The White War — a snow - bounce World War I engagement between Italy and Austria — claimed the lives of unnumerable soldiers right smart up in the Alps . Now , thaw ice is revealing frozen soldier , some of them dead preserved — but not Captain America - preserved — for most a 100 .
The friction lasted four years , beginning in 1915 , in makeshift burrow and trench at a staggering 12,000 feet above ocean level — the in high spirits fight in chronicle .
An Austrian rifle get hold evaporate out of the ice . Photo : Museo della Grande Guerra , Peio .
Apparently artifacts began flowing down from the mountain a few decades ago ; theTelegraphreports that these even include still - legible , never - send out love letters and poetry . But it ’s the mummified people—80 , so far — that are proving the most wrenching .
The mummified remains of three Hapsburg soldiers found in 2004 . photograph : Museo della Grande Guerra , Peio .
While temperatures and avalanches were the most common causal agency of death , claiming souls in the thousands , nature was n’t the only killer . Last year , two teenaged soldier were entomb in Peio , an Alpine village on the frontline that did n’t empty during the conflict — both had bullet yap in their skulls . Ultimately all of the finds go to a forensic anthropologist ; though he ’s able to excerpt DNA , there often is n’t enough contextual information about the family ’s current whereabouts to make the proper identification and announcements .
So now we have bacteria coming back from the permafrost and rooted soldier . Next : zombie national socialist soldier kept immortal by Jurassic virus .
take icon : The remains of two Austrian soldiers discover on the Presena Glacier in 2012 . Photo : Office for Archaeological Finds , Autonomous Province of Trento
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