Written by By Rachel Harrison
LONDON (CNN) — A sword from the 12th century has turned up in a British lake.
Divers from Historic England said they found the 6-inch dagger in a hot spring at Langstone, a small village in southwest England.
“It was lying on the floor of the hot water spring,” Neil Gerritsen, the captain of the dive team, told CNN. “It got there fairly recently, probably in the last year or so.”
Gerritsen said the sword had gone unnoticed by divers for nearly 300 years, and therefore had probably been lost or stolen during the 13th or 14th century. The divers thought it was a traditional chain with a blade attached.
Not the sword of Sauron
Irene Grimwell, the head of Archaeology at Historic England, said it’s the only sword that’s been identified by date on its blade.
“We believe it’s the only sword that’s been known by the sword design on its blade,” she said. “This would definitely be one of the sword designs used for the Crusades in the North of England.”
For those not familiar with the age of the book of Mormon, a 12th century sword would have been a crucifixion blade.
The sword is likely to be more valuable because of its age.
“This is a well-preserved medieval sword and it’s going to end up being much more valuable than any contemporary weapons and that’s why we felt that we had to save it,” Grimwell said.
Langstone has four hot springs. At the peak of the 16th century, the region had 48 of them, according to Historic England.
The finding came after a British man was jailed for desecrating the medieval remains of a Roman bath, which had been encased in concrete, in an attempt to build a modern-day pool.
In 2014, Dutch artist Marianne Foxfiled began restoring an ancient golden sarcophagus. It had been encased in concrete since the 1960s. The ancient object is one of two discovered in the village of Silversands which dates back to the 6th century.
She was supposed to have completed the restoration of the tomb later this year, and it was expected to attract visitors from the Netherlands.
