Viking-era sword found in Finland
A VIKING-ERA sword dating back around 1,000 years was found in a grave in southern Finland, the Finnish public broadcaster Yle said recently, weeks after a similar sword was discovered in Norway.
A man, using a metal detector last spring, found the wellpreserved weapon near the southern Finnish lake Loppijarvi, about 100 kilometres north of Helsinki, Yle reported, following an announcement of the discovery by the Finnish National Board of Antiquities.
Tuomas Pietila, who searches for historical artifacts as a hobby, had seen the sword’s blade sticking out from the ground in a burial site, Yle said.
A knife, a circular brooch and a bone comb were also found next to the sword, which is to be exhibited at the Helsinki National Museum next year.
This kind of discovery is rare but not the first Scandinavian region.
A Norwegian archaeologist said on Sept 5 that a Viking-era sword dating from around 850950AD was found in Oppland some 270km north of Oslo.
“This is an amazing find of a sword that has stayed exceptionally well for over 1,100 years,” Espen Finstad told Norwegian public broadcaster in the NRK at the time.
DNA evidence also proved that a famous Viking warrior buried at the Birka archeological site 30km west of Stockholm was a woman, according to a Sept 8 study published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.
This discovery sheds light on gender roles among the Vikings and offers insight into the role of