An formally sanctioned hunt for a stash of valuable jewelry looted by the Nazis through the Second World War and purportedly buried in a sleepy Dutch village has – like many earlier searches – didn’t unearth any treasure.

Archaeologists and historians within the village of Ommeren, about 50 miles south-east of Amsterdam, pushed a detection gadget referred to as a magnetometer alongside a row of fruit timber and throughout a subject on Monday morning and used a mechanical digger to excavate holes within the soggy soil.

They had been rewarded with little greater than a Second World War-era bullet, some twisted scrap steel, a crumpled automobile wheel and muddy boots.

Municipal officers hope that the failure of the workforce – that included members of a neighborhood historic society and college archaeologists – to seek out treasure will put an finish to newbie sleuths visiting the village.

“I think there’s minimal chance of finding anything. We dug three holes here of places where we could find through the magnetometer. There was a signal, and none of these holes have found the treasure,” stated archaeologist Martijn Bink. “So I think this is all what we’ll do. We won’t go any further.”

The look of the map sparked a modern-day treasure hunt, with prospectors utilizing steel detectors digging up websites round Ommeren regardless of a ban.

“A lot of people came digging here… without permission. Caused a lot of inconvenience for the residents,” stated Pieter Neven of Buren municipality.

The treasure hunts started after the Dutch National Archive printed a mountain of paperwork – because it does at the beginning of every yr – together with the map, which swiftly went viral.

“We’re quite astonished about the story itself. But the attention it’s getting… as well,” National Archive researcher Annet Waalkens stated in January.

She stated the story began in the summertime of 1944 within the Nazi-occupied metropolis of Arnhem – made well-known by the star-studded film A Bridge Too Far – when a bomb smashed a financial institution vault, scattering gold, jewelry and money throughout a road.

German forces scooped up as a lot of the loot as they may and saved it in ammunition packing containers, she stated, citing an account by a German soldier interviewed by Dutch authorities after the struggle.

As the Germans had been pushed again by an Allied advance, they buried the ammunition packing containers in Ommeren, in line with the soldier’s account.

Dutch authorities recovered the map and searched Ommeren shortly after the struggle with out discovering something. Then the scent went chilly till publication of the map triggered the January hunt.

Monday’s archaeological efforts additionally dug up nothing and should have buried the final hope of recovering the loot.