Hikers looking for WWII items stumble on 3,000-year-old weapon in Poland. See it
A museum curator hiked into a forest in Poland with a metal detector to search for some artifacts from the World Wars. Instead, he stumbled upon a 3,000-year-old weapon.
Krzysztof Mindur planned to explore the forest in Zarszyn in hopes of finding items from World War I or II to add to his museum, the Museum of Military and Technology in Wola Sękowa, he told McClatchy News on Dec. 5. He founded the museum to combine his work as a professional soldier and his passion for researching military history.
Mindur and other history enthusiasts tracked down a former battlefield in the Zarszyn forest after talking to those who remembered the fighting. Equipped with metal detectors, the group set out to search the area for the first time in late October.
To his surprise, Mindur unearthed four fragments of a sword from the Bronze Age, he wrote in a post on his museum’s Facebook account. Photos show the ancient blue-green sword.
The weapon dated back over 3,000 years and was a unique, priceless find, the Subcarpathian Voivodeship Conservator of Monuments in Przemyśl said in a Dec. 3 Facebook post.
The ancient sword measured about 15 inches in length, but its point was missing. Its handle had a geometric design carved into it, photos show.
The 3,000-year-old sword was sent to the Historical Museum in Sanok for further analysis, TVP3, a Polish news outlet, reported. The museum’s curator, Piotr Kotowicz, identified it as a raga type sword, a style typically found in Slovakia or Hungary, and a first-of-its-kind find for Poland.
Officials with the Regional Directorate of State Forests in Krosno described the ancient sword as extraordinary in a Facebook post.
Mindur said he never dreamed of finding such a historically valuable artifact. He plans to continue searching former WWII battlefields next year.
Zarszyn is a village in southeastern Poland, a roughly 240-mile drive southeast from Warsaw and near the border with Slovakia and Ukraine.
Google Translate was used to translate Facebook posts from the Museum of Military and Technology in Wola Sękowa, the Subcarpathian Voivodeship Conservator of Monuments in Przemyśland the Regional Directorate of State Forests in Krosno, article from TVP3 and comments from Krzysztof Mindur.
This story was originally published December 5, 2024 at 3:17 PM with the headline "Hikers looking for WWII items stumble on 3,000-year-old weapon in Poland. See it."
