The diver found the sword of the Crusader knight on the seabed – SME.sk

JERUSALEM. Israeli diver Shlomi Kacim found a 900-year-old sword over the weekend while diving off the Israeli coast.

The Israeli Agency for Ancient Monuments (IAA) informed about it.

At the bottom, Kacin noticed objects such as fragments of pottery and stone and metal anchors. Between them lay a sword with a meter blade and a thirty-centimeter handle.

It probably got to the bottom surface by moving sand. Fearing that sediments might cover the weapon again, Kacin picked it up and turned to the memorial agency. The sword is covered with a deposit, but it is probably made of iron.

“The sword, which has been preserved in excellent condition, is a beautiful and rare find and apparently belonged to a crusader knight,” said Nir Distelfeld of the IAA.

Agency director Eli Escosido said that “when the sword is cleaned and examined by scientists in the laboratory, it will be exposed for the public to see.”

Kobi Sharvit, who heads the Department of Marine Archeology, explained that the find is from the coast below the Carmel Mountains, a place that has long been used as a natural anchorage for protecting ships during storms.

The IAA has been interested in the place where the sword lay since June. It turns out that ships sailed here more than 4000 years ago and used it as a natural anchorage. The discovery of the sword means that it was used in this way 900 years ago.

However, objects are often covered by sand rolling on the bottom. “Even the weakest storm will move the sand, so that some part of the bottom will be exposed and others will be covered again,” Sharvit explained.