Miraculously surviving parts of military equipment, two swords with scabbards and saddles lined with gold plates, horse harnesses made of gold and gilded linings, decorated with grenades … By chance, an unemployed resident of the Fatezhsky district of the Kursk region got about a hundred valuable things. Lucky decided to earn extra money and sold the finds worth 1 million to a collector for … 50 thousand rubles.
HOBBIES FOR THE UNEMPLOYED
The 56-year-old Gennady Yakovlevich Zimin is still laughing at fellow villagers and not only. “Well, it’s necessary,” they say, “to find a treasure worth a million dollars to take revenge with a whisk!” The story of the unlucky Kursk treasure hunter has become the talk of the town for a long time.
It began back in the 80s of the last century, when Zimin was a boy. At the edge of the village of Volnikovka, where the Usozha River flows beyond the ravine, workers were digging a trench for the pipeline. The foreman rushed the builders - a plan is a plan, and for its failure to fulfill his head will be blown off. And for the country boys who are sparsely entertained, the work of laying the pipeline is like a free ride. From morning until evening they pushed around the construction site and watched with all their eyes as an excavator scooped up the earth with a bucket and digs a trench. One day the boys noticed some objects gleaming in the black soil. But nobody stopped work because of this …
…2011. Gennady Yakovlevich Zimin, a boy who watched the construction of a pipeline in his village, by this time had lost his job. An agricultural machinery repair firm closed, and a 51-year-old resident of the village of Mikhailovka was deprived of any livelihood. The peasant sat out of work for a month or two, and then began to think about how to get money. Nothing else came to mind but the old proven method - the search for ferrous metal. Zimin was not the only one who traded in this craft in the Kursk region. For many villagers, it has long turned into a profession. It was easier to find in the ground the remains of agricultural machinery, pig iron scrap than a good money job. For this purpose, Zimin, like his “colleagues”, had a metal detector in the barn. So this time, too, he started up his old Zhiguli, took a shovel and a metal detector. It remains to select the area to search. There is no scrap metal left in Mikhailovka. And then Gennady Yakovlevich remembered his native Volnikovka. At the right time, the memory gave out a picture - the boys on the edge of the ravine are watching the work of the builders, and something gold glitters in the bucket of the excavator. Zimin went to his native village.
Arrived at the scene and took out a metal detector from the trunk. Hardly had he walked a dozen meters when a familiar squeak was heard. Zimin took out a shovel, began to dig, and immediately came across some objects.
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For several days, Zimin combed 30 sq. meters of land. There were many gold and silver finds, and they clearly did not belong to our time. Unfortunately, they lay in the ground for a long time and lost their presentation. Then Gennady Yakovlevich decided to give them the proper look with the help of an anti-corrosion liquid. I was pleased with the result - the products already shone in the sun. The only thing left was to find a buyer. Kuryanin made inquiries and went to the right person. It turned out to be a collector from Bryansk. We agreed to meet on the highway before reaching Zheleznogorsk. Gennady Yakovlevich brought the most beautiful things to the first meeting. The buyer was satisfied and laid out 35 thousand rubles without bargaining. Another time, the treasure hunter gave the rest of the good for 15 thousand. 50 thousand - a lot of money, to earn it, you need to hand over a bunch of scrap metal. And here are a few trinkets and live - I don't want to!
The Bryansk collector turned out to be more "advanced" and found buyers willing to pay 3 to 5 million rubles for the finds. He was already preparing for a meeting with a client from Ukraine, when representatives of law enforcement agencies raided him. An archaeologist who had connections among "black" diggers informed the staff of the Kursk Museum of Archeology about the upcoming deal. Museum workers sounded the alarm and reported "where to". The investigators did not have time to think - valuables could be abroad at any moment. The digger and the reseller were taken in one night and a criminal case was opened against them. The finds were seized and transferred to the Kursk Museum of Archeology. Archaeologists went to the outskirts of Volnikovka.
Kursk Porthos
The researchers were shocked - on the territory of the Fatezhsky region there was a unique burial of the IV-V centuries AD! During excavations, they found horse bones and human remains. After a series of examinations, they came to the conclusion: a warrior was buried here with his horse in a rich harness. Scientists have found more than 300 things - there is no such a unique grave in the number of items, completeness and antiquity in the whole of Russia!
Scientists have announced the total cost of all finds - a million dollars. The chief curator of the Kursk Museum of Archeology, Alexander Zorin, told reporters: “We found a single burial in which a man was buried along with his horse with a saddle and harness. We got two swords in a sheath upholstered in gold, three harness sets - two gold and one silver, sets of harness ornaments and belt sets. The buckles are decorated with inserts of garnets and colored glass, and the golden shields of the three belt buckles are decorated with mosaics of garnets and green glass in the style of cloisonne, in Russian - cloisonné enamel. Many items are made of silver or brass with gilding; there are few completely gold items. At first, one of the St. Petersburg researchers even called the man buried in Volnikovka "Porthos" - due to the fact that only the front side of the items is covered with gold. On the back - silver and patinated bronze. Apparently, this person's claims exceeded his capabilities, and the status in which he saw himself was higher than the one in reality …”.
Later, scientists had to abandon the familiar nickname Porthos. It became clear that the valuable things for the warrior were made to order by the most skillful master jewelers who owned a variety of techniques in the style of cloisonné enamel, grain, invoice and openwork filigree. The items represented the highest examples of jewelry fashion, widespread among the military elite of the barbarian era.
Much more serious was the task of determining which nationality the warrior belonged to. Even before the experts made a "diagnosis", the journalists hastened to name the buried man a Hun. Scientists were more cautious in their estimates. According to the same Alexander Zorin, none of the researchers will undertake to assert that this is a purebred Hun. Some scholars insist that the Ostrogoths were buried in the grave. However, the objects found are still characteristic of the Hunnic burials. Perhaps it was a Hun or a person somehow connected with them. Another sign indicating belonging to this clan-tribe is a grave in a secluded place. This is the signature style of the Huns: the burial of the deceased away from people in order to avoid desecration.
The right decision
For several years, items from the burial ground were under examination in St. Petersburg and Moscow. Then an unprecedented decision was made - to return all the finds to their homeland, to Kursk. The sponsors allocated money so that Kursk museum workers could equip halls and showcases for the exhibition of products.
Thus, the fate of the Volnikovsky treasures turned out to be happy. The monument of the era of the great migration of peoples was named "Volnikovka Soil burial ground", and the values taken from it remained where they were found - at home. Rare case!
The unfortunate digger was much less fortunate. Zimin received 150 hours of correctional labor for "damaging items of historical and cultural value." Now Gennady Yakovlevich says: if he is lucky again, he will hand over the treasures to the state.
Lyubov DYAKOVA