More than 300 artifacts from the First World War were found in a cave in Italy after a glacier melted and revealed access to the site, which would have served as a soldiers' shelter.
The discoveries were made in 2017, but only released this week by White War Museum, and must be exhibited in the Italian city of Bormio from the end of 2022.
According to local information, the shelter was occupied by Austrian troops during the war, allowing soldiers to hide on the Italian side.
Thanks to the characteristics of the location, they could not see the Austrian soldiers on the ground or through aerial observation.
In an interview with CNN, historian Stefano Morosini said that the cave housed 20 Austrian soldiers, who were serving in the Monte Scorluzzo, in the municipality of Sondrio. He stated that the objects were part of the “very poor daily life” of the fighters, who dealt with “extreme environmental conditions”.
Temperatures in the Italian winter in the region can reach -40°C. Therefore, the cave was a refuge that protected them from the cold, and also served to store food and clothing made from animal skins.
During the research work, which has been carried out since the discovery in 2017, bottles, straw mattresses, coins, helmets, ammunition and newspapers were found. The place was hastily locked up when the war ended in November 1918, with soldiers leaving most of their belongings behind.
“The soldiers had to fight the extreme environment, fight the snow and avalanches, but also fight the enemy,” said Morosini, who is a professor at University of Bergamo, in Italy.
It is believed that several of the fighters died not only from war wounds but also from hypothermia. Five years ago, the bodies of two men were found in the shelter area, who still had documents, which allowed the remains to be handed over to the combatants' living relatives.
Every summer, other artifacts still appear in the cave in Monte Scorluzzo, as the glacier melts more and more.
“The knowledge that we can gather today from the relics is a positive consequence of the negative fact of climate change,” Morosini explained to the British newspaper The Guardian.
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