# Archaeologists unearth perfectly preserved WWI German Trenches **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 10, 2012, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaeologists-unearth-perfectly-preserved-wwi-german-trenches/612454 "2012-02-10T20:19:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2012, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaeologists-unearth-perfectly-preserved-wwi-german-trenches/612454/1 "2012-02-10T20:19:16Z")
Incredible photos. Its like a time capsule going back to 1918. Everything in remarkable condition. They found most of the wood structures, beds, tools, newspapers, and even guns. The construction is amazing. Wood floors, walls all installed after digging. > [@](#): > > A bottle (left) and a bell (right) found during the dig. The tunnels were equipped with heating, telephone connections, electricity, beds and a pipe to pump out water > **[The 'Pompeii' of the Western Front: Archaeologists find the bodies of 21...](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2099187/Bodies-21-German-soldiers-buried-alive-WW1-trench-perfectly-preserved-94-years-later.html)** > > The men were part of a larger group of 34 who were killed when a huge Allied shell exploded above the tunnel in the Alsace region of eastern France in 1918, causing it to cave in. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2012, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaeologists-unearth-perfectly-preserved-wwi-german-trenches/612454/2 "2012-02-10T20:42:18Z")
It sounds like this site may get a road over it soon. I’m glad they are documenting it really well for later study. > [@](#): > > Nearly a century later, French archaeologists stumbled upon the mass grave on the former Western Front in eastern France during excavation work for a road building project ---
**Author:** ![sitchensis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sitchensis/32/4892_2.png) [@sitchensis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sitchensis)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2012, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaeologists-unearth-perfectly-preserved-wwi-german-trenches/612454/3 "2012-02-10T21:02:40Z")
Just want to say thanks for the link **aceplace57** really interesting ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2012, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaeologists-unearth-perfectly-preserved-wwi-german-trenches/612454/4 "2012-02-10T21:05:43Z")
Wow. Impressive… although, given the condition and placement of some of the artifacts, I almost suspect a hoax. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2012, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaeologists-unearth-perfectly-preserved-wwi-german-trenches/612454/5 "2012-02-10T21:11:19Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Wow. Impressive… although, given the condition and placement of some of the artifacts, I almost suspect a hoax. Wow…a hoax? I’m the most skeptical person for 50 miles in any direction, but this doesn’t suggest a hoax to me at all. it doesn’t raise the red flags that many hoaxes often do. If the artifact placement bothers you, could it be because the excavation has been “staged” to look like it was originally, before the collapse? ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2012, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaeologists-unearth-perfectly-preserved-wwi-german-trenches/612454/6 "2012-02-10T21:21:44Z")
Most of the artifacts looked rusty enough to have be there 90 plus years. The gun stocks on the rifles had rotted away. The drinking glass did seem unusually clean. They may have washed the mud out and put it back in place. Archaeologists use a grid system to precisely record the location of every artifact. Anything that was cleaned or picked up for examination could easily be put back from where it came from. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2012, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaeologists-unearth-perfectly-preserved-wwi-german-trenches/612454/7 "2012-02-10T21:56:14Z")
Is it my imagination, or is not the mystery item next to the rifle a leather coin purse complete with coins? And in the picture upstream of that, the piece of wood with the funny pointy arch cut out of it looks exactly like any random [bootjack](http://www.horseloverz.com/Perris-Plastic-Boot-Jack-pr-230470.html) I have seen and used. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2012, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaeologists-unearth-perfectly-preserved-wwi-german-trenches/612454/8 "2012-02-10T22:00:53Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > It sounds like this site may get a road over it soon. I’m glad they are documenting it really well for later study. I’m guessing it is rescue archaeology, where a place is studied before something ‘permanent’ is done to change the area. I have a few neat artifacts from a rescue archaeology site in Minneapolis where the Federal Reserve Bank is now located. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2012, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaeologists-unearth-perfectly-preserved-wwi-german-trenches/612454/9 "2012-02-10T22:05:41Z")
Bootjack was my first thought on that item, too, **aruvqan**. I don’t know about the other thing; my first impression was that it was too large, but I may be misunderstanding the scale. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2012, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaeologists-unearth-perfectly-preserved-wwi-german-trenches/612454/10 "2012-02-10T22:07:16Z")
It does look like a coin purse. Except, that 10cm ruler next to it gives me the impression the object is about 20cm tall. 7.87 inches. That’s a little to big for a coin purse. 😉 > [@aruvqan](#): > > Is it my imagination, or is not the mystery item next to the rifle a leather coin purse complete with coins? And in the picture upstream of that, the piece of wood with the funny pointy arch cut out of it looks exactly like any random [bootjack](http://www.horseloverz.com/Perris-Plastic-Boot-Jack-pr-230470.html) I have seen and used. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2012, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaeologists-unearth-perfectly-preserved-wwi-german-trenches/612454/11 "2012-02-11T00:06:24Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > It does look like a coin purse. Except, that 10cm ruler next to it gives me the impression the object is about 20cm tall. 7.87 inches. That’s a little to big for a coin purse. 😉 ? I used a paper to make a scale to compare to the item, I got 7 cm. And the old pound coins are large, someone in the German trench was looting … and I still say it is a coin purse. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2012, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaeologists-unearth-perfectly-preserved-wwi-german-trenches/612454/12 "2012-02-11T04:24:58Z")
I’d bet that the mystery object is a coin purse. I think each division on the ruler is 1 cm (looking at the wood grain below it). But how could archeologists not be able to identify a coin purse? StG ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2012, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaeologists-unearth-perfectly-preserved-wwi-german-trenches/612454/13 "2012-02-11T05:38:14Z")
You’re right. I thought they were showing the entire 10cm ruler in the picture. But, I see now it was only showing part of that ruler. They never did say what they are planning to do with the German dead they uncovered. I’d expect they will try to identify them and return the remains to their families for burial. Or they could bury them in one of the local German war cemeteries in that area. > [@aruvqan](#): > > ? I used a paper to make a scale to compare to the item, I got 7 cm. And the old pound coins are large, someone in the German trench was looting … and I still say it is a coin purse. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Zweedo\_Rodriguez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b487fb/32.png) [@Zweedo\_Rodriguez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zweedo_Rodriguez)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2012, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaeologists-unearth-perfectly-preserved-wwi-german-trenches/612454/14 "2012-02-11T06:14:08Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > You’re right. I thought they were showing the entire 10cm ruler in the picture. But, I see now it was only showing part of that ruler. > > They never did say what they are planning to do with the German dead they uncovered. I’d expect they will try to identify them and return the remains to their families for burial. Or they could bury them in one of the local German war cemeteries in that area. About halfway down they say: > [@](#): > > Their names are all known - they include Musketeer Martin Heidrich, 20, Private Harry Bierkamp, 22, and Lieutenant August Hutten, 37, whose names are inscribed on a memorial in the nearby German war cemetery of Illfurth. > > The bodies have been handed over to the German War Graves Commission **but unless relatives can be found and they request the remains to be repatriated, it is planned that the men will be buried at Illfurth.** ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2012, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaeologists-unearth-perfectly-preserved-wwi-german-trenches/612454/15 "2012-02-11T12:26:16Z")
Specifically, that would be a jackboot bootjack. Wow, that’s hard to say three times fast. ---
**Author:** ![longPath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bb73d2/32.png) [@longPath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/longPath)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2012, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaeologists-unearth-perfectly-preserved-wwi-german-trenches/612454/16 "2012-02-11T12:29:53Z")
I find this sort of archaeology particularly fascinating. My Grandfather and his Brothers volunteered to be part of this conflict in 1915. They all somehow made it home alive. ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2012, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaeologists-unearth-perfectly-preserved-wwi-german-trenches/612454/17 "2012-02-11T12:43:30Z")
And the poor bastards who died in there? Just another footnote I guess. They would not be alive now anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2012, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaeologists-unearth-perfectly-preserved-wwi-german-trenches/612454/18 "2012-02-11T16:18:36Z")
Nothing hoaxy about the excavation pictures to this archaeologist’s eyes. Inside undisturbed clay, even organic stuff keeps for one hundred times longer than WWI dates back to. 10 000-year old tools made from wood and bone can be found in numerous North European Stone Age sites with favorable conditions for preservation. 100-year old leather, wood, bone etc. are very common finds on rescue excavations at historical sites around here. Substantial wooden structures, as in the WWI site under discussion, are special; \*in situ \*human remains from a catastrophic event is what makes this find extraordinary. Funny how the article says ‘intact’ rifles under pictures showing guns that are basically rotten, rusted, twisted lumps of tooled wood and metal. ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2012, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaeologists-unearth-perfectly-preserved-wwi-german-trenches/612454/19 "2012-02-11T16:36:01Z")
Too late to edit: I, too, wondered about the ‘mystery items’ with pretty obvious IDs (the bootstrap and the coin purse). Rescue digs are usually really frantic, with a small team of archaeologists trying to record what they can under constant pressure from the developers, with little time and resources. I can imagine a reporter shoving a recorder mic into the face of a hasty digger and using an off-hand quote like “we don’t know what it is” on the article. Things like this happen all the time. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2012, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaeologists-unearth-perfectly-preserved-wwi-german-trenches/612454/20 "2012-02-11T17:55:46Z")
> [@Balance](#): > > Bootjack was my first thought on that item, too, **aruvqan**. I don’t know about the other thing; my first impression was that it was too large, but I may be misunderstanding the scale. Yep, bootjack. The set of three pouches below it is a [triple ammunition pouch](http://www.ima-usa.com/german-wwi-brown-triple-ammunition-pouch-grade-1-wwi-dated.html). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/archaeologists-unearth-perfectly-preserved-wwi-german-trenches/612454.md?page=2)