The find was extremely unusual. Not only because it was a very well preserved medieval sword discovered in the Lilla Torg neighborhood, in the port city of Hamlstad (Sweden). What especially excited archaeologists were the measurements of both the weapon and its former owner.
The imposing blade measured more than a meter long and was found in a tomb located in what was formerly the late medieval convent of the Sankta Anna church. The tomb was placed under the floor of the south nave of the temple when the Franciscan order was active in the city between 1494 and 1531.
When researchers from the company Kulturmiljö Halland examined the sarcophagus, they were stunned. The sword was placed on the left side of its owner, a man who was… 1.90 meters tall. In subsequent work, two other graves were detected in which another man and a woman were buried,
In the three graves investigated, no other objects were preserved beyond the leaf. “Finding swords in medieval tombs is very rare, and the people who were buried with them belonged to the upper echelons of society,” the specialists say in a statement.
The discovery in Lilla Torg confirms that the Sankta Anna church was used as a burial place, among other things, for people of noble birth during the 35 years that the Franciscan order was there. Despite being founded in 1494, the building was still under construction both in 1499 and in the first years of the new century.
During her visit to Halmstad in 1503, Queen Christina of Saxony presented a silver plate that was to be sold and the money raised was to be used for the final construction work of the monastery. In 1531, the Franciscans were expelled from the monastery.
The property was abandoned and, just a few months later, Frederick I gave permission to use the building as a hospice for the poor. In 1577, the city council bought what was left of the monastery to use as a hospital. But the buildings were probably destroyed during the fire of 1619.
The huge sword now discovered is also the only object found in the 49 tombs examined during the reconstruction work underway at Lilla Torg. The weapon has been removed from the ground and sent to conservation to begin its examination and the long process of conservation in a protective environment.
The first X-ray image of the discovery made in the laboratory shows that the blade is decorated with two inlaid crosses, probably made of precious metals. Already when the sword was found, field archaeologists were able to guess that it was decorated, something that has now been confirmed.
