The most incredible archeological discoveries can happen dealing with the restoration of an old building! It would be very interesting to find out if there were some studies on stone walls in the regard of the particular "circumstances" in which some of these items have been found...
The coin in the bottom was sunk in the mortar between the stones on the side of a ground floor window! It is pretty well preserved but it could probably be cleaned better:
MONETA SPICCIOLA PEL REGNO LOMBARDO VENETO minted in 1862.
The other two were found on top of the stone lintel of the main entrance door... very deeply hidden into the mortar, half way through the 50 cm section of the entire wall! They have both stains of smoke as well as all the rest of the stone work in that spot: the building was definitely set on fire at some point...
2 SOLDI - CONTEA DI GORIZIA E GRADISCA minted in 1799
1 SHILLING - AUSTRIAN EMPIRE minted in 1759
It's the oldest so far... at least for what can be easily decoded. They had been placed in there with some specific "purpose" which we could only guess... maybe a blessing for the wealth of the householders? Who knows.
The bullet instead was shot into the wooden frame of an interior door and probably the hole was just plastered later on. It was covered in some sort of rust but carefully cleaning it, revealed the mark:
2 SOLDI - CONTEA DI GORIZIA E GRADISCA minted in 1799
1 SHILLING - AUSTRIAN EMPIRE minted in 1759
It's the oldest so far... at least for what can be easily decoded. They had been placed in there with some specific "purpose" which we could only guess... maybe a blessing for the wealth of the householders? Who knows.
The bullet instead was shot into the wooden frame of an interior door and probably the hole was just plastered later on. It was covered in some sort of rust but carefully cleaning it, revealed the mark:
A 2 17 so it's an Austrian bullet from 1917 probably February, during the tremendous invasion of Austrian troopers after the defeat of Caporetto and it definitely had a very tragically different "purpose"... It is the most recent item.
So the history of the building starts from being under the Austrian Empire (1759) and dealing with Contea di Gorizia (1799) which was also another imperial protectorate.
All the following items have been dug out of the soil in just about 4 square meters of space and within 40 cm depth. They were all exposed to harsh moisture so unfortunately they all have signs of corrosion and rust.
So the history of the building starts from being under the Austrian Empire (1759) and dealing with Contea di Gorizia (1799) which was also another imperial protectorate.
All the following items have been dug out of the soil in just about 4 square meters of space and within 40 cm depth. They were all exposed to harsh moisture so unfortunately they all have signs of corrosion and rust.
The oldest datable item of this group is this Austrian shilling minted in 1765 and compared to the previous one found deep into the stone wall mortar, it is in way worse conditions.
3 CENTES and 1 CENT dated 1803 from Regno d'Italia with "Napoleon emperor and king".
A few decades later, all the area was included in Napoleon invasion and was passed over to French (1803). Less than 60 years later it went back to the Austrian influence that controlled the Regno Lombardo Veneto (1862).
There were found no traces of "Regno d'Italia" but the tragic sign of World War I marked the brutal invasion of the area by the Austrian army (1917).
Other items are too compromised to be deciphered but they could even prove to be older... for sure they need some specific treatment done by expert hands.
One tiny item (less than 2 cm long) was also dug out from the soil: some sort of ornament... who knows... It's all treasures of the house anyway and it took so much effort to find them!!!
Amazing reward for sure.
Amazing reward for sure.
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