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The Ancient Burial Mystery: Revealing the Secrets of the Sword and Mirror
In 1999, an unusual burial from two millennia ago was found on the British Isles of Scilly. Almost a quarter of a century after this discovery, we now know who was buried in the grave along with the sword and mirror.
Scilly is a British archipelago consisting of over a hundred small islands. It lies southwest of Cornwall. Permanent residents of Scilly can only be found on the five largest islands. The smallest of them is Bryher, with an area of only 1.34 km2, inhabited by fewer than a hundred people.
In March 1999, one of Bryher’s residents was working in a potato field belonging to Hillside Farm when a wheel got stuck in the ground. To free it, the farmer moved one of the stones, revealing an earthy pit. Upon looking inside, the man found a sword.
Local museum workers identified it as an artifact of the La Tène culture associated with the Celts. The weapon dated back 2,000 years.
A king and a warrior.
In the same year, the residents of Bryher hosted Prince Charles — now King Charles III. He visited the farm where the unique weapon was found. After this visit, the discovery attracted the interest of the most important scientific centers in the UK (including the British Museum). Excavations were funded…
