era was right before the region's Viking Age.
What Happened to the Sword?
Once the archaeologists unearthed the artifact, they took it to the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo. Experts plan to study the object and ensure it is properly conserved.
Despite the sword's heavy corrosion, researchers can still learn about the weapon. Methods such as X-rays and metallurgical analyses could provide clues about how it was constructed and used.
It is believed that the sword may have belonged to "a warrior, a farmer with status or someone living through the turbulent centuries that shaped early medieval Norway."
What's even more unbelievable about this discovery is that it's not the first time something like this has happened. In 2018, an 8-year-old found a sword that was over 1,500 years old. She located the weapon while swimming in Vidöstern Lake.
Similarly, in 2017, hunters discovered a 1,100-year-old Viking-era sword on a remote mountain in southern Norway, highlighting the area's ongoing archaeological richness.
Looks like Indiana Jones may need to relocate to Norway.
