A medieval sword that may once have hung at the side of a Crusader knight has resurfaced after eight centuries on the floor of the Mediterranean, discovered by chance off the northern Israeli coast.
“These artifacts are very rare and hard to find, because swords were not usually left behind. Swords were very precious, symbolic personal objects of Crusader knights. They were also very expensive,” Dr. Sara Lantos of the Department of Maritime Civilizations at the University of Haifa told the Press Service of Israel.
“This is definitely a European-type sword of a Frankish knight. It may have fallen off a ship or been lost during a battle. It’s another piece of evidence that enriches our knowledge of the Crusader period and the personal belongings of the knights who came here,” she added.
The one-meter-long sword was discovered last year protruding from the seabed near Dor Beach by Shlomi Katzin, a student of Maritime Civilizations who had been swimming in the area, the university said. After noticing divers using metal detectors and suspecting possible antiquities theft, he drove them away and continued scanning the seafloor, where he spotted the weapon emerging from the sand.
