a modern well and hoard

Tragedy at the End of WWII

In the last days of WWII the owners of an butcher shop had buried their most precious tableware. Shortly after that, the hole street burned to the ground in the last sowjet ambush on the city.
a few years after this incident, the rubble got removed and the street with its buildings got rebuild in an completely new shape. The buried dishes, remained in the ground for the next 70 Years.

The discovery of the „hoard“

In 2014 the street get refurbished, so an archaeological excavation was necessary. Starting in October we were supporting the building process, and were documenting the historical remains of the old street layout.

We found medieval driving tracks, modern cellars, foundations and old pipe shafts. In one of this shafts stood an old enamel bucket with cap. Inside the bucket lay cut glasses and porcelain dishes, wraped in paper and secured by a curtain like fabric. The enamel bucket did show some holes from rust but was stable, the glasses seem unharmed. The paper and fabric get charred by the high temperature from the burning down building.
The bucket is recovered for later examination, so i can’t say anymore about the inventory yet.

Near the bucket, a hole set of plates, cups, cans and pots, made of porcelain were recovered. unfortunately these finds didn’t get the safety of an metal cover like the glasses, so the broke from the weight of the above layers of rubble and soil.

The well

A few days later the excavator had to stop for two massive granite plates. After removing the soil we realised they covered the top of an brick made well. with an depth of 12 m and a water level at 5 m it is still function able today.
The granite tiling contains an hole made for an old manual pump. It was build approximately in the end of the 18. or the beginning 19. century.