5 Rare Weapons Discovered In Unlikely Places

So humans love killing each other, right? War and murder have always been one of our favorite pastimes. Okay yes, combat is also often necessary to survive. So how many daggers, flails, maces, swords, spears, halberds, mauls, hammers, clubs, staves, axes, arrows, bolts, javelins (you get the point, right?) do you figure have been crafted by human hands? About 117 billion people have ever lived, so let's say ... a lot. That includes arms of all materials, like bone, stone, bronze, iron, steel, etc., but not even the biggest, most devastating battlefield weapons like ballistae. And that's all pre-modern weaponry, too. How many such armaments are buried underfoot along with the bones of the slain, waiting to be found? Let's also say a lot.

It might seem strange to come across an ancient weapon buried in the backyard next to a cabbage patch or sunken in a backwoods bog. Weapons are generally small and their materials deteriorate, so most discoveries are accidental and therefore inherently surprising. But given how many weapons are likely out there, it might be stranger that we don't find more. And a lot of weapons do get found every year, mostly in places that make sense, like ancient lakebeds, caves, graves, under a field somewhere, and so forth. Sometimes, however, ancient weapons crop up in a particularly odd place. How about on a mountain or hidden within a desert cliff face? Or tucked away in a cabinet in a monastery? Or buried in a cache found during highway construction? Or even a sword plunged straight into stone, like the Excalibur?

The ancient weapons discovered on Wilzenberg mountain (elevation 2,158 feet) in west-central Germany mark an unusual find not only for their location but also because weapons had already been discovered in the area decades prior. Back in the 1950s, workers were building a pavilion on the berg, long-called the "Holy Mountain of Sauerland." It was a pilgrimage site for over 1,000 years, from the 2nd century B.C.E. to the 9th or 10 century C.E. 

The workers were working on the pavilion near the site of a wood-and-stone Iron Age hillfort dating back to about 300 B.C.E. when they stumbled across a modest cache of two swords, two spearheads, and two lanceheads. It wasn't until 2013 that excavations commenced at the site in earnest. That's when researchers discovered a colossal horde of over 150 objects, 40 of which are spearhead and lancehead tips. Other items include lances, swords, shields, belt hooks, bridles for horses, coins, and more.

But it's not just the location and quantity of the objects that makes the find at Wilzenburg unusual — the weapons were unusually bent and contorted around themselves. Manuel Zeiler, archaeologist at the Regional Association of Westphalia-Lippe (LWL), told Live Science that the armaments weren't twisted in battle — they were likely deformed later as a demonstration of victory. In other words, they belonged to some defeated foe. And since Celts (a loose term for a collection of peoples related by language and culture) saturated central-to-western Europe from 1200 B.C.E. through 300 B.C.E. and beyond, it stands to reason that the hillfort and its weapons are Celtic.

We mentioned that caves aren't an unusual place to find ancient weapons. But caves that are practically impossible to reach, even in modern times, because they're tucked away inside a cliff face in the desert along the shores of the Red Sea? We're talking cliffs as high as 1,600 feet in an area that, nowadays, requires archaeologists to use harnesses, ropes, and full-on scaling gear for the most treacherous areas. So why in the world would somebody climb and clamber through this kind of area almost 2,000 years ago to squirrel away four Roman swords?

Located within En Gedi Nature Reserve along the western shore of the Red Sea, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced this exact discovery in 2023. The Roman gladii were in astonishingly good condition — iron blade, hilt, pommel, handguard, and all. Three of the swords were even in their original wooden scabbards. "Finding a single sword is rare — so four? It's a dream! We rubbed our eyes to believe it," CNN quotes researchers. As is typical for this region of the world, it was the harsh, arid desert conditions that kept the weapons in such good condition.

As for the story behind the swords' odd location: They might have been booty from killed Roman soldiers or hidden evidence of the crime. The find's precise area near the Red Sea was used during the Jewish Bar Kokhba Revolt (132 to 135 C.E.), an event that led to the famous Dead Sea Scrolls being stashed in the area's caves for safety. In fact, researchers found a coin at the site dating to those exact years.

Now we travel to a destination far better known for its rampant tourism and one-of-a-kind architecture than anything: Venice, Italy. In a strange case of being hidden in plain sight, archaeological doctoral student Vittoria Dall'Armellina took a 2017 trip to the 1717-built Mekhitarist (Armenian Catholic) monastery. It's located on the tiny island of San Lazzaro degli Armeni, which is nested within the greater Venetian lagoon. Providentially, she was just the right expert to make the trip — one made for fun, not for work or research, as she spotted a sword at the monastery museum incorrectly grouped with medieval weapons. Not only is the sword not medieval, it's one of the oldest swords in the world, dating to 3000 B.C.E. Just for perspective, that's about 500 years older than the Pyramids at Giza.

The sword is made from what's called "arsenical copper," as Live Science explains. This alloy of bronze and arsenic historically predates the use of "true bronze," i.e., bronze and tin. Such swords were the first types ever made and come from the area east of modern-day Turkey. As for the sword in question (likely a grave good for a high-status warrior), Armenian art collector Yervant Khorasandjian donated it to the monastery's Father Leonzio, a well-known poet whose real name was Ghevond Alishan, in the 1800s. Khorasandjian said it came from a settlement near the ancient Greek colony of Trebizond in northeastern Turkey. As for the island San Lazzaro degli Armeni itself, it was inhabited in the 9th century and became a leper colony during medieval times. 

It's a trope reminiscent of loads of real-life lore and TV plots alike. Some construction developer shoves itself into an old, once-tribal area, starts digging up land and laying pavement, and bam — cue the discovered bones, grave goods, and ominous music indicating that the stubborn disbeliever of a developer will be the first to fall prey to the curse of the Native American lands. Now swap out Native Americans for Danish Iron Age warrior kin groups, delete the whole curse thing, and replace disrespect with utter respect and you've outlined the tale of Løsning Søndermark. In 2024, near the little town of Hedensted on the Jutland peninsula in Denmark, a highway expansion project unearthed a trove of 100-plus weapons buried under the residence of an unknown chieftain who lived about 1,500 years ago. It's basically enough weaponry to outfit a personal army. 

Archaeologists have discovered quite the collection at Løsning Søndermark, which is now an excavation site. We're talking 119 lances and spears, eight swords, five knives, one ax, and even a set of chainmail (which isn't a weapon, but whatever). Perhaps most interestingly of all, researchers also found an "exceptionally rare" Roman helmet (yes, those guys again). As Live Science explains, this is the first find of its type in Denmark. While the weapons are likely spoils of war, the helmet might have belonged to a Germanic person who served in the Roman army, or it might have been a spoil of war, too. All weapons and armor are either iron or bronze.

Much like caves, we said that lakes aren't an unusual place to find ancient weapons. But it's not the lake or river or other body of water that makes the current find noteworthy — it's the location of the weapon within the water. Discovered by a group of amateur divers from the Diving Club Buk in 2019 in the Vrbas River in Bosnia and Herzegovina, we're talking about a literal sword in the stone. After the divers found the weapon, they contacted the Museum of Republika Srpska, which dispatched archaeologist Ivana Pandzic to extract the weapon. Per the Sarajevo Times, Pandzic (who shall henceforth be dubbed Queen Arthuretta — yes, that's the female version of the name) said that the sword was in pretty good condition except for the tip, which had broken off.

Looking at the sword's specifics, it's what's called a "bastard sword." These have a typical medieval European design — dual-edged blade, upward-curved crossguard, round pommel — halfway between a smaller, single-handed sword and a bigger, two-handed sword. The sword dates to somewhere between the late 13th and early 15th centuries. The hilt was also bent at the end. As for how the sword got there, the region was home to a tangle of noble intrigue during the time period to which the sword dates. It was also found near the ruins of a castle at the now-non-existent medieval settlement of Zvecaj. Beyond those clues, we haven't answered much, including how the sword got embedded in solid stone.