A “real-life Excalibur” was recovered by archaeologists in Bosnia, according to Fox News.
Like the sword of the legendary King Arthur, this 700-year-old sword was discovered stuck in a rock, Fox reported.
The mayor of a nearby city, Igor Radojicic, called it “our sword in the stone” in a tweet after the discovery was made.
Retrieving the sword was slightly more difficult for archaeologists than it was for King Arthur, however. The sword, estimated to be 700 years old, was wedged in a rock 36 feet underwater in the Vrbas river, according to Fox.
“The sword was stuck in a solid rock, so special care was needed when pulling it out,” said archaeologist Ivana Pandzic, who is also a curator at the Museum of the Republika Srpska, according to the Daily Mail.
“This is the first sword found near the medieval city of Zvečaj, so it has dual value — both scientifically and historically,” Pandzic told the Daily Mail.
“Who knows what stories (it is] hiding,” Radojicic tweeted, along with pictures of the sword being studied, according to Fox News.
Researchers are now trying to discover how and why the sword was lodged in the rock, according to Fox.
Many historians believe that the legend of “the sword in the stone” is a metaphor for the beginning of the Iron Age, extracting iron ore from stone, according to the Daily Mail. However, there have been other medieval swords discovered stuck in stones, including one in a chapel in Tuscany.