Jakarta –
In the Montesiepi Chapel in Siena, Italy, lie strange artefacts that will immediately remind fans of the Arthurian legend and anyone who has seen the Disney movie ‘The Sword in the Stone’. The artifact is in the form of an ancient sword embedded in a rock. According to chemical analysis, the artifact likely really came from a time period, not something that was purposely made.
Quoted from IFLScience, the legend surrounding this sword relates that it was the weapon of Galgano Guidotti, a cruel knight born in 1148 who later became a Catholic saint. The story goes that Galgano’s father died early in Galgano’s childhood.
He then grows into a rebellious character. Galgano joins the band of villains. In the present, wrong association might make someone who is losing their way to use drugs. But at that time, Galgano participated in internal wars led by local rulers Gherardesca, Pannocchieschi, and others, spilling the blood of innocent people.
Galgano behaved like this for years, being violent, until one day he fell from his horse and received a religious revelation. It wasn’t long before he converted to Christianity and became a devout man. According to legend, he left his fiancé and began an ascetic life.
Galgano is said to have thrust his sword into a rock, as a symbol that he was leaving his life full of violence. Instead of being hard like a rock in general, Galgano’s blade stuck with ease. The hilt of the sword protruded from above and its point protruded from the other end of the rock. Since then, the sword has remained in the stone, and is now housed in the Rotunda in Siena, Tuscany, Italy.
It may sound preposterous. But in 2001, chemist Luigi Garlaschelli examined the artifact and found a number of startling details, essentially confirming that the sword was indeed an artifact from the ancient period.
“The style of the sword is consistent with other similar weapons of the same era. We might even label it as a type Xa sword, typical of the late twentieth century,” Garlaschelli wrote at the time.
Garlaschelli took a sample of the sword from the rock through a hole drilled into it and sent it for analysis.
“While the iron artifacts cannot be dated, the composition of the metal does not reveal any modern blends used, so it closely matches its medieval origin,” he said.
Further analysis adds weight to the sword as a genuine artifact from Galgano’s lifetime.
“We compared the trace element ‘fingerprints’ in the sword metal with bits of iron slag that can still be found around the great monastery of St. Galgano. This slag is waste from the small foundries used by the monks to make their small iron objects, using ore. local iron,” explained Garlaschelli.
Even stranger, a pair of mummified arms held by a sword, said to have belonged to a thief who tried to take the stone before being punished by a god, also dates back to the 12th century. Research has also found that the hilt protruding from the rock and the blade beneath it are one piece.
However, it remains a mystery how the sword got there and how the stone softened like butter so that the sword could pass through it easily.
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2023-05-11 15:00:16
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