SEEKING ATTILA’S GOLDEN TOMB

Hawera Star, Volume LI, 11 June 1932, Page 14

SEEKING ATTILA’S GOLDEN TOMB

IA: GREAT ’“Tutankhamen ’ ’ sensation has been sweeping the provinces of Upper Austria, where, in the picturesque village of Aurolsmunster, excavations have begun in the hope of unearthing the tomb of Attila, the terrible warrior king of the Huns, who died on his bridal night, in the heyday of fame and success, in 453 A.l>., and Was buried in a structure of pure gold fand silver, amid treasure chests and piled-up heaps of slaughtered horses and slaves. .Legend has it that this ruler of a kingdom stretching from the Rhine to the 'Black Sea, this terror of Roman Italy, returned after conquering Gaul to die in the arms of the beautiful I Krimhilda. . 'lpstorians have always believed that j the site of the tyrant's golden grave and fabulous treasures lies east of the but recent events seem to indicate that it has at last been located at Aurolsmunster. The hope of a successful outcome to the excavations is so strong that newspapers are overwhelming the Innsbruck society in charge of the investigation with fantastic offers for exclusive rights. Indeed, the excitement through all Austria is so great that the Vienna correspondent of the “Daily Express” Undertook a special journey to Aurolsmunster to make a careful inquiry on the spot, and to see 'Herr Binduberger, a civil servant, who has been released from his official duties to superintend the excavations

Aurolsmunster lies in a peaceful yalley near the market town of Ried. fThe visitor found digging operations taking place in the courtyard of its <?astle, a barrack-like structure with anarble steeples, the property of Count \Atco, who lives in a more up-to-date mansion nearer 'Ried.

• The castle is surrounded by a moat and two shafts have been sunk to a

Terrible Warrior King of the Huns

depth of twenty-eight feet outside the area supposed to contain the burial vault. A few insignificant relics —a carved relief of a child's head, a piece of armour—had been unearthed, but some weeks were expected to pass before anything sensational was found. Behind the castle lies a strange, hump-backed mound. It was here that the first clue to Attila's grave was unearthed, the digging having revealed traees of a Hunnish burial ground, with skeletons of men and horses.

By studying a fifth century map of the district, and comparing it with ■what is known of Hunnish burial cus- | toms, Herr Binduberger reconstructed | the site of Attila's camp at the time 1 of his sudden death, comparing his suppositions with the descriptions of the mighty warrior's end that have come down from history. But Herr Binduberger is also a specialist on subterranean subjects. More than once he has improved the water supply of villages by discovering unknown wells. Ho has a gift "for divination, and recently established a considerable reputation l in scientific circles by unearthing buried antiquities by means of various kinds of instruments subjects to sensitive reaction.

In the case of Attila’s grave Herr Binduberger left the Hunnish burial ground carrying a registering apparatus sensitive to gold. His footsteps led him to the courtyard of the castle, where a violent reaction of the instrument caused him to halt. He repeated the experiment with another instrument, sensitive this time to silver, and, ■after several days' calculations, worked out the approximate spot where one mass of gold and two masses of silver lay burried.

Further experimennts with different instruments revealed the fact that men as well as horses lay buried in the neighbourhood at a considerable depth. At this point excavations were begun.