The newly authenticated sword on display. (Field Museum)
Posted on 01/25/2023 10:50:41 PM PST by SunkenCiv
In the 1930s, a tarnished bronze sword was pulled from the banks of the Danube River that runs through Budapest.
It was styled like a Hungarian weapon from the Bronze Age, and yet at the time, it was assumed to be a replica, possibly made in the Medieval Era or later.
For nearly a century, the sword has sat on display at the Field Museum in Chicago, labeled as a mere copy. But last year, while the museum was preparing for an upcoming exhibit on ancient European kings, a visiting Hungarian archaeologist (whose name has not been publicized) took one look at the sword and declared it authentic.
"We brought it out, he looked at it, and it was 20 seconds and he said, 'It's not a replica'," William Parkinson, the curator of anthropology at the Field Museum, told a local news station.
But Parkinson wasn't yet convinced. He wanted to use X-rays to see if the sword really had been forged from the right combinations of copper and tin, as is seen in other bronze-age weapons from the region.
And "Bam!" Parkinson recalled, the sword's chemical makeup matched that of other artifacts.
"Usually this story goes the other way round," Parkinson marveled in a recent press release from the museum. "What we think is an original turns out to be a fake."
...The Field Museum's upcoming exhibition, The First Kings of Europe, is set to open in March 2023. [emphasis added]
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencealert.com ...
Thanks Red Badger.
If it’s real, it’s probably very, very heavy.
I’m plumb out of shape. I could not brandish, cut or thrust the weapon with effective skill.
Stopping to use my albuterol inhaler would diminish my statement.
now that’s an ‘assault’ weapon.
3,000 years? That’s older than Hungary itself. Certainly a lot older than Budapest.
Yes. 3,000 years ago is pre-Pannonia which that territory was called when it was part of the Roman Empire. The Magyars did not migrate into what is now Hungary until the 9th century AD.
That’s the way I remember it. This sword is even older than Rome itself...Rome not being established until somewhere around the 750’s BC.
when I first read the title on a different article source it mentioned Chicago. I was REALLY hoping it was found there... lol
Early Hallstadt culture?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallstatt_culture
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronze_Age_sword#Europe
That was my first thought as well. I would need much stronger wrists and forearms to make that blade go snicker-snack.
I would never have thought that anyone in the Medieval period was making replicas of Bronze Age swords.
Who would be the market for such swords?
People who could not afford better ones.
Under the assault weapons ban at the time in Chi-town, it would have been illegal.
I would think you would buy an iron sword over a bronze sword.
Wielding it whilst on horseback would lop off heads all over the place.
Poorly made iron swords are more likely to break.
And while iron will hold an edge better, swords don’t have to be all that sharp. You don’t have to be going very fast on a motorcycle for a round fence wire to be lethal.
If the tiles in the background are 12 x 12 then I estimate the total length to be a little under 3 feet.
I meant found there from 3k ago. lol
Tin: The original strategic mineral.
Does that make it ‘grandfathered’?
/s
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