It is these sometimes disturbing hidden objects that particularly fascinate me as a person interested in history and archaeology.

I am enthralled by the mysteries they pose and love delving into their backgrounds.

But it's not just the relics that move me, which are eerie or bizarre at first glance.

Sometimes a few coins, apparently hastily hidden under a floorboard, tell of life in fear and poverty more impressively than contemporary sources.

A self-made comb made by a forced laborer is likely to move many people more than old documents.

And a poor toy in a baby's grave moves me more than any number about child mortality in the Middle Ages and early modern times.

Often it is seemingly banal objects that give us a sense of how people of the past really lived and suffered.

They make history understandable - and often offer insights into events that some would have liked to keep secret.

In the coming months, SPIEGEL will tell the stories of some of these objects - including the very sad one of a figure from Saarland who looks like a voodoo doll and is currently on display in the exhibition "Magic - Force Fate" in Halle (Saale). becomes.

Some of the relics in question were extensively researched using the high-tech possibilities of archaeology.

They also represent the meticulousness with which modern historians work.

Time and time again they elicit almost unbelievable stories from the finds from the dark.

The series begins with southern German homeowners who came across mummies during renovation work.

Read what it's all about here.

Heartfelt

Your Guido Kleinhubbert

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