A man out for a walk with his family discovered a Bronze Age dagger near the village of Gudersleben in Thuringia, central Germany. It is a plate-tanged dagger from the Bronze Age and is approximately 3,500 years old.

Plate-tanged daggers are characterized by their flat tangs that widen at the top. They have two rivet holes piercing the shoulders of the tang where the handle was mounted. Handles were made of organic materials like bone, antler or wood, which is why only the blades typically survive.

Ancient dagger blades like this one don’t often emerge on their own for random passersby to find, especially in such good condition. Archaeologists speculate that heavy rains in recent days dislodged the soil that covered it and washed the dagger to the surface. Finder Maik Böhner did not attempt to recover it himself, even though it was simply sitting on top of some leaves. He reported it to the mayor and the local monuments preservation officials who then relayed the news to the Thuringian State Office for Monument Preservation and Archaeology in Weimar.

The dagger is now at the restoration workshop of the State Office in Weimar where it will be cleaned, conserved and analyzed. When conservation is complete, the artifact will go on display at the Ellrich Local History Museum.