A farmer was collecting trash in a field and discovered a rare Viking sword (4 photos)

On May 27, Eivind Tveitane Lovra and his son were cleaning their farm in Suldal, Norway. The man picked up the metal “garbage” and saw a valuable artifact in it.





Lars Søgaard Sørensen, an archaeologist with 25 years of experience, and Kim Tunheim, an archaeologist with 15 years of experience, had never encountered such finds. Specialists from the Stavanger Archaeological Museum took the sword for examination.

"This is a very rare thing. In the Viking Age, a sword was the main indicator of status, and wearing it was a privilege. We archaeologists don't often come across something like this," admitted Lars Søgaard Sørensen from the Department of Cultural Heritage of the province of Rogaland.



This is the first time such weapons have been discovered in Rogaland. X-ray examination of the artifact allowed scientists to obtain valuable information. The blade retains the contours of an engraving in the form of a cross and, possibly, letters.

The weapon dates back to between 900 and 1050. The sword has lost almost half of its length.





According to the Gulathing Law, the oldest surviving Norwegian legal text, the sword was a mandatory attribute of free men who attended meetings.

The find may be the famous sword of Ulfbert from the Viking Age or early Middle Ages.

Sigmund Orl, professor of archeology at the University of Stavanger, explains that these were high quality swords produced in the Frankish Empire (now Germany) and marked +VLFBRHT+.



Researchers know about 170 such specimens, most of them were found in Scandinavia. Ulfbert is made of crucible steel with a high carbon content - up to 1.2%.