Weapons experts confirm that a medieval bastard sword found in a stone is a significant archaeological find.

This summer at the bottom of the river Vrbas in Republika Srpska, archaeologists discovered a medieval bastard sword that had been plunged into a stone and the two have now been slowly separated underwater. Janko Vracar, a historian of the Republika Srpska Museum, told reporters that based on analysis of the blade the sword was used from the end of the 13th to the first half of the 15th century.

According to a report in ARPSKA Times , medieval sword finds are rare in the Balkan region and only one has been found in almost a century, which is why authorities deem the recovering of the weapon and its conservation a “priority”. It is a fairly well-preserved specimen, according to Vracar and its rescue and successful conservation is a priority not only for the museum but for the City of Banja Luka and Republika Srpska.

Swords in stones

This sword found in a stone in a river has, of course, led reporters to draw comparisons with Excalibur , the famous sword in the legend of King Arthur which only the true king of England was able to extract from the stone (or the lake, depending on the version ) in which it was kept. Most mythologists and historians would agree that the legend of Excalibur is a metaphor for the extraction of iron ore from stone and the event of the Iron Age, after which humans “ruled the land”. But in the real world, other medieval swords have been found thrust into stones, like for example, in Tuscany’s Montesiepi Chapel .

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