Archaeologists unearthed a symbolic 17th-century Japanese sword amid ongoing excavations on the oldest market square in Berlin, Germany, the Berlin State Museums announced Thursday.
The archaeologists, from the Berlin State Office for Monument Preservation, found the rusty sword amid World War II-related rubble dug up from cellars buried beneath the Stralauer Straße in the Molkenmarkt (“Whey Market”) area, a translation of the announcement revealed.
Initially believed to be a WWII parade saber, the sword was later found during restoration work to be a fragmentary Japanese short sword called a wakizashi, according to the statement.
The wakizashi’s ferrule sported the motif of the Daikoku — “one of Japan’s seven gods of luck, recognizable by his attributes of [a] hammer and [a] rice sack,” the statement revealed.
The wakizashi’s guard plate bore a detail comprising…
