Underwater archaeologists have recently recovered a 3,000-year-old bronze sword from Lake Mezzano in central Italy.
Researchers found the sword along the southern shore of a submerged Bronze Age settlement during the most recent research season. The Superintendency of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for the Province of Viterbo and Southern Etruria led the excavation and has investigated this site and its weapons since the 1970s.
A Village Lost Beneath the Lake
Lake Mezzano is in the crater of an extinct volcano in the Tuscia area (west of Lake Bolsena). It’s a classic example of a pile-dwelling settlement, with inhabitants building homes on wooden piles driven into the lakebed. The site was occupied from the early 2nd millennium BC through the Late Bronze Age. Archaeologists first discovered the site in the early 1970s, and work proceeded sporadically until the 1990s. In 2025, archaeologists conducted a full survey, mapping over 600 wooden piles at depths ranging from 2.5 to 10 meters and covering about a third of the settlement’s total area.
In the first renewed excavation season, they recovered over 25 bronze objects, including winged axes, spearheads, fibulae, rings, a pin, a sickle, and fragments of bronze ingots. This suggests that metalworking may have occurred at the site rather than all the bronzes being brought in as finished articles. Some objects showed signs of fire damage, while evidence of changing lake levels points to environmental shifts that may have affected the settlement before its abandonment.
The Bronze Blade That Defied Three Millennia
The sword dates to the 13th century BC and is known in Italian as a spada a lingua da presa. It features a distinctive tongue-shaped metal tang used to attach the grip. This type of weapon is associated with the central Italian metalworking traditions of the period. Remarkably, the blade’s edge was still sharp when it was found, a level of preservation that is very rare for an object that has been down for three millennia.
Researchers found the sword near a bronze razor on the southern shore, in an area previous surveys had largely ignored. It was found during the latest phase of the current three-year research program. Other discoveries from that same period included several complete ceramic vessels, bronze axes, arrowheads, daggers, spearheads, needles, and the razor.
Weapons, Rituals, and the Mystery of a Bronze Age Sword
This is the third bronze sword recovered from Lake Mezzano since excavations began. Published reports do not list confirmed find locations or dates for the earlier two swords. According to the Museo della Preistoria della Tuscia e della Rocca Farnese in Valentano, at least one of the previous swords was not hardened enough to serve as a functional weapon. The sword may have been created specifically as a ritual offering rather than for combat.
This is consistent with other discoveries across Bronze Age Europe, where swords, axes, and spearheads are frequently recovered from lakes, rivers, and bogs. Many of these are thought to have been deliberately deposited as part of a ritual rather than simply lost. Bronze Age weapons were also status items and markers of identity. The discovery of the sword with the razor is one of several pairings identified at other Bronze Age sites, thought to mark an individual of some status, perhaps a member of a warrior elite.
The Strange Pattern Beneath the Water
Metal objects have been found at similar depths across the submerged settlement, but researchers have yet to determine why. Archaeologists are still working to determine if the objects were deliberately placed at these depths or whether other processes associated with the submerged settlement explain their distribution. The pattern is still unclear, and further excavation will be required to map the artifacts across the site. Some of the recovered bronze items will be included in a forthcoming exhibition, offering a new perspective on a settlement that has remained hidden under the lake for three millennia.
Austin Burgess is a writer and researcher with a background in sales, marketing, and data analytics. He holds an MBA, a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, and a data analytics certification. His work focuses on breaking scientific developments, with an emphasis on emerging biology, cognitive neuroscience, and archaeological discoveries.