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A medieval sword linked to the Magna Carta is causing a bit of a mystery for historians at the British Library.
Researchers are appealing for help to deceiver the inscription on the sword which was found in the River Witham in July 1825.
According to a blog by curator Julian Harrison the sword was presented to the Royal Archaeological Institute by the registrar to the Bishop of Lincoln.
Mr Harrison says in his blog: “An intriguing feature of this sword is an as yet indecipherable inscription, found along one of its edges and inlaid in gold wire.
"It has been speculated that this is a religious invocation, since the language is unknown.”
The inscription seems to read +NDXOXCHWDRGHDXORVI+
The sword is on loan to the British Library from the British Museum as part of the Magna Carta: Law, Liberty, Legacy which runs until September 1. Read more.
Open Access (free to read) Archaeology articles: The Place of Exeter in the History of England http://bit.ly/19RKFUq Notice of a Peculiar Stone Cross found on the Farm of Cairn, Parish of New Cumnock, Upper Nithsdale. http://bit.ly/Z5eLBR Tele-archaeology http://bit.ly/12R7zbp Remarks on the Ogham Inscription of the Newton Pillar Stone. http://bit.ly/Y4rQwg
Learn more about Open Access and Archaeology at: http://bit.ly/YHuyFK
Open Access (free to read) archaeology articles for everyone: On various monuments in India, corresponding to the Cromlechs and Standing Stones of the North of Europe. http://bit.ly/10wo106 Two Sculptured Stones, a Coped Coffin-cover, and Part of a Seventeenth-century Tombstone found in St Andrews. http://bit.ly/11oHz74 The Family of Clare http://bit.ly/116nTXI The Archaic Inscription found in the Forum Romanum http://bit.ly/116nTXI
Learn more about Open Access and Archaeology at: http://bit.ly/YHuyFK
Pages from Lady Jane Grey’s Prayer Book, with a message written to Sir John Bridges, Lieutenant of the Tower, by her before her execution.
Forasmutche as you have desired so simple a weman to wrighte in so worthye a booke (good) Mayster Leaftaunte [Lieutenant] therefore I shall as a frende desyre you and as a Christian requer [require] you to call uppon god to encline youre harte to his lawes to quicken you in his waye and not to take the worde of trewethe utterlye oute of youre mouthe howe styll to dye that by deathe you maye purchase eternall life and remembre howe the ende of Mathusael [Methuselah] whoe as we reade in the Scriptures was the longeste lived that was of a manne died at the laste for as the Precher sayethe there is a tyme to be borne and a tyme to dye and the daye of deathe is better than the daye of oure birthe youres as the lorde knoweth as a frende Jane Duddeley’
