It would have belonged to a crusader who sailed to the Holy Land almost a millennium ago.
Recovered from the Mediterranean seabed, thanks to a keen-eyed amateur diver, a 900-year-old sword was declared to the Israel Antiquities Authority on Monday, October 18.
Although encrusted with marine organisms, the weapon was noticed by Shlomi Katzin after the currents moved the sands that had hidden it.
"We assume that this knight crusader belonged to the community that sat at the nearby citadel of Atlit," said Yaakov Sharvit, director of the marine archeology unit at the Israel Antiquities Authority.
"The guy who was holding that sword and fighting with it was really strong," he adds, underweighting the weapon.
The iron blade, which measures 1 m long, as well as the handle will be cleaned and X-rayed in order to deepen the archaeological research.
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“The handle area is one of the most important parts,” says Yaakov Sharvit, “because that's usually where you find decorative patterns, or even names or letters that belonged to one of the crusaders,” like the Hospitallers or the Templars ”.
For this expert, this is the first time in 31 years that a whole sword has been found in Israel so well preserved.