A perfectly preserved Bronze Age sword has been discovered beneath Lake Mezzano in central Italy, adding another weapon to an increasingly unusual concentration of bronze objects found around a submerged prehistoric settlement.
The sword, identified as a spada a lingua da presa, or tang-tongue sword, was discovered on September 28 in a little-explored sector along the southern shore of the lake. It is the third sword recovered from Mezzano since archaeological investigations began there in the 1970s, and its location is now forcing researchers to reconsider why so many weapons ended up beneath the water.
Archaeologists working in the same area also recovered intact pottery vessels and additional bronze objects, including a razor and an axe. According to the Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio for the province of Viterbo and Southern Etruria, the metal finds are appearing at a broadly consistent archaeological level, providing new clues about how the deposit formed.
A third sword changes the picture
Lake Mezzano lies in the volcanic landscape of northern Lazio, west of Lake Bolsena. Beneath its waters are the remains of a large pile-dwelling settlement occupied during the Bronze Age, approximately between 1700 and 1150 BC.
The site was first identified in the early 1970s and investigated intermittently until the 1990s. Systematic underwater research resumed in 2025 after a long interruption, with archaeologists mapping more than 600 wooden piles emerging from the clay lakebed. That survey covered only about one-third of the known settlement.
Those investigations quickly showed that Mezzano was unusually rich in metalwork. More than 25 bronze objects were recovered during the first renewed campaign, including winged axes, spearheads, fibulae, rings, a pin and a remarkably well-preserved sickle. Fragments of bronze ingots also raised the possibility that metalworking took place within the settlement itself.
The newly discovered sword, however, gives that assemblage a different significance. It is not an isolated weapon accidentally encountered on the lakebed but the third sword known from a site that has already produced numerous objects associated with weapons and metalworking.
Were the weapons simply lost?
At first glance, the explanation could appear straightforward. Mezzano was a substantial lakeside settlement built partly on wooden structures, and archaeological evidence suggests that objects fell or rolled from platforms into the water over centuries.
The Soprintendenza’s 2025 investigation found wooden piles at depths ranging from roughly 2.5 to 10 metres. Researchers believe fluctuations in the lake level affected the settlement during its approximately 600 years of occupation, while some wooden structures appear to have burned. Several bronze objects themselves also show evidence of exposure to fire.
This complex formation history means not every object now lying underwater necessarily remained exactly where its Bronze Age owner left it. Some material may have fallen from wooden platforms, while other objects may have shifted downslope or been redeposited as the shoreline changed.
Yet the growing concentration of weapons is making that explanation increasingly interesting to test.
Earlier swords point to another possibility
The two swords discovered at Mezzano before the latest find provide an important clue.
The Museo della Preistoria della Tuscia e della Rocca Farnese in Valentano, which preserves material from the lake, describes two earlier swords recovered in excellent condition. Significantly, one had not been hardened sufficiently for practical use. The museum interprets that weapon as a possible sacrificial offering rather than a functional sword intended for combat.
The museum also associates the later phases of Mezzano with a possible cult function, when bronze objects including swords, a spearhead and other valuable metalwork were deposited in or around the lake.
That does not mean the newly discovered sword was itself an offering. No such conclusion has yet been announced. But the presence of a third sword, together with axes, spearheads and other bronzes recovered during recent work, gives archaeologists more material with which to test whether at least some of these objects entered the lake deliberately.
A Bronze Age village preserved underwater
Mezzano is particularly valuable because the lake preserved far more than metal objects. Excavations have recovered pottery, wooden artefacts, animal remains, grinding stones and structural timbers, offering an unusually detailed picture of Bronze Age life in central Italy.
The oxygen-poor clay surrounding some finds has also created exceptional preservation conditions. During the 2025 campaign, archaeologists reported bronze objects retaining remarkably well-preserved surfaces, while the submerged settlement itself extends across a much larger area than early investigations had suggested.
Researchers are now trying to connect finds with different depth zones around the lake. Earlier material appears to occur in deeper areas and later material closer to the present shoreline, potentially preserving a record of how the settlement shifted as water levels changed.
The new sword comes from a sector of the southern shore that had received comparatively little investigation. Its discovery, accompanied by intact pottery, an axe and a razor, suggests that unexplored portions of the lake may still hold substantial archaeological deposits.
What remains unresolved is why so many valuable bronze weapons accumulated here. Some may represent the possessions and tools of a community whose buildings collapsed or burned. Others may have entered the water under very different circumstances.
With three swords now known from Lake Mezzano, that distinction has become one of the most intriguing questions facing the underwater excavation.
Soprintendenza Archeologia Belle Arti Paesaggio Etruria Meridionale
