Drought Reveals Sunken Treasures

Mother Nature will always have the last laugh. Sometimes, we can share in it.

That's the situation in Poland, where a record low in the level of water in the Vistula River caused by a recent drought has unveiled a bunch of treasures stolen by Sweden invaders in the 17th Century. Seems the Swedes were eager to get away or too greedy or whatever and they loaded the barge too much and the whole thing sunk to the bottom of the river. They had planned to move the marble up the river from Warsaw to Gdansk and then out through the Baltic Sea, but it wasn't to be. And, not being skilled in dredging (or for some other mysterious reason), the Swedes decided to leave the stuff behind.

 The Vistula, the country's longest river, was a bit of a dumping ground during World War Two as well, as first Nazi Germany and then the Soviet Union occupied cities along the river. The same low water levels have revealed artifacts from the 1940s as well, and researchers have said that some recently uncovered Jewish gravestones would be turned over to Warsaw's Jewish Historical Institute.

 The heavy stuff stolen by the Swedes includes large blocks of carved marble that formed part of the foundation and interior of some splendid Polish palaces. It's not exactly lightweight, which is another reason that it has remained on the bottom of the river bed all these years. But, the drop in the water level of the river has effectively brought the marble closer to the surface and so modern technology can, without a supreme effort, get that marble out of the river and onto archaeologists' work tables where it belongs.

Paradoxically, the water level is a bit too low for the floating cranes needed to do the job. Mother Nature, always having the last laugh indeed.