WARSAW, POLAND—Science in Poland reports that a nineteenth-century sword bearing the remnants of a Polish inscription has been unearthed in northern Bulgaria, near the historic capital of Veliko Tarnovo, which is located on the Yantra River. The inscription, “Vivat Szlachcic Pan I fundator wojska,” translates to “Long live the Noble Lord and founder of the army.” Archaeologist Piotr Dyczek of the University of Warsaw said this phrase was usually followed by the phrase, “Long live the will and the common good.” Polish swords from the period were normally engraved on both sides with inscriptions and patriotic motifs, he added. “The sabre was probably the spoils of an officer of the Tsarist army who participated in the suppression of the January Uprising in 1863 and 1864, who then fitted it with a silver hilt typical for a shashka—a sabre with an open hilt with a split pommel,” Dyczek surmised. This officer might have then lost the weapon in Bulgaria while fighting in the Russo-Turkish War, between 1877 and 1878, he added. To read about a sword and other weapons found in Viking warrior burials in Poland, go to "Viking Knights, Polish Days."
