A gift to the gods

Machine translation of the original editorial information.

Archived issue; a purchase offer is not currently confirmed.

Inside this issue

1. 10 · Arthur Krupp’s silver hoard
2. 22 · Trenches and trench warfare
3. 36 · Soča: the heroism of Czech soldiers

Historical introduction: prices, events and dates refer to the original publication.

Dear readers,

The latest issue of Detektor revue has just left the printers and is on its way to your letterboxes and your usual newsagents. And, as always, here’s a little taster to whet your appetite.

As usual, we begin with the ‘Artefact of the Month’ section, which this time features a unique war relic from the Italian Front, made from a grenade guide ring, found in the Sudetenland by Miroslav UC Kratochvíl. The following is the report ‘A Prehistoric Gift to the Gods’, in which Thomas-Torky revisits his exceptional find from the Late Bronze Age in the Boskovice area, which has enriched our understanding of the history not only of the site where it was found but of the entire South Moravian Region. The regular column ‘Snippets’ brings both good and bad news from Palmyra, along with information on that Captain Cook’s legendary ship has apparently been discovered. Arthur Krupp found a ‘depot’ of silver-plated cutlery during one of his treasure-hunting expeditions in the NenajduAniDum hills, so it is no wonder that he titled his report ‘A Walk in the Hills That Paid Off’. Kleitoss provides an extraordinary account of the end of the war in the Velešín region in his article The Last Death Train. Beax has fulfilled yet another of his treasure-hunting dreams – the discovery of a submarine clasp is utterly extraordinary in our region, and so, thanks to Beax, we can at least experience it through his account entitled ‘Sponorka’. This instalment of our Advice Column is dedicated to pakfong – a type of metal that we come across very frequently in our finds, often without even realising it. “Do you have a dream find?” is the question we asked treasure hunters in our regular ‘Poll’ section. He reconstructs the harsh life in the trenches in his article ‘Where is my home?’ In the trenches! Our regular contributor, acci. The ninth instalment of Martin Furuglášeo’s numismatic series, The Crown Currency in Bohemia, is devoted to the rarest coins of the crown currency issued by Franz Joseph I and Charles I. Kali recalls his first ‘proper’ find – a ‘slinták – maďar’ – in the first instalment of our informal competition series entitled ‘A Trip Down Memory Lane’. Miroslav Maglen boasted about the outcome of his restoration of the SWAROVSKI DIENSTGLAS CAG 6x30 binoculars. Dog tags are always a welcome find; those found by Armyk in the Vyškov area delighted him all the more because they were all from the second half of the 19th century. When one mentions the Soča, most people probably first imagine the site of fierce battles during the First World War; Zdeněk Brož provides a compelling account of how the Soča was also a place of heroism for Czech soldiers. As usual, the Letters to the Editor section features your responses to the published articles – this time regarding the discovery of a hoard of copper six-kreutzer coins and, once again, the gift made from a cartridge case. Those interested in military technology will certainly welcome another study by the military technology historian Jan Škarka, this time on the subject of the 10 cm fortress howitzer model 38. The twentieth instalment of Bedřich Přibila’s ‘Inventory of Czechoslovak Relics’ takes us to Vysoká, Žitlovice, Vysoké Mýto and Svatá Hora (near Příbram).

And finally, we are all certainly looking forward to the continuation of the diary of our fellow treasure hunter Jarda, who has been keeping it since the 1990s – that is, from the pioneering days of metal-detecting in our country. We are republishing them under the title The Treasure Hunter’s Testament.