4 June 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

Unique Viking Age sword found in Norway

A piece of a sword was found last year on a farm in Gausel, in Stavanger, on Norway‘s west coast, this year another metal detector enthusiast found a large sword fragment.

Not only did the two pieces just fit together, but they also turned out to be parts of one of the most magnificently ornamented and heaviest sword types to date from the Viking Age.

The hilt pieces were found in the Gausel area of Stavanger on a field adjacent to the farm where the richly-furnished tomb of a Viking woman was discovered in 1883.

The first piece found was a small irregular piece, and the finder had no idea what it was, so he gave it to the Stavanger Archaeological Museum for further investigation. A year later, a friend of the finder returned to the field and found a large section of an ornately decorated sword hilt. Museum conservators realized this was a match for the little fragment found the year before.

Sword hilt
Sword hilt.

The hilt is from the most ornamented and heaviest Viking sword type, known as a D-sword. Despite the 3000 Viking sword finds, only 20 of these swords, known as the D-sword, have been found in Norway. They were either imported and/or copied meticulously by local smiths. The decorative style dates it to the early 9th century.

According to the press release, details on the hilt are still difficult to see but contain gilded elements of typical animal styles found in the Iron and Viking Ages from about ca 550 to 1050. The hilt also has silver geometrical motifs created using the niello method. This indicates that the black stripes in the silver were created with a metallic combination of some type. The crossguard’s ends are shaped like animal heads on both sides.

Animal-head
Animal-head

The ornamentation may be indicate that the sword was originally made in the Frankish Empire or in England. The closest known parallel is a sword from the island of Eigg in Scotland, found in a ninth-century tomb.

“The technique is of a very high quality, and both the lavish and complicated decor and the special formation of the crossguard make this a truly unique find,” archaeologist Zanette Glørstad from the Museum of Archaeology, University of Stavanger, says in the press release.

The hilt is now undergoing cleaning and conservation before it goes on permanent display at the museum.

Cover Photo: Lise Chantrier Aasen

Related Articles

On the beach of Herculaneum, a victim of the Vesuvius explosion was discovered with his bag

4 December 2021

4 December 2021

Archaeologists released haunting images Wednesday of the skeletal remains of a man buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in...

Archaeologists Discovered a New Pyramid Resembling Teotihuacán in Tikal

17 April 2021

17 April 2021

Researchers discovered a new pyramid complex in the Tikal in Guatemala. About 65 km south of El Mirador in the...

A fragment with the oldest Syriac translation of the New Testament discovered

7 April 2023

7 April 2023

A researcher from the Austrian Academy of Sciences, with the help of ultraviolet photography, was able to discover a small...

1419-year-old Islamic inscription found in Saudi Arabia

13 June 2022

13 June 2022

Saudi Arabia has announced a new archaeological discovery in Makkah. The Islamic inscription found dates back 1419 years to the...

Marvelous Marble Floor Of Sunken Roman Villa Restored in Bacoli

19 July 2024

19 July 2024

In Bacoli, Italy, an underwater restoration project has uncovered the marvelous marble floor of a submerged Roman villa. This remarkable...

The bronze age village Afragola buried by the Plinian eruption of mount Vesuvius 4,000 Years Ago

30 September 2022

30 September 2022

Mount Vesuvius’ Plinian eruption about 4,000 years ago—2,000 years before it buried the Roman city of Pompeii—left remarkable preservation of...

Near Prague, a Mysterious 7,000-Year-Old Circular Structure

15 September 2022

15 September 2022

Archaeologists are investigating a 7,000-year-old so-called roundel (known as ‘rondely’ in Czech), and monumental structure located in the Vinoř district...

Rock Ship of Masuda, Japan’s mysterious monolith

17 April 2023

17 April 2023

Located in the Takaichi District of Nara Prefecture, Japan, the village of Asuka is famous for its mysterious stones. The...

3,000-Year-Old Lost Anatolian language ‘Kalašma’ deciphered

5 July 2024

5 July 2024

In 2023 excavation site at the foot of Ambarlikaya in Boğazköy-Hattusha in Turkey, a cuneiform tablet with a previously unknown...

Research Uncovers a Long-Isolated North African Human Lineage in the Central Sahara from Over 7,000 Years Ago

4 April 2025

4 April 2025

A recent study conducted by a team of researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, including senior author...

3,000-Year-Old Huge Settlement Discovered in Northern France

24 March 2025

24 March 2025

Archaeologists have unearthed a remarkable settlement in the Hauts-de-France region, dating back to the Late Bronze Age and early Iron...

Ancient Hippodrome, Subject of Ben-Hur Movie, Will Become “Arkeo Sports Park”

8 August 2021

8 August 2021

Ben-Hur, a wealthy prince living in Jerusalem, is a historical figure who struggled for the freedom of the Jews during...

The Metropolitan Museum of Art Celebrates 151th Anniversary of Its Establishment

13 April 2021

13 April 2021

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, one of the few museums in the world, celebrates the 151st anniversary of its establishment....

The discovery of great importance for Urartian archeology in Çavuştepe castle: Discovered a horse skeleton with a bronze curb bit in its jaw

28 September 2023

28 September 2023

Archaeologists unearthed a horse skeleton with a bronze curb bit (a metal piece inserted into its mouth to guide the...

Decapitated skeletons of Roman ‘criminals’ found on HS2 route

5 February 2022

5 February 2022

Archaeologists working with the HS2 project have discovered 425 bodies on the route of the new railway line – around...