Bronze Age sword discovered in an Italian lake is still sharp after 3,300 years

Archaeologists have recovered a well-preserved bronze sword from a volcanic lake in Italy. The 3,300-year-old weapon may have been deposited in the lake as an offering to a deity or for a high-status warrior who lived long before the rise of the Etruscans or the Romans.

The sword was found in Lake Mezzano, which is located in the crater of an ancient volcano roughly 60 miles (100 kilometers) northwest of Rome, according to a translated statement from the Superintendence of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for the Province of Viterbo and Southern Etruria. Dating to the Late Bronze Age (14th to 13th centuries B.C.), the sword has maintained its sharp edge. It is the third such sword found in Lake Mezzano in the past 50 years.

Bronze Age people erected pile dwellings or stilt houses in what is now Lake Mezzano, and archaeologists recovered parts of the submerged settlement during their recent investigations. According to the statement, researchers also found n...