[Article déjà publié le 11 mars 2024]
The opportunity to retrace the arrival of the Vikings in Great Britain.
The treasures that sleep at the bottom of the rivers
The exhibition “In the Seine, objects found from prehistory to the present day” proved it, we can find all kinds of objects in rivers and tributaries. Drained by water, buffeted by currents, thrown voluntarily or involuntarily by men, numerous archaeological remains are found at the bottom of watercourses.
This is the case of this discovery, made in November 2023 by Trevor Penny, a “magnet fisherman” who carried out his activity in the Cherwell River in Oxfordshire, a county in the south-east of England . A regulated activity in France, particularly on private land, magnet fishing consists of “searching for ferromagnetic objects in outdoor watersaccording to a press release from the Senate transferred to the Minister of Culture.
The investigation of the magnet fisherman
That day was not a successful day for Trevor Penny, as he only found scaffolding poles in the water. When he comes across the strange sword, he does not immediately realize the magnitude of the discovery he has just made. Contacted by LiveScience, he explains that his first instinct was to send photos of his recent find to Google to identify it. The results offered by the search engine are clear, whatever the angle, it was apparently a Viking sword.
Once his investigation was completed, Trevor Penny contacted the Oxfordshire County Liaison Officer, the department responsible for recording archaeological discoveries made by the public. Subsequently, he brought the sword to the care of a team of researchers so that they could carry out additional analyzes of the object.
A sword with a bloody history
The sword was therefore authenticated and even provisionally dated between 850 and 975 AD. This period corresponds to that when the Nordic people landed on the British Isles with the aim of pillaging them and trading with the Saxons. The sword is now in the care of the Oxford Museum and may even be exhibited in the future. According to a statement from the lucky fisherman to a local newspaper, “The officer said it was archaeologically rare to find whole swords and historically significant treasures still intact”.
The first time the Vikings visited Britain was on June 8, 793, a date that will go down in history as the day of the sacking of Lindisfarne Abbey. This event caused great emotion in the West since the attack was unexpected and it was carried out on a place that was thought to be untouchable, since it was protected by its sacred character.
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