Recently, metal detectorists discovered 400-year-old military artifacts while roaming a field last month.
Youtuber Patryk Chmielewski who posts videos under the username Profesor Detektorysta, I photographed myself walking through a dirt field in Mikułowice, Poland, in March. He set up a camera and started digging when the metal detector suddenly started going off.
Soon Chmielewski discovered several pieces of metal buried 60 centimeters deep. About a week later, officials from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education announced the discovery in a Polish-language news release.
Archaeologists believe that this armor belonged to the Polish Light Cavalry, a cavalry unit of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from the early 16th century to the early 18th century.
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Officials said the armor belonged to the Polish Cavalry, a cavalry unit of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from the 1500s to the 1700s. (Mark Florek / State Monuments Conservation Department)
Officials said the metal fragments likely date back to the 17th century.
“Based on the shape of the helmet, it is very likely that it (the armor) dates from the first half of the 17th century,” an archaeologist at Maria Curie Skłodowska University told Poland’s Science magazine.
The archaeologist also said that it is unclear where exactly the armor was made, as it does not have decorations like those normally worn by aristocrats, and that it was made in a local workshop. He said this suggests that there is a possibility.
“It is slightly corroded, but only after conservation work will we have more certainty about its creation date.”
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A piece of 17th-century metal armor was corroded when it was excavated from a field in Poland. (Mark Florek / State Monuments Conservation Department)
Mark Florek, an archaeologist with the state Department of Monuments Conservation, said in a statement translated into English that the combat equipment was “incomplete.”
“The armor, which is the basic element of the cuirass, is incomplete.” [a piece of armor that covers the torso] “It is missing the breastplate, backplate and one of the shoulder pads, which were used to protect the chest and back,” Florek said.
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The corroded metal armor pieces probably date from the 17th century. (Mark Florek / State Monuments Conservation Department)
Florek also said the armor included a left shoulder section, a semicircular helmet, and a collarbone section that protected the neck.
After the conservation work is completed, the relics will be sent to Sandomierz Castle in Sandomierz, Poland. Sandomierz Castle is a medieval building that currently functions as a museum.
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Polish light cavalry in profile facing right with wings on its back, circular composition, circa 1651. (Sepia Times/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Fox News Digital has reached out to Patrick Chmielewski for comment.
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