3,000-year-old Sword Looks Good as New

Archaeologists studying an excavation in Nördlingen, Germany, have uncovered a sword in a grave that contained a man, a woman, and a young boy. It was among other weapons and artifacts included in the burial, which is considered around 3,000 years old. But the sword has been uniquely preserved, and looks only a few years old. The sword is bronze, made by the applied bronze casting method, which is labor intensive and requires quite a bit of skill. Scientists don't know where it was made. But you might wonder how it was preserved so long in such a pristine condition. It's all about the cuprous salts.
You can read more about the chemistry involved in the Twitter thread. We don't know if the sword has been removed from the site yet, but there's a possibility that whoever lifted it from the rock after all this time is now the rightwise king born of somewhere.