Sword "Pulled" but What is the Context?

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Alexander Butler, "Rare 1,100-year-old Viking sword pulled from Oxfordshire river" Independent 12.032024.

A 1,100-year-old Viking sword has been pulled from an Oxfordshire river in a rare discovery unearthed by a magnet fisherman. The weapon was found in the River Cherwell last year and has now been confirmed to date back to between AD 850 and 975. Despite the nearby landowner not allowing magnet fishing, he agreed no legal action would be taken and it is now in the care of the Oxford Museum.

More fool him. Apparently the findspot was by a bridge, possibly itself on an earlier crossing. But instead of talking about lost context by the brutal blind amateur hoiking, the dozy journalist who knows no better (and probably forgot the bit he had at school about magnetism) tried to link it with a lead sling bullet from Spain. 

Note for journalists lost for a story about magnet fishing for artefacts:

Craig Simpson, 'Don’t use magnets to seek treasure, experts warn after technique damages Viking sword found in river' (Telegraph 23 January 2024)

The British Museum has urged detectorists not to go “magnet fishing” to retrieve treasure after a Viking sword was damaged while being dredged from a river.[...] experts are determined to persuade those seeking treasure to stop using the increasingly popular technique of “fishing” for artefacts in waterways using powerful magnets. [...] The warning from the PAS comes after a Viking sword was damaged while being pulled out of the River Wallers Haven in Suffolk. The remains of the hilt fell off and were lost in the river.[...] “There is also the risk of damage to the object and its archaeological context, particularly at sites of ritual deposition. The PAS advises against this activity, which is banned by the Canal and River Trust on its waterways.”

This is a quote from the 2022 PAS annual report (p. 13), fully abvailable online. In the case of the damaged sword, the artefact hunter stood there gawping helplessly as the preserved organic remains of the hilt - an extremely rare survival - were washed off, disintegrated and dropped back into the river due to the method used to remove it from the undisturbed context in which it had lain more than a millennium.

It really could not be clearer. 

Hat tip Dave Coward