WIELICZKA, POLAND—The First News reports that archaeologist Michał Wojenka of Jagiellonian University and his colleagues were investigating the site of the so-called Old Synagogue in southeastern Poland when they discovered some 350 objects, including a silver cup, five candlesticks, parts for four or five brass chandeliers, a silver badge from a cloth Torah covering, and two large vessels with Hebrew inscriptions. The objects had been tightly packed in a wooden box and buried. Eighteen cap badges bearing the initials of Emperor Franz Joseph that had belonged to infantry officers of the Austro-Hungarian army were also recovered from the box. Wojenka and his colleagues think the crate may have been lined with cloth army caps, which have since rotted, leaving only the metal military badges. The items are thought to have been buried in 1914, after the Austro-Hungarians lost the battle for Kraków and the Russian army occupied the town of Wieliczka. To read about Krakow's Old Synagogue, go to "Off the Grid."
