A New Sword Has Been Unearthed
Literally, by a Farmer
Within the last week, archeologists have gotten in a flutter over a possible new VLFBERHT sword that has been sent to them.
A VLFBERHT sword is a sword that was created in the Frankish Empire (mostly the Rhineland and Scandanavia) between the 800 to 1000’s and is inscribed with the manufacturer’s name, +VLFBERH+T. This is generally translated as Ulfberht.
These are relatively rare. There are only 167 swords with inscriptions that have been dug up, and only 145 of those are from Norway, where this one was hiding.
They are also considered generally, technically, a big stinking deal. Swords in the 800’s were made by a process called patten welding, where different pieces are forged and then welded together. The process got better so bigger pieces of steel could be forged into a sword as time passed, and, by the 1000’s, people were producing swords from one crucible. Ulfberht’s inscription is on swords of both types of makes and seems to represent a transition in how swords were made.
The story is even also rare: a farmer named Oyvind was plowing up a new field with a neighbor and his son when they picked up a piece of iron and noticed it was the remains of a sword. They sent it to the Archaeological Museum in Stavanger, where it was x-rayed and the inscription was noted, thus setting off the flutter.
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