Easter haul

Machine translation of the original editorial information.

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Inside this issue

1. 12 · Archeus DW in action
2. 29 · Into the pheasant wood
3. 42 · My dream find

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 the usual retail outlets. 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 truly extraordinary find by Radek: a declaration of love by two young people, written on a business card in 1916 and hidden in a waterproof case near Prague, beneath a tree they had planted together. This is followed by an interview with treasure hunter Luboš, aptly titled ‘Easter Treat’, in which he recounts the circumstances of his extraordinary find in the Sudetenland – a hoard of beautifully preserved medals that he stumbled upon this Easter. The regular ‘Snippets’ column brings news of excavations at the legendary home of King Arthur, archaeological research at the site of the Battle of Třebel, and an interesting discovery of skeletons near Lake Baikal. In the photo report ‘Protivanov 2016’, we look back at this year’s successful event – the fourth gathering of treasure hunters in Moravia. ‘Archeus DW in Action’ is the title of a report on how our association took part in an exceptionally interesting rescue excavation of a La Tène settlement dating from the 2nd–1st centuries BC in Týnec nad Labem.

DR Wood, a metal detectorist and long-standing contributor, pays attention not only to what appears beneath his coil, but also to the things around us that can tell stories from the past. He also titled his article ‘Fading Links to the Past’. ‘Have you ever encountered the police whilst searching?’ is the question we put to the treasure hunters in our regular ‘Poll’ section. Adam Krejčík titled his interview with Ivo Tomáš, a collector and one of the country’s leading experts on buttons, ‘My first button featured Roman swords’. In this issue, we are also launching a regular column, ‘The Button Collector’s Advice Corner’, where Ivo Tomáš will be answering your questions. The treasure hunter ‘kali’ shared with readers how he found his first ‘golden pheasant’ in the article ‘Off to the Woodland for Pheasants’. During one of our commissioned searches, although the hidden silver was not found, the operation was nonetheless a resounding success. Why? This is suggested by the title of the report: ‘The Golden Patch’. Treasure hunter Vojta set off to the foot of the summit of our highest mountain to try and find out whether anything remained of the German Junkers 52 that crashed in this area at the end of the war. You can find out how it all turned out in his report Seven Minutes Beneath Sněžka. This instalment of our Advice Column is devoted to the so-called ‘poor man’s patent’, the mark of which – D.R.G.M. – we encounter on our finds primarily in the western border regions. A look back at the history of the cooper’s trade also reveals something of how the early modern monetary system functioned, as you will see in the article ‘Cooperage and the Circulation of Money’ and in the historical sketch ‘A Day in the Life of Cooper Votruba’ – both penned by another of our stalwart contributors, Jiří Hlavnička. In the final – twenty-second – instalment of our series ‘Catalogue of Czechoslovak Relics’, which has been running continuously in Detektor revu since its first issue, we have focused on Svatá Hora. An adrenaline-fuelled experience awaited the treasure hunter rohlika333 on his expedition – in a single day, he unearthed a frozen soldier’s body, a rifle clip, a helmet and even a Cross of Merit… No wonder he called his account ‘The Dream Find’. Those interested in military technology will certainly welcome another study by the military technology historian Jan Škarka, this time on the subject of the 9cm vz. 38 mortar. 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.