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A Sealed Crate

Writer's picture: InkaInka

top covers from german fuel barrels

This week I only found time for a half-day in the forest after work one day. That morning the mountaintops had gotten a cover of fresh snow. I left from work an hour before lunchtime and decided to drive to the Luftwaffe camp and continue a little in the dumping pit there.


Removing the loose soil where I had left off last time was a good warm-up because soon I was wrestling with a stuck barrell band and what looked like a large surgical cabinet. When I finally managed to free it, I had come to realize it was not a cabinet but some kind of an instrument sterilizer. Too bad it was heavily damaged, if not I would have brought it with me.

Just when I had removed it from the pit I saw the corner of another box. This one was equally difficult to get loose but in the end the crate landed up on the side of the pit. It was still intact and closed, and it felt like something was inside it. I was very curious to what it could contain, but I was going to bring it home so the Girlfriend could take part in the excitement of opening it.

When I continued digging I found the top for a field kitchens salt container, and bits from the crushed container. Well, at least the lid had survived, and I have a container which is missing a lid in my storage so hopefully they will fit together. Another bakelite part to come out of the sandy soil was the drinking cup from a soldiers canteen, and it even had initials engraved on the underside, "V.O"


The pit has been full of ampoules, medical glassware and bottles and today was no different. I carefully placed the fragile items safely away from any rocks and metal.

Creamtubes, coins, a razor sharpener, gaming pieces, toothbrushes and shards from smashed porcelain bowls slowly found their way to the pile.


I always collect porcelain bits during a dig, coz sometimes they puzzle together nicely. This time the only salvagable bit was a piece with the eagle and swastika. I dug up bits from at least six karbid lanterns and a leather boot cut down to find use as a slipper.

The other one might still be somewhere in the untouched parts of the pit, or it went up in flames when the pit was burnt.


I had to get home for dinner because I was starving, and hadn`t brought food for a long day out, but first I needed to spend my remaining energy on pulling what felt like the top of a kraftstoff barrel out from under a rock, and when I had it out I felt another one. They were both very nice, and one had interesting stencilings added. A blue " D " and a black "L" inside a triangle. I wonder what meanings those had..


Now I had a proper load of relics to carry back to the car, and it was almost so I welcomed the returning winter and the break from carrying rust it would bring.

After dinner me and the Girlfriend went outside to figure out what was inside the box.

Opening it was easy and was done without damaging it, although a hole appeard from under some crust on the lid. Inside was a medical tray where the lid had rotted away, but the bottom and the tray itself were in nice condition.

Other than that was two large needles and a smaller box made from presstoff. Inside that was a leather pouch with loops for instuments, but only a small metal cone was present. Not the treasure we had been hoping for, but prehaps the thrill of it was the treasure :)


​Today there were no digging with Jimmy coz he was overseeing a Yatzy tournament, but hopefully there will be some searching again in the coming week :)


lid of a box uncovered from the sand

metal cabinet taken out of the soil

a large nickle coated metal cabinet
Surgical tool sterilizer.
holding a large glass ampoule
Large glass ampoule.
corner of a metal box sticking out of the soil
The corner of a crate!
metal box dug out of the ground
I got it loose :)
red brown bakelite lid for box
Bakelite lid for a field kitchen salt box.
black bakelite drinking cup
Drinking cup.
piece of porcelain from a bowl with blue eagle and swastika
Piece from a porcelain bowl.
lid for frying pan and foldable car seat
Kettle lid and foldable seat.
red cream tube
Medical cream.
wooden clog and a leather boot cut down to a slipper
Wooden clog and slippers.
two toothbrushes and a cream tube
Toothbrushes.
autumn red fireweed plant

metal box ready to be opened
The box was opened without damaging it, but a hole appeared under some crust on the lid.
opening the rusted box

showing a shiny medical tray that was inside the box
Inside was a tray for surgical tools, the lid for the tray disintegrated. It was also two big needles and a leather pouch with a small metal cone.
holding a surgical needle
Needle.
holding a cardboard box
Leatherpouch inside a presstoff box.
green mountainsides and grey sky

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