Silver-inlaid ancient sword still intact after 800 years

A 13th century sword with silver inlays protrudes from a digger's bucket at a British golf course.

The ancient sword is still intact with silver inlays. Photo: Suffolk County Council.

A group of diggers discovered an ancient sword engraved with letters, birds and animals inlaid with silver while dredging a pond at a golf course, the site of the bloody Battle of Fornham (1173-1174) in England, Bury Free Press reported. The medieval sword is believed to be a relic from the battle, in which forces loyal to King Henry II chased the rebel henchmen of the Earl of Leicester into the marshes and massacred them.

The site of the Battle of Fornham is now a golf course at All Saints, Fornham St Genevieve, a village in the St Edmundsbury district of Suffolk in eastern England. Diggers were shocked to see an ancient sword protruding from the bucket of their excavator.

"It was lucky the digger bucket didn't break the sword. I've found coins, old bottles and things like that, but nothing like this. It's very rare to find something this old still intact after all these years," said David Weakes, owner of Weakes Construction.

According to David Harris, who is in charge of the dig at the hotel, the sword was sent to a conservation expert for further examination. When the expert cleaned the sword, he found inscriptions, birds and animals inlaid in silver. The sword and its scabbard are now in the custody of Suffolk County Council's Archaeology Department.

This is the second 12th-century sword to be found from the Battle of Fornham. The first, known as "The Fornham Sword", was discovered in 1933 in mud at the bottom of a moat in Fornham Park. This sword also has a silver inlay of "May God bless" on one side and "In the name of God" on the other.

According to VNE