A Bronze Age sword has turned up off Devon’s coast, pulled from a protected wreck site that archaeologists have examined for decades without finding a comparable weapon.
According to DeeperBlue, scuba divers Becky Gill and Catherine Gillon found the sword during excavation work at the overlapping Salcombe Cannon and Moor Sand sites.
Archaeologists said the site had not yielded another weapon of this type since investigations began in the late 1970s.
“A kid at Christmas does not come close to the excitement of finding this sword,” Gill said.
Experts’ initial assessment dates the sword to between 1300 and 800 BCE, in the Middle or Late Bronze Age.
The recovery was made through a Historic England-funded project delivered with MSDS Marine. The project aimed to bring newer volunteers into the South West Maritime Archaeological Group, or SWMAG, and help pass on marine archaeology knowledge.
Alison James, project manager at MSDS Marine and archaeological advisor to SWMAG, called it “an incredibly exciting discovery and a powerful reminder of the importance of Protected Wreck sites and the contribution volunteers continue to make to maritime archaeology.”
The sword is now headed for conservation before experts study it further. After that process, it will go to the British Museum for preservation.
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