Image copyright Jonkoping county museum 
 
 An eight-year-old found a pre-Viking-era sword while swimming in a lake in Sweden during the summer. 
 
 Saga Vanecek found the relic in the Vidostern lake while at her family's holiday home in Jonkoping County. 
 
 The sword was initially reported to be 1,000 years old, but experts at the local museum now believe it may date to around 1,500 years ago. 
 
 "It's not every day that you step on a sword in the lake!" Mikael Nordstrom from the museum said. 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Saga Vanecek: "I noticed something that felt like a stick" 
 
 The level of the water was extremely low at the time, owing to a drought, which is probably why Saga uncovered the ancient weapon. 
 
 "I felt something in the water and lifted it up. Then there was a handle and I went to tell my dad that it looked like a sword," Saga told the broadcaster Sveriges Television. 
 
 Saga's father Andy Vanecek told the English-language website The Local he initially thought his daughter had found an unusual stick or branch in the water. 
 
 It was only after he asked a friend to take a closer look did he discover that it was likely to be an ancient relic. 
 
 The local museum, where the sword is now being kept, said it was extremely well-preserved. 
 
 Image copyright Jonkoping county museum Image caption Further excavations have revealed more ancient items lurk at the bottom of the lake 
 
 Saga's discovery led the museum and local council to carry out further excavations at the site, finding a brooch from the 3rd Century. 
 
 The Jonkoping county museum said that its investigation of the lake is unfinished and it could yet turn up more ancient items. 
 
 You may also like: ||||| An eight-year-old girl has pulled a 1,500-year-old sword from a lake in southern Sweden. 
 
 “I felt something with my hand and at first I thought it was a stick,” Saga Vanecek told the local Värnamo Nyheter newspaper. “Then it had a handle that looked like it was a sword, and then I lifted it up and shouted: ‘Daddy, I found a sword!’” 
 
 I pulled a 1,500-year-old sword out of a lake Read more 
 
 The find, made in July but announced only this week for fear it would trigger a summer stampede to the site at Tånnö on the shore of Lake Vidöstern, felt “pretty cool and a bit exciting”, she told the Swedish public broadcaster Sveriges Radio. 
 
 Despite intense speculation on social media, there was no immediate confirmation that Saga would be crowned “Queen of Sweden”, in an echo of the Arthurian legends of the sword in the stone and the lady of the lake. 
 
 Vigmund (@Vigmund2) Försöker hon utmana vår utvalda drottning Saga?! ⚔️https://t.co/MRyJm7xugg 
 
 Her father, Andrew, said in a Facebook post that the sword, estimated by experts from the nearby Jönköping county museum to date to the 5th or 6th century AD, before the Viking era, was still in the remains of its wood and leather scabbard. 
 
 He told VN he had been waiting impatiently for his daughter to come in from the water because the football World Cup final was about to start, but she was busy skimming stones. Then she stooped and held up the ancient weapon. 
 
 Neighbours confirmed to the Swedish-American family, who moved to Sweden from Minnesota last year, that the rusted artefact did indeed look old, and Nevecek called an archaeologist the next day. 
 
 Annie Rosén, from the museum, said: “I was on holiday, but when I saw the pictures I went straight away. You cannot imagine such a sword – so well preserved.” 
 
 Another expert at the museum, Mikael Nordström, told the Local.se news site that the 85cm sword was being worked on by conservationists and would not be on view to the public for at least a year. 
 
 “How it came to be there, we don’t know,” Nordström said, adding that archaeologists no longer believed the site was the grave of a wealthy nobleman, as first thought. 
 
 They were exploring the possibility it could have been a place of sacrifice, he said. Subsequent searches by museum staff and local council workers uncovered a brooch from roughly the same period but there were no other significant finds. ||||| Saga Vanecek, 8, who used to call Minneapolis home, had your typical day in Sweden one day over the summer. She went to the lake, took a dip, started throwing stones to see how far they’d skip, then pulled a 1,500-year-old sword with apparent Viking ancestry out of the lake. 
 
 “She walked very slowly and played in the water just like the child does, I was a little frustrated that she did not come back quickly. But then she picked up something that I thought was a stick and held it up as Pippi Longstocking,” said Andrew Vanecek — wearing a Minnesota Wild hat, for the record — when he talked to the Swedish news site VN.se this week. 
 
 An initial inspection by people who know their swords put the piece at about 1,000 years old. Now, they think it might be older, another Swedish news site reports. 
 
 “Why it has come to be there, we don’t know,” [Mikael Nordström from Jönköpings Läns Museumhe] said. “When we searched a couple of weeks ago, we found another prehistoric object; a brooch from around the same period as the sword, so that means – we don’t know yet – but perhaps it’s a place of sacrifice. At first we thought it could be graves situated nearby the lake, but we don’t think that any more.” The sword has prompted teams including museum staff to carry out further searches in the area, though none have resulted in such an important find. The first led to the discovery of the brooch but the oldest object found in the second search, on Wednesday, was a coin from the 18th century. “We asked Saga [not to tell anyone about the sword] because we were afraid that if this find would go public too soon, there would be a lot of people there, perhaps destroying our possibility to find things later,” he added. 
 
 The kid didn’t tell anyone but her best friend. Wednesday was the first day she was allowed to speak about it. But her father beat her to it with a Facebook post. 
 
 It's official! With today's press release we can finally reveal what Saga found in Lake Vidösten this summer… a sword… Posted by Andy Vanecek on Wednesday, October 3, 2018 
 
 “The cool thing is that I’m a huge Minnesota Vikings fan, and this looks just like a Viking sword!” her father said. 
 
 The family moved from Minneapolis in 2017 to be closer to the maternal side of the family. 
 
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– What a museum worker calls an "amazing story" has emerged out of the south of Sweden, where a 1,500-year-old sword from the Iron Age was found in a lake—not by archaeologists or maritime researchers, but by an 8-year-old from Minneapolis. NPR reports on Saga Vanecek's discovery in July, made as she crawled on her hands and knees in the shallow waters of Lake Vidostern. Accustomed to bumping into rocks and sticks as she played in the lake, Saga instead stumbled on an object in the mud with a handle. "She picked up the object, lifted it high above her head, and shouted as if she was Pippi Longstocking, 'DADDY! I FOUND A SWORD!'" her dad, Andy Vanecek, said in a Wednesday Facebook post, adding it's the "first sword of its kind to ever be found in Scandinavia." The BBC notes the water level in the lake was low due to drought, which made it easier for Saga to find the sword. An expert from a local museum, which shows a pic of the "exceptionally preserved" sword, says the weapon is about 33 inches long and came in a wood-and-leather sheath. "Why it has come to be [in the lake], we don't know," the expert tells the Local, via NPR. "But perhaps it's a place of sacrifice." Also found by researchers, who swore Saga and her family to secrecy until now so the site wouldn't be overrun by amateur excavators: a brooch from around the same time period as the sword, as well as an 18th-century coin, per MPR. Saga's dad is pretty excited, noting, "I'm a huge Minnesota Vikings fan, and this looks just like a Viking sword." As for Saga, who moved to Sweden with her family in 2017, the Guardian notes some have dubbed her the country's "true queen" for her find. "All hail! Queen Saga! Lady Vanecek of ... Vidostern!" one acolyte tweeted.