Two hikers walked through the foothills of the Krkonose mountains in the Czech Republic in early February, when he noticed that something brilliant appeared on a stone wall. They took out what turned out to be the aluminum can, looked inside and found a small fortune.
Inside there was a treasure or 598 gold coins, perfectly organized in columns and wrapped in black fabric, said Miroslav Novak, head of the archaeological department of the Museum of the East of Bohemia, which later, possession of the stash.
A few meters away, hikers unearthed a second cache: a metal box with gold items, including 16 tobacco boxes, 10 bracelets, a comb, a chain with a small key and a compact of dust.
The discovery of the treasure, with a value of up to $ 680,000, has triggered a search between historians and amateur detectives to discover who could have hidden wealth.
“What is exceptional in this case is the volume,” said Dr. Novak.
He estimated that the gold coins were around 7.5 million Koruna Czechs, or around $ 340,000. The other items, if they are solid gold and not simply plays in gold, could be worth another $ 340,000, he said.
But what was really intriguing, he said, was how recent articles were buried.
While archaeological discoveries are quite common in the region, with many who date from the Bronze Age or the medieval times, the newest currency of this collection was 1921, which indicates that the treasure had been hidden with bone with approximately the last century.
This relative feature has sacrificed a tempting advantage to researchers, who think they can locate the owner of the treasure through the archive investigation and resolve the mystery of why it was hidden.
“It is possible that someone finds some information, perhaps in the rookies of the time, that someone stole a jewelry or something, and could suddenly lead us to a track,” said Dr. Novak.
He said that a constant flow of suggestions had already resorted, and some conspiracy theories, who could be the owner.
Was it a return of a war of a war? A merchant fleeing from the area turning conflict? Or maybe the rich heiress of a nearby family?
The coins offer perhaps the best clues, but more confusing.
None of the money circulated in the area where it was discovered. Approximately half of the coins are from Western European countries, including France and Belgium. The rest are from regions around the world, including Balkans, the Ottoman Empire, Russia, Tunisia and other parts of Africa.
Balkan coins have perforated holes, indicating that they probably used to decorate the headbands or necklaces that were part of popular costumes or wedding clothing, said Dr. Novak.
Online, some suggested that gold could carry the collection of a guard in a camp of prisoners of war, while others were hidden by a local dentist.
The experts of the museum and other historians have sought the tumultuous history of the region in search of explanations. Bohemia, what is today the Western Czech Republic, witnessed great waves of migration and forced expulsions after 1938.
Before World War II, around 120,000 Jews lived in Bohemia and Moravia, now Eastern Czech Republic, which were occupied by Germany in 1938, according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Around 26,000 Jews fled the area before 1941, and around 82,000 were deported later.
Other groups also fled during Germany’s occupation, said Martin Vesely, associate professor at the Jan Evangelist Purkynis University in the Czech Republic. Around 200,000 people moved, including many Czechs, he said.
After the war, in 1945, around three million Germans, seen as guilty for war and Nazis crimes, fled or were deported from the area.
“Perhaps the person ended in a concentration camp, or perhaps it was a German who simply could not recover it again,” Dr. Ir. Said Novak.
At the end of the war, the territory that is now the Czech Republic absorbed around 1.7 million refugees from all over Europe, Dr. Ir. Vese said, including people from Belgium, Estonia, France, Hungary, Latvia, Poland, Spain and the Balkans. Many arrived carrying all their possessions.
“The problem is that there are a lot of possibilities,” said Dr. Vesely. “Central Europe was swept through a large number of people in several round trip addresses in those years, so anything could have happened.”
Personal objects found with coins, including tobacco and compact boxes, can be key to solving the mystery. The stash contained a mixture of elements used by both and the women, and given how many articles were included, a leg buried by a group can have instead of a single person, Dr. Ir. Vesel said.
The museum has begun to travel the articles for engravings or other brands, but so far they have thrown few clues. However, two of the tobacco boxes have not yet been opened.
“We will see if the last two help us in some way,” said Dr. Novak.
