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The British Museum [has asked] for help deciphering a medieval sword A sword on display at the British Library has an 800-year-old mystery engraved on its blade.
Dating back to between 1250 and 1330 AD, the sword was discovered in the east of England, in the River Witham near Lincoln, in the 19th century. The sword is a particularly fine double-edged steel weapon of English design. It was most likely forged in Germany and belonged to a wealthy man or a knight. The hilt is cross-shaped, which is normal for swords from this period of the Middle Ages, and is heavy enough to have cloven a man's head in twain if swung with sufficient strength.
But the sword, on loan to the library from the British Museum, does have a couple of highly unusual features. Down the centre of the blade, it has two grooves known as fullers, where most blades only have one. On one side, it also bears an inscription:
It's not the presence of the inscription that has researchers nonplussed, but its content: Experts don't know what the inscription means.
"An intriguing feature of this sword is an as yet indecipherable inscription, found along one of its edges and inlaid in gold wire," wrote curator Julian Harrison on the library's blog. "It has been speculated that this is a religious invocation, since the language is unknown."
The River Witham sword is not unique in this. According to archaeologist Marc van Hasselt of Utrecht University and Hastatus Heritage Consultancy in the Netherlands, inscribed swords were "all the rage" in Europe at the turn of the 13th century, and religious invocations would have made sense. He has studied around a dozen such swords. Most notable was a sword found in Alphen aan den Rijn in the Netherlands, likewise bearing an indecipherable inscription, this time on both sides of the blade:
"There is some debate on the language used in the inscriptions. But looking at the other European finds, it seems most likely that this language is Latin. This makes sense in the context of 13th-century Europe, as Latin was the international language of choice (like English is today)," van Hasselt wrote.
"To elaborate, let's compare the River Witham sword to the sword from Alphen: Both start with some sort of invocation. On the River Witham sword, it is NDXOX, possibly standing for Nostrum Dominus (our Lord) or Nomine Domini (name of the Lord) followed by XOX. On the sword from Alphen, the starting letters read BENEDOXO. Quite likely, this reads as Benedicat (A blessing), followed by OXO. Perhaps these letter combinations -- XOX and OXO -- refer to the Holy Trinity. On the sword from Alphen, one letter combination is then repeated three times: MTINIUSCS, which I interpret as Martinius Sanctus -- Saint Martin. Perhaps a saint is being invoked on the River Witham sword as well?"
Most guesses put forth on the blog post also agree with the idea that it could be Latin, with some readers suggesting the letters, or some of the letters, could be acronyms.
If you want to give it a shot, head on over to the British Library's blog post and post your hypothesis in the comments.
If you want to see the sword itself, it's on display as part of the exhibition Magna Carta: Law, Liberty, Legacy at the British Library in London until September 1.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 11 2015, @09:39AM
is the mystery string. I'd liked it in the summary.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 11 2015, @09:54AM
Also relevant are the two equally mysterious inscriptions on another sword, also given in the article:
+BENEDOXOFTISSCSDRRISCDICECMTINIUSCSDNI+
+DIOXMTINIUSESDIOMTINIUSCSDICCCMTDICIIZISI+
(Score: 1) by GDX on Tuesday August 11 2015, @02:26PM
I'm sure that is medieval SMS language, well the true is that the same principles applies to it and is sure that even in those times only a handful of people know their meaning. Other think is that there is a possible relation between those swords and if there is, it can put to clear some things.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by NezSez on Tuesday August 11 2015, @03:14PM
No Sig to see here, move along, move along...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 11 2015, @05:19PM
It's a serial number:
+ 90 500 10 11 10 100 200 W 500 80 400 200 10 11 80 5 1 +
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_numerals [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 11 2015, @06:48PM
Then given what I learned from having once read the German tank problem [wikipedia.org] we now know that there were A LOT of swords from that time ...
(Score: 3, Funny) by maxwell demon on Tuesday August 11 2015, @07:32PM
No, it's a registration code. You had to engrave it on the sword to prove that you didn't obtain an illegal copy; the sword would not be operative unless the correct code was engraved. ;-)
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by jb on Tuesday August 11 2015, @01:02PM
The wonderful thing about these sorts of puzzles are that there are an infinite number of correct solutions.
Ranging from the whimsical, such as:
nos, DX obiter Xanthi "We, the 510 on our way to the river of Troy..."
cichorum vacarumque venditatis rego Galli "...to sell cows and chicory for the King of France..."
humum durum X obarimus "...will plough the harsh earth 10 times..."
vasculam iactus"...while throwing plates."
...to the prophetic, such as:
nomine dominum Xerxisque,"In the name of God and of the King of Persia, ..."
obnixus chalybs vivax derectus gravis hoc dico"...I dedicate this resolute, long-lived, straight, heavy steel..."
X oblectativo vio (I)"...that I shall be 10 times delighted with vi(1)".
(the last one's my favourite)
(Score: 2) by Anne Nonymous on Tuesday August 11 2015, @02:06PM
Be Sure To Eat Your Ovaltine
(Score: 2) by Anne Nonymous on Tuesday August 11 2015, @02:08PM
Drink (I haven't had mine yet this morning)
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Tuesday August 11 2015, @07:34PM
But you can also eat it! (Although your parents won't like it when you do.)
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 1) by gznork26 on Tuesday August 11 2015, @02:39PM
Excelsior! Flick Lives!
Khipu were Turing complete.