Stone Age Dagger Dating Back 3,700 Years Ago Discovered by Child at Norwegian School

A Stone Age dagger was accidentally found by an 8-year-old girl while playing outside her school in Norway. The Stone Age tool was crafted 3,700 years ago by ancient inhabitants of the area of what is now a European country, it was reported earlier this week. The child, only identified as Elise, picked up the rare artifact, which is believed to be the only one in the area in Vestland County.

Norway is part of the Nordic Stone Age, which pertains to the Stone Age in Scandinavian territories, thousands of years ago. The said period started after the European region became hospitable to humans only 12000 years ago, which paved the way for the arrival of humans, according to archeologists. The period lasted from 12000 to 1800 B.C., a period when our ancestors further improved their tools.

Norway Stone Age Dagger

(Photo : GALI TIBBON/AFP via Getty Images)
Archeologist of the Israel Antiquities Authority Jacob Vardi holds on July 16, 2019, a bronze head spear and a dagger's blade dated to the middle bronze period which was buried as burial offering in a warrior's tomb found at the archeological excavation site of a settlement from the Neolithic Period (New Stone Age), discovered during archaeological excavations by the Israel Antiquities Authority near Motza Junction, about 5km west of Jerusalem. - The settlement is the largest known in Israel from that period and one of the largest of its kind in the region.

The Norwegian girl found the Stone Age dagger in a rocky part of the schoolyard she was playing. The child was uncertain what the sharp object was she first spotted it, slightly under the edge of a small boulder, as reported in the Norwegian press, as cited by the website Ancient Origins.

For this reason, Elise brought the previously unknown object to her teacher, Karen Drange, who knew what her student found was in fact some kind of ancient artifact. Drange contacted the Vestland County Council, which later deployed a team of archaeologists to examine the object, the website narrates.

The archaeologists said the type of dagger discovered is often linked during sacrificial rites. The county's council and University Museum in Bergen also collaborated to explore the school's grounds. However, no further evidence of artifacts dating back to the Stone Age were found, Live Science reported.

Also Read: Stone Age Mystery Solved: Caveman Tool Used to Butcher Rhinoceros

Norway Stone Age Discoveries

The recent finding is the not the first of its kind in Norway. Back in February 2023, it was reported that scientists reconstructed the face of a 'lonely' teenage cave boy who died in Norway during the country's Stone Age 8,300 years ago, the Daily Mail UK reported.

In January this year, archaeologists found the world's oldest runestone in Norway with inscriptions believed to go back up to 2,000 years ago, The Guardian reported.

In 2020, the University of Stavanger in Finland reported archaeologists found a new ancient site from the Stone Age at the Stora Myrvatnet lake.

Northern Scandinavia Stone Age

In a research article published in the Journal of World Prehistory, archaeologists determined that majority of groups in northern Scandinavia during the Nordic Stone Age were hunters and fishers with a focus toward coastal environments.

The territories can be divided into three areas: southwestern Norway, northern Norway, and northern Sweden, which have been of paramount importance for archaeological research due to their perceived social ad cultural developments. In particular, sea hunting, in addition to agriculture, has been widely adopted during the period.