Ah, the sword in the stone, the legend of King Arthur, who claimed he was the only person who could pull it out.
Or, rather than a tale from centuries ago, you might know it as the 1963 Disney film, The Sword in the Stone. Or perhaps just from the photo opportunity spot at theme parks.
Either way, it’s a pretty classic story of a sword called Excalibur, which was completely jammed into some stone, and only King Arthur could get it out, making him the rightful heir to Britain.
Although, whether that's real or not, what is true is that a real life 700-year-old sword has been dubbed the ‘real-life Excalibur’.
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Yep, turns out some old sword was discovered stuck in a rock back in 2019.
The legend has been brought to life, as it’s reported the thing was discovered in the 150-mile-long Vrbas River in Bosnia, where archaeologists were excavating a castle nearby in the city of Zvecaj.
Archaeologist and curator at the Museum of the Republika Srpska told The Sun that the sword was wedged into ‘a solid rock, so special care was needed when pulling it out’.
Pretty impressively, the sword was discovered a whole 36 feet underwater, and only one other similar one has been found in the Balkans in the last nine decades.
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They reckon the thing comes from way back in the 14th century. Although, experts are rather baffled as to how it ended up so far stuck in to the rock in the first place.
Igor Radojicic, who was mayor of nearby city Banja Luja at the time, tweeted about it as he shared a snap of the discovery.
“Our sword in stone… taken out of Vrbas after who knows how many centuries,” he wrote.
Radojicic added that it was potentially ‘eight centuries-old’ as he pondered over it, wondering: “Who knows what stories [it is] hiding.”
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Archaeologists did manage to pull it out – although none of them exactly earned lord or lady status for doing so. But it has been called archaeologically significant, so that’s a decent win, I guess.
The nearby medieval castle was destroyed back in 1777, but it had likely been home to the medieval nobility who ruled over the local village.
Jess Battison