Someone dropped their dagger in Norway at the end of the Stone Age. More than three millennia later, eight-year-old Elise took it over.
A announcement by the county of Vestland, on the west coast of the country, told how Elise spotted the five-inch-long artifact among the rocks on the playground at Os Children’s School. “I was going to pick up a piece of glass,” she said. “The stone was there. It was nice.”
Elise took this beautiful stone to her teacher, Karen Drange, who recognized its potential significance – jagged, sharp edges indicated the object had been fashioned on purpose, while its grey-brown hue belied flint, a functional stone that not found naturally in Norway. Local code requires civilians to report traces of “prehistoric activity” to the county council, which Drange did.
The dagger (Photo: County Municipality of Vestland)
In cooperation with the Bergen University Museum, Vestland County Council sought the expertise of local archaeologist Louise Bjerre Petersen. Examining the shape and style of the object, she determined that it was a “beautiful Neolithic flint dagger”, dated to around 1700 BCE, around the time where humans moved from hunting to farming societies. Although Bjeree Petersen said such relics are “very rare to find,” in the past year aloneVestland County researchers have discovered a number of Stone Age settlements in their Scandinavian landscape.
The Os Children’s School, however, did not give such findings. Vestland County Council partnered with the University Museum, led by archaeologist Howell M. Roberts and Section Chief Morten Ramstad, in conjunction with Bjerre Petersen, to excavate the school grounds.
Roberts, Ramstad and Petersen searching the school grounds (Photo: Thomas Bruen-Olsen, University Museum Bergen)
“We have found no more objects or traces from the Stone Age,” she said, “but the dagger found by Elise is quite unique.”
The object is believed to come from Denmark, where such flints abound. According to research by National Museum of DenmarkStone Age blades like these were considered both work tools and status symbols, offered as sacrifices and buried with the bodies that possessed them.
The university museum has cataloged the dagger for reference and will continue to research how the artifact ended up in Norway.
Follow Artnet News on Facebook:
Want to stay one step ahead of the art world? Subscribe to our newsletter to receive breaking news, revealing interviews and incisive reviews that move the conversation forward.
