A routine plumbing and street repair job in Aalborg, Denmark, took an unusual turn last Tuesday, when construction workers found a 14th-century sword lying on ancient paving deep below today’s surface.
The two found the sword while digging down below the surface and reported it to the Historical Museum of Northern Jutland, which collected the sword and began its examination. The museum is located on Algade, the street that was being torn up.
Experts suspect the sword, which shows signs of high-level craftsmanship, belonged to the loser in one of many engagements of war and instability in the 1300s, and may have been lost in mud on the battlefield and trampled into the earth that later became the street.
