What at first looked like a rusty piece of metal turned out to be a historical find of a rare kind. During a school field trip in Gran, Norway, six-year-old Henrik Refsnes Mørtvedt discovered an old sword sticking out of the ground. Teachers quickly contacted archaeologists, who determined that the object was approximately 1,300 years old.
The sword is believed to date from the Viking Age. It is an iron sword, a type of weapon that is significantly rarer than the more well-known double-edged Viking swords.
The discovery was made in Hadeland, an area long known for its archaeological remains. The sword has now been taken to the Museum of Cultural History in Oslo, where it will be cleaned, preserved, and examined more closely, including through X-ray analysis.