BBC NEWS | Europe | Ancient dagger found in Bulgaria
It’s made of an alloy of gold and platinum that wasn’t believed to exist for another millennium. Although it’s broken into at least 2 pieces, it’s still sharp enough to shave with, according to one observer. It’s 5,000 years old, and was once the most beautiful weapon on Earth.
Though no one is saying anything about the more than 15,000 tiny gold rings also found in the same site, they might have been from a chainmail shirt or garment of some type (rather than bits of broken jewelry). A shirt like that and the dagger could have been worthy companions of Tolkien’s fictional “mithril”
shirt and the Elvish dagger “Sting,” carried by Bilbo and Frodo (and Sam) as a sword.
Your picture is not showing up … (but saw it over on the BBC site — pretty).