Metal detectorist helps unearth 3,000-year-old Bronze Age daggers in German cornfield
In a cornfield in northern Germany, cultivated and worked for years, two ancient artifacts sat just below the surface, waiting to be unearthed.
Metal detectorist Frank Hoferichter scanned the field in 2017 and found bronze fragments. On a return trip he helped researchers uncover the artifacts the fragments belonged to — two Bronze Age daggers estimated to be over 3,000 years old, according to a March 26 news release from Stade district officials.
Officials said the daggers — estimated to have been forearm length — are among the oldest Bronze Age artifacts ever recovered in Lower Saxony.
Following Hoferichter’s 2017 discovery, researchers with the University of Hamburg’s Department of Early History Archaeology went back to investigate the field using geomagnetic technology, allowing them to get an image of anything buried without excavating first, officials said.
After locating objects of interest, the team and Hoferichter found the two blades buried just 11 inches beneath the surface, according to local officials. Experts believe they would’ve had wooden handles, which were not preserved and likely disintegrated over the centuries.
Researchers called it a stroke of luck that the daggers, in their shallow resting places, had not been destroyed by the agricultural equipment that cultivated the field for years, according to the release.
The daggers appeared to have been intentionally stuck vertically in the ground, with one found slightly askew likely due to plowing in the field, researchers said.
Experts said the daggers’ positioning and the lack of an associated burial ground suggest they likely had a cult-like significance rooted in religion or ideology and were not used as weapons or in funeral rituals, officials said in the release.
The bronze blades date to at least 1,500 B.C. and are believed to have originated in eastern Central Europe, experts said.
The daggers were found in a field near Kutenholz, about a 50-mile drive southwest from Hamburg.
Google Translate was used to translate a news release from the District of Stade website.
This story was originally published March 28, 2025 at 4:39 PM with the headline "Metal detectorist helps unearth 3,000-year-old Bronze Age daggers in German cornfield."
