NARRATOR: Tonight on The Curse of Oak Island...
SCOTT: Oh, wow.
No matter what we’re into in this area,
whether it’s wood or water or soil,
we’re getting gold.
-(beeping) -(both gasp)
-Oh, what have we got, mate? -That’s awesome.
This comes from Sardinia, off the coast of Italy.
MARTY: Whoa.
It’s the trail of the Templars.
This thing could have a worldwide impact.
-Oh, definitely. -MARTY: Yeah.
EMILIANO: It’s a game changer.
The source of an astonishing revelation.
♪ ♪
NARRATOR: There is an island in the North Atlantic
where people have been looking for
an incredible treasure for more than 200 years.
So far, they have found a stone slab
with strange symbols carved into it...
...man-made workings that date to medieval times,
and a lead cross whose origin may be connected
to the Knights Templar.
To date, six men have died
trying to solve the mystery.
And according to legend, one more will have to die
before the treasure can be found.
♪ ♪
-CHARLES: Hey, Paul. -COTE: Hey, how’s it going?
-CHARLES: Good. How are you? -All right.
-You’re grabbing again? -Yeah.
-Back at her. -Okay. -Good.
Why don’t we go in under the tent
-and have a look at the camera? -COTE: Yeah, sure.
Let’s go. Get out of the rain.
NARRATOR: Despite the chilly North Atlantic weather,
another exciting morning has arrived on Oak Island
for brothers Rick and Marty Lagina
and the members of their team.
How deep is the grab there right now?
Somewhere around 73 feet.
SCOTT: So, how deep will you go now?
COTE: Uh, close to 80 feet.
NARRATOR: In the fabled Money Pit area,
representatives from Dumas Contracting Limited
are now cleaning out and preparing to refurbish
the final ten feet of a mysterious structure
known as the Garden Shaft.
Although the decaying feature
is only 82 feet deep, it has provided Rick,
Marty, and the team with a number of stunning clues
that suggest it may be related to the original Money Pit.
These include the dating results from wood fragments,
which indicate the structure may have been built
as early as 1735.
But even more astonishing
is the fact that scientific analysis
conducted on both wood and water samples
taken from more than 50 feet deep
have revealed high trace evidence of gold.
So, Charles, we were down there and you could see that
that north corner is really sunk down significantly.
They must’ve had some softer ground there.
That stuff that wouldn’t hold together too, too well.
CHARLES: Yeah.
So, we have this hole over beside you, DN-11.5.
It’s one of the three holes that we’ve had
consecutive wood hits there, you know,
for a tunnel depth of about 95 feet.
And then that tunnel that’s there seems to be
trending towards the north corner of the shaft.
COTE: Yeah.
TEDFORD: Oh, man.
Broke through something.
NARRATOR: One month ago,
the team was conducting a core drilling operation
approximately 20 feet west of the Garden Shaft
in an area known as the Baby Blob.
It is here where geoscientist Dr. Ian Spooner
and hydrogeologist Dr. Fred Michel believe
the Money Pit treasure vault
may be buried between 80 and 120 feet underground.
This DN-11.5
really seems to line up DN-12.5 and DN-13.5
all in that east-west alignment.
NARRATOR: Incredibly, the team encountered a tunnel at a depth of 95 feet
that not only contains high trace evidence of gold
but also appears to be heading
almost directly beneath the Garden Shaft.
We’re all excited.
Every day, this shaft goes deeper,
and to us, you know, it’s one step closer
to a better understanding of where this gold
-is coming from. -Yeah.
NARRATOR: Is it possible that
when the reconstruction of the Garden Shaft
is completed several weeks from now,
the team will finally be
within reach of the legendary treasure
people have been looking for since 1795?
MARTY: What I’m really after,
and what the team is really after,
is what’s at the bottom of that shaft. (chuckles)
What is directly at the bottom?
What is five feet below the bottom?
What’s ten feet below the bottom?
What’s off to either side of it?
That’s what we want that shaft for,
’cause there are a lot of things that,
that point to that area being in the treasure zone.
SCOTT: Now, we-we’ve done a lot of work in the Money Pit area.
This area has our interest right now because
it seems no matter what we’re into in this area,
whether it’s wood or water or soil,
we’re getting gold.
I’ll let you know when I find it.
-(all laughing) -As long as you do.
NARRATOR: As the reconstruction of the Garden Shaft continues...
JACK: Oh, wow. There’s some sort of a feature here, too.
-LAIRD: It looks good, eh? -JACK: Yeah.
NARRATOR: ...in the northeast section
of the triangle-shaped swamp...
LAIRD: We’re looking for the edge there.
So it looks like it falls off.
...Rick Lagina, Craig Tester,
and other members of the team
are investigating another man-made feature
that they believe could help solve the Oak Island mystery.
Do those rocks seem to be in place pretty firmly?
These ones? Yes.
These ones are solid.
NARRATOR: After receiving the data
from a recent magnetometer survey
conducted by geoscientist Jeremy Church,
which identified a number of potential metallic anomalies,
the team drained the swamp and began excavating an area
in the northeastern region.
Although no metal objects have been found as of yet,
Rick and members of the team were stunned when they uncovered
a ramp of stones...
LAIRD: Do you see the white tops?
Yeah, that’s a lot of cobble.
...that they believe could be connected
to the so-called paved area--
a massive stone feature that was first uncovered in 2019
and which was scientifically dated to 1200 AD.
♪ ♪
-We’re starting to see some stuff. -LAIRD: Yeah.
It does have a nice, gentle slope, though, doesn’t it?
NARRATOR: Now, the team is hoping to find more clues
that will help determine not only the feature’s purpose
but also if it is related to something of great value.
RICK: We all have interest in the swamp
to lesser or greater degrees. (chuckles)
But we are very interested in conducting the work.
(grunts)
RICK: There’s every bit
of, certainly, logic and some sort of hope
that there’s some connectivity between the EM data
Jeremy has interpreted and this inclined rock feature.
I believe the swamp still has some answers.
It still has some significant reveals.
-Hey. -Hey, guys.
I’m gonna have to leave
-and go do some permitting work, but... -MIRIAM: Okay.
LAIRD: This is what they call the ramp.
It’s sloping slightly up to the stone path,
-which you know... -Okay.
-...way too intimately, right? -Yeah.
LAIRD: We have some nice consolidated rocks in here.
MIRIAM: Yeah.
Craig’s finding some evidence of disturbance in here.
-CRAIG: Yeah. -MIRIAM: Okay.
All right. Good luck, guys.
I’m still on the structure right now,
even though I’m under the mud, I’m on firm ground,
and there’s rocks at a slope right here, so it keeps going.
MIRIAM: This definitely needs to be cleared off
before we can do any sort of actual excavation.
So it would be great if we could take all of this off
-and actually get a good look at it. -RICK: Mm-hmm.
I agree with you.
Until we get down, eyes and boots,
hands and knees, we’re not gonna really
understand it.
Okay. Let’s keep digging.
CRAIG: Okay, sounds good.
NARRATOR: While operations continue
in the Money Pit area and in the swamp...
GARY: Love it. Back on Lot 5.
JACK: Oh, yeah.
NARRATOR: ...Jack Begley has joined
metal detection expert Gary Drayton
at Lot 5 on the western side of the island.
Let’s find everything we can.
All right, mate, you ready to dig some history up?
JACK (chuckles): Always.
-(musical beep) -GARY: Okay, mate.
NARRATOR: This year, after purchasing Lot 5,
Rick, Marty and the team
quickly made some of the most historic finds
in the history of the Oak Island treasure hunt.
These include a stone structure
that may date back to the same era
as the Garden Shaft,
tools that may be more than four centuries old,
and half of a Roman coin
that has been dated to as early as 300 BC.
GARY: Bit of a choppy signal, but...
MARTY: I think it’s beyond question that the acquisition
of Lot 5 was a wise thing for the fellowship.
Gary’s finding artifact after artifact.
It has already,
during the short period we’ve owned it,
produced definitely some of
the oldest finds on Oak Island.
-It’s a big old square nail. -Yeah.
This one would be maybe late 1700s.
MARTY: Lot 5 could maybe
fill in a piece of the puzzle
as to where the people were who built the Money Pit.
Maybe they were on Lot 5.
Those dots have certainly not been connected yet.
That’s why we need to keep looking.
All right, next target we ain’t got to go very far for.
Thanks.
(both chuckling)
(intermittent beeping)
So yeah. Just dig a hole, mate.
JACK: Mm-hmm.
GARY: Dang. You’re a beast, mate.
(grunts)
(sniffles)
♪ ♪
JACK: It’s still in there.
Try and find it.
(beeping rapidly)
It’s in my hand.
Let’s see what we’ve got.
(steady beeping)
(gasps)
(laughing)
GARY: What have we got, mate?
-That looks like an old coin. -Yeah. You see that?
That nice and round shape?
Please, please, please, be a coin.
I’m gonna pull it out.
Look how round it is.
Ooh...
It’s lead.
NARRATOR: On Lot 5 on the western side of Oak Island,
Gary Drayton and Jack Begley have just unearthed
a potentially important artifact.
Well, it’s so ornate for lead.
GARY: Yeah, it’s got a scalloped edge.
That is really, really unusual, mate.
-Can I see it? -That is unusual.
(blows)
GARY: It’s nice and heavy, isn’t it?
-JACK: Oh, yeah. -GARY: But why would anyone
make something like that?
Now, it could be like a token, mate.
That is nice.
I mean, I’ve found tokens
that go all the way back to Roman days.
I’ve actually found Roman tokens.
And we have found a Roman coin right here on Lot 5 behind us.
JACK: Mm-hmm.
NARRATOR: A possible lead token
found on Lot 5?
Originating more than 2,000 years ago in Ancient Rome,
trade tokens were coin-like objects
made with various kinds of metal and even nonmetallic materials
that were issued by private entities
rather than official governments to be used
in place of sanctioned currency.
Although many cultures have issued their own forms
of trade tokens throughout history...
Now we’re adding to the lead database
’cause this is special.
NARRATOR: ...could Gary Drayton be correct
that this believed trade token is related to the Roman coin
found on Lot 5 earlier this year?
But if so, who brought them to Oak Island?
Whenever we find lead, mate, I get excited
’cause sometimes you get some pretty amazing results.
And I like the rare, unique finds
-because they tell us more information. -Yeah.
I say we take this back to the lab
and get the archaeologists
checking this out and working on it.
JACK: I agree.
GARY: All right, mate.
This could be a very important artifact.
NARRATOR: Following their discovery on Lot 5...
-GARY: Gentlemen. -LAIRD: Hey.
-RICK: Hey. -GARY: Hi, chaps.
Back from Lot 5
with another find.
Smiles round the table.
Yeah, wait till you see this.
NARRATOR: ...Gary and Jack meet with Rick Lagina,
Craig Tester and archaeologist Laird Niven
in the interpretive center.
Okay, let’s see it.
Yeah, this is a nice piece of lead.
-RICK: Mm. -GARY: And we’ve never seen it before.
-Highly decorated... -Oh.
GARY: ...scalloped around the edges.
JACK: It looks like there’s two holes punched through.
Seems to be two holes, and it’s brittle, too.
-JACK: Yeah. -It’s an old piece.
Yeah.
LAIRD: Fancy design here, but nothing...
-seemingly on the face, right? -JACK: Yeah.
And you’re certain that’s intentional?
The scalloping?
Yeah, definitely intentional.
-Would have been molded, right? -Yeah.
Poured into a mold, I would expect.
GARY: Yeah, we thought maybe it could be a token.
But, why put all that fancy design around it?
LAIRD: No, that bears looking into, for sure.
And I know it’s made of lead, mate,
but can we do any scans on it?
LAIRD: Yeah, so we can clean it gently,
see if there’s anything we can bring out on it.
And then I would think XRF.
Yeah.
NARRATOR: After Laird cleans the artifact
in order to determine its composition...
-Can I take a look? -Yes.
NARRATOR: ...he will perform an extensive 24-hour scan of it
using the team’s X-ray fluorescence device.
By emitting nondestructive radiation,
the XRF machine can identify the elements
that are present in the object.
This object has the potential to be quite revealing.
It’s singularly unique--
we’ve not seen this item before.
But we need to continue to persevere
in trying to understand what this is.
There’s only one thing left to do.
That’s to go find more
-on a very promising Lot 5. -Yeah.
-RICK: Let’s go. -JACK: Go find more, yeah.
-LAIRD: See you later. -GARY: See you later, guys.
♪ ♪
NARRATOR: The next morning...
COTE: Going down.
NARRATOR: ...as the reconstruction
of the Garden Shaft continues...
RICK: So everybody around the table
knows how important I think research is.
NARRATOR: Rick and Marty Lagina
have assembled members of the team
in the war room for a meeting with researchers Judi Rudebusch
and Emiliano Sacchetti.
Welcome you both.
I think I’m gonna find
today’s information highly, highly relevant.
NARRATOR: In light of recent discoveries made on the island,
such as the stone ramp
that may be related to the 12th century paved area
in the swamp,
and the stunning artifacts from Lot 5...
Emiliano Sacchetti,
who really leads the team in Italy.
NARRATOR: ...Rick has arranged for Emiliano
to personally present new information,
which he believes
may be able to help explain their true origins.
Emiliano was tasked initially
with a very specific request,
and that was to look into Zena’s material,
i.e. the Cremona Document,
the deposition by Ralph de Sudeley
about his voyage to the New World.
NARRATOR: In 1970,
an astounding manuscript was discovered
in the archives of a medieval church
in the town of Cremona, Italy.
Consisting of maps, ciphers and journal entries,
the so-called Cremona Document is believed to have been created
in the late 12th century
by Ralph de Sudeley,
an esteemed leader of the Knights Templar.
According to his firsthand testimony,
de Sudeley and others in the Christian military order
discovered priceless religious treasures
in Jerusalem during the Crusades,
including the golden menorah
from King Solomon’s original temple
and the Holy Grail
that were then smuggled to Seborga, Italy,
before some of them were eventually transported
across the Atlantic Ocean to the New World.
To that point, Emiliano, Judi,
if you want to take over,
really look forward to the day.
So I will try to
tell you about the last six months,
seven months of research
we carried out.
You know, of course,
I read the Cremona Document, um...
Seborga was an important principality.
-Mm-hmm. -EMILIANO: Not on the sea.
It’s up in the hill on a border with France.
DOUG: It wasn’t far off to the Templars’
-pilgrimage route, though. -EMILIANO: No, it was not.
It was right on that route.
I think that it was
not unlikely that Templars brought back relics
from the Holy Land.
-MARTY: Yeah. -ALEX: Mm-hmm.
-Yeah. -JUDI: Well, in the story,
Ralph de Sudeley comes to America.
EMILIANO: Oh, definitely.
What I think is that the Templars,
they had access to information
from meeting voyagers, sailors, and meeting people,
listening to, you know, travel voyages.
And they had probably also the interest
to sail across the Atlantic to North America.
DOUG: The Cremona Document does say
during their trip here to the New World,
they stopped at an island of oak.
If the Templars came over to the New World,
I’d say it’s, you know, this would be probably where
one of the places they stopped.
But that happened 1178.
Templars’ histories has 150 years more.
In the beginning of the 14th century,
Templars in that very time were fleeing Europe--
because the France king witch hunt--
were able to once again sail across the Atlantic.
NARRATOR: In 1307,
after more than 150 years of serving the Catholic Church,
Pope Clement V conspired with King Philip IV
to disband and persecute the Templar Order.
Although the charge was heresy,
many believe the true reason for the betrayal
centered on an attempt to seize their holy treasures.
Many knights were arrested,
tortured and executed.
However, it is believed that some escaped
and fled with the remains of their vast treasure
to various European nations,
including Portugal,
Scotland, England, and Italy,
before possibly returning to North America.
Templars had a massive amount of money that went missing
-around their fall. -Yeah.
And if they did sail across
the Atlantic Ocean over to America,
what would the point have been?
Were they taking
that treasure as far away from Europe as they could,
all those religious treasures,
and transport them across the Atlantic
and deposit them here?
Right.
ALEX: That kind of reinforces the idea
that maybe the Templars did this, right?
Because if they were fleeing,
then all of a sudden the idea that you’re going somewhere
is not as scary ’cause you can’t go back.
Yeah.
EMILIANO: If this is true,
we have two Templar voyages to America
between the 11th and the 14th century--
about 150 years before Columbus.
♪ ♪
MARTY: Fantastic.
EMILIANO: If this is true,
we have two Templar voyages
to America between the 11th and the 14th century.
150 years before Columbus.
NARRATOR: In the war room,
Italian researcher Emiliano Sacchetti
has just presented Rick, Marty,
Craig and members of the team information suggesting
that the medieval order of the Knights Templar
may have made multiple journeys
to Oak Island for the purpose of hiding
their accumulated treasures.
So until now, there was no evidence that anyone--
outside Scandinavian people--
knew about America before Columbus.
-Mm-hmm. -EMILIANO: I say until now
because last summer,
an Italian professor managed to find
a manuscript.
A manuscript that is dated 1340
and was written by
a Milanese friar called Galvano Fiamma.
According to the manuscript,
in the beginning of the 14th century,
150 years before Columbus voyage,
people knew about America.
The manuscript contains maps as well.
Does the manuscript have a name?
Yeah, it’s called Cronica Universalis.
So what I asked myself is,
where the author found the information about this?
So he managed to find
one of the greatest cartographer of that era,
John of Carignano, who was in touch
with sailors, with merchants, with clerics,
with pilgrims,
even Templars because he was there.
So what we can conclude
is that the Italians and the Templars
knew about America way before Columbus.
You’re quite sure, though, that
the capability in terms of the ships and the knowledge
of the Americas was known...
-Yeah. -...long before
conventional historians agree?
Well, this again is an ongoing work
and I really hope that we can bring
more evidences in the next few months.
We have immense respect for what Zena helped bring to the fore.
And I mean, she would be--
Judi, she would be ecstatic about that find, correct?
Pre-Columbian voyages to the New World.
-That was her-- -That was her, that was her first love.
RICK: I do believe that on the island
work was done at different times, but to one agenda.
Because we have carbon dates from late 1100s, early 1200s,
up to the 1600s, 1700s.
The work could have been done in, in stages.
But if this thing becomes proven,
would sort of have a worldwide impact.
I am quoting the exact word of this professor when I say
that he refers to this manuscript as, uh...
...the source of an astonishing revelation.
NARRATOR: Is it really possible
that members of the Knights Templar
were behind the Oak Island mystery?
Could that explain some of the ancient discoveries
that the team has made,
like the 12th century paved area in the swamp,
the Roman half coin, or the 14th century lead cross?
If so, then just what might be the source
of all the high trace evidence of gold
that has been detected deep in the Money Pit area?
My next move is to fly to Milan
and try to take a look at this manuscript.
And then another good news is that...
...I just received confirmation
that I am admitted into the Vatican archives.
Can you imagine what that will bring to our research?
-Mm-hmm. -Per year.
♪ ♪
It’s a fabulously unique opportunity.
I think Zena Halpern, in particular,
would have been ecstatic,
over-the-top giddy with that information
because the focus of her work
was pre-Columbian voyages to the New World.
We need to continue to pursue
not only that work but all the research activities
we are currently conducting.
There is certainly information out there,
and we couldn’t move this forward without you.
So thank you very much.
Thank you, guys.
-You’re welcome. -(overlapping chatter)
Thanks for the information.
Thanks for the hard work.
We look forward to more discoveries.
RICK: Really appreciate it.
Thank you.
NARRATOR: Later that afternoon...
LAIRD: Here it is.
All right, here we be.
Yeah.
NARRATOR: ...Rick, Marty, and Alex Lagina
had been asked to join
Laird Niven on Lot 5, near the area
where the lead token and the Roman coin were found.
Here, they will inspect a mysterious structure
that Laird recalls being shown nearly two decades ago
by the late Robert Young,
who was the property’s previous owner.
What is this, Laird?
LAIRD: So I got a call from Robert Young
over 20 years ago to come out and look at Lot 5,
and he did show me this,
but I thought it was something like the cellar for a barn.
-Oh. -Hmm.
MARTY: It’s almost perfectly circular.
LAIRD: I know. (chuckles)
NARRATOR: Although little is known
about the history of Lot 5,
it was used as farmland in the early 19th century,
shortly after the discovery of the Money Pit in 1795.
In 1996, Robert Young purchased it from his friend Fred Nolan,
and over the following two decades,
he reported finding a number of historic artifacts,
including 14th century coins, before his passing in 2020.
Is it possible that this circular stone feature
was simply created by 19th century homesteaders?
Or might it predate the discovery of the Money Pit
and perhaps be related to the other ancient discoveries
recently made in this area?
We do know that Robert Young found quite a bit of things,
quite a bit of significant items
on Lot 5.
But I thought he would have picked it cleaner than he did.
There seems to be a lot of stuff left.
And Lot 5 could be...
it could be a piece of the puzzle that we were missing.
Well, that brings us to the obvious question--
what happened on this lot?
LAIRD: The first record we have,
I think Allen said, was 1819.
We’ve often been puzzled by the inconsistency
between massive works over here
and no evidence of the people who did it.
Maybe this lot will give us some of those answers.
RICK: It’s a unique structure found on a lot that has
presented all kinds of unique finds.
We have found artifacts
that predate the discovery of the Money Pit
by half a century or more.
This possibly could be depositional work.
MARTY: Are you gonna do a pit in here?
-Oh, yeah, absolutely. -MARTY: Okay.
Yeah, we can do that.
If nothing else, just cut it a section,
see if we can determine what it used to be.
MARTY: Right. I think this lot still has some secrets--
relevant secrets.
Does it have anything to do with the activities
on the eastern drumlin and the Money Pit?
Hopefully we’re gonna find out.
-MARTY: We’ll get after it. -LAIRD: Time to get to work.
NARRATOR: As a new day begins on Oak Island...
-RONNIE: Hello, Rick. -RICK: Hey.
-RONNIE: How are you doing today, buddy? -Good, you?
-Oh, you got the whole gang with you. -You bet.
-Good to see you again. -CRAIG: Good to see you.
NARRATOR: Rick Lagina, Craig Tester
and Oak Island operations manager Scott Barlow
arrive at the Money Pit area
for an update on the reconstruction
of the Garden Shaft.
-How’s work going? -Good, we found something this morning
-you guys might be interested in. -Oh, yeah?
-You want to go grab it for him? -Yeah, sure.
Crane operator got ahold of us,
and he had a chunk of wood in there,
and we went over and took a look at it.
Looks like it might be a barrel or something.
-Oh, nice. -Oh, really?
Round-shaped barrel.
Really?
Here, Rick.
SCOTT: Oh, nice.
RICK: Yeah, wow. Barrel hoop.
So it’s actually the band? Yeah, I thought you meant
he has a couple of staves.
Yeah.
You guys find anything like that before?
-No. -No, we’ve found barrel staves.
We’ve never found hoops.
Okay.
Especially wooden ones.
BERTRAND: Yeah, this is wood. Yeah.
RICK: But that’s a big barrel.
You’re talking about... something that size.
It could be.
What’s that doing down that hole?
You know, I remember a couple of years ago,
we took a couple of the tops of casks
from the swamp to Carmen,
and they were fairly old, too.
RONNIE: Interesting, right?
Very much so.
RICK: Hey, look at that. Cask.
NARRATOR: Two years ago...
GARY: Oh, that’s what that is, mate.
Bottom of a keg.
NARRATOR: While investigating near the stone road
or possible ship’s wharf, in the swamp...
IAN: Holy crow. That’s very important.
NARRATOR: ...Rick and other members of the team
found pieces of wooden cargo barrels.
And when blacksmithing expert
Carmen Legge examined them,
he believed they could predate the discovery
of the Money Pit by four centuries.
It’s very cool. Very cool.
NARRATOR: Is it possible that this barrel hoop,
found nearly 70 feet deep in the Garden Shaft,
could be as old as those found in the swamp?
Or, perhaps, even older?
RONNIE: Probably be happy in the next couple of buckets,
if we find the other half of that, eh?
-Yeah. -NARRATOR: If so,
what kind of cargo
did it once contain,
and is it still waiting to be found
deeper within the structure?
RICK: We’ve found tops of kegs,
we’ve found barrel staves.
However, this being found in the Money Pit
is most interesting.
RICK: What-what do you think?
-Carbon dating? -Yeah.
SCOTT: Did you... did you notice
any of the staves come out? Was, uh, I wonder...
-No, no, that’s-that’s all we got, yeah. -SCOTT: Just-just this?
But now, it’s all the more important to keep an eye
because there might be something deeper.
He’s always keeping an eye.
Any piece of wood there,
he’s got us running up there.
Good. Great find, though.
RICK: Very interesting.
SCOTT: It’s a great find.
Yeah. You’re the eyes and boots of that operation.
You see something, please,
let us know.
-We will. -For sure, yeah.
RICK: All righty, thank you very much.
SCOTT: Nice job, guys.
NARRATOR: As the reconstruction
of the Garden Shaft
continues in the Money Pit area...
CRAIG: Well, I think we’re ready to take the next step here.
NARRATOR: ...Craig Tester arrives
in the northeastern region of the swamp
with Jack Begley,
Gary Drayton, Laird Niven,
and Billy Gerhardt.
CRAIG: We know out just a little bit is where
the paved area was uncovered,
so, you know,
this may be part of the ramp.
And then, as we’re pulling this way,
hopefully we find a boundary.
If you can find artifacts,
that’d be fantastic.
-That’s ideal. -CRAIG: Yes.
The great news is that the paved area
seems to be rather large.
GARY: I bought plenty of bags
with me today. I’m expecting a good day.
Okay.
-A lot going on, so let’s get after it. -Yep.
NARRATOR: They are eager to continue their investigation
of the stone ramp that was discovered one week ago,
and which the team believes may be connected
to the 800-year-old stone paved area.
RICK: We think we found the ramp area,
which is an inclined rock feature
that led from the paved area,
towards, at least, the stone path.
I guess we’re going to really hear it
before we see it, aren’t we?
-The rocks? Yeah. -Yeah. When it comes down.
RICK: Preliminarily, if one had to make an assessment,
you could say there’s
a direct correlation between the paved area
and the stone path
vis a vis this ramp,
and maybe it leads to the Money Pit,
but we need to expose it further.
CRAIG: If it is a ramp leading up to
the stone path,
that’d be amazing.
Yeah.
RICK: Hey, guys.
LAIRD: Hey, Rick.
What’s up?
We’re starting to see rocks now.
Okay.
LAIRD: Ooh.
JACK: Oh. Is that a piece of wood?
JACK: Hey, this is cut.
JACK: This is cut.
Doesn’t this look like a saw edge?
NARRATOR: While investigating
the mysterious stone ramp
in the northeast section of the swamp,
Jack Begley has just discovered
a curious and potentially important clue.
It’s sawed. I agree with you.
Definitely hand-sawed.
NARRATOR: A possibly hand-cut piece of wood?
Over the past five years, the team has found
not only pieces of believed cargo barrels,
but also wooden fragments of large sailing vessels.
Is it possible that Jack Begley
has just found another clue on the stone ramp,
and near the 800-year-old paved area
that could help the team determine
why they were constructed?
CRAIG: Any time we’re finding wood,
we’re constantly looking for pieces
that we might be able to date.
Cut pieces of wood.
What is it cut with? Is it an axe?
Is it a saw?
Saw cuts are quite straight.
That usually tells us it’s an older method.
What ancient story does it fit into?
That’s what we’re here for. We’re here to find out
what actually was going on.
We’re excited and we hope that we can find answers here.
JACK: That looks like C-horizon.
RICK: There it is.
Just C-horizon.
Yep.
CRAIG: Well...
RICK: I think we’ve got the border there.
-CRAIG: Yeah. -RICK: Actually, I think
we’ve learned as much as we’re going to learn.
Yeah, I do, too.
NARRATOR: Because the team believes
that they have reached the C-horizon,
or the natural layer of ground soil,
it appears they have found the border
of this section of the mysterious stone ramp feature.
I don’t see any paved area here.
I think we need to go...
-Yeah. -CRAIG: So that we can try following
the one area we did find,
whether it’s a ramp or not, follow it up that way.
GARY: I agree.
Might as well move.
We keep following that ramp.
The swamp is an incredibly difficult
environment to work in,
but you have to be patient with, uh,
with all the excavation work in the swamp.
Follow the process, let it run out,
and then, hopefully, at some point, we will find it.
-So, I think fill this hole back in. -Yeah.
CRAIG: We’ll call this area for now.
RICK: Okay.
NARRATOR: Later that afternoon,
while operations continue in the Garden Shaft...
We’re gaining, though.
RON: That’s gaining.
MARTY: So, we’ve got some more information,
-I guess? -RICK: Yep.
NARRATOR: Rick and Marty Lagina,
along with Craig Tester and Jack Begley,
meet in the interpretive center
with archaeometallurgist Emma Culligan.
CRAIG: This is what they found on Lot 5.
So, what do you think it is?
CRAIG: I mean, we don’t think it’s a button.
It’s got holes in it, but they’re not centered.
Gary was thinking gold coin, wasn’t he?
JACK: We thought token.
MARTY: I’m just wondering
if it’s really old, corroded away.
Emma’s got more information.
-Okay. -CRAIG: That’s what
we are understanding, so...
NARRATOR: Now that Emma has completed
an extended X-ray fluorescence scan
of the mysterious lead disk
that was found two days ago on Lot 5,
she is prepared to share her preliminary analysis
on the object’s content and potential geographic origin.
MARTY: Let’s let the machine speak.
-RICK: Emma? -Hello.
-What have you got? -MARTY: What you got, Emma?
EMMA: So, you’ll see two different tones.
There’s a white layer... A light layer, and a dark layer.
JACK: Oh.
EMMA: So I did two long point scans
on each of those layers,
and what came out was that the light layer
is about 99.96% lead,
pretty pure, with a .02% copper and iron.
The dark layer does have some iron content,
about .41% and about .4% copper
and .2% silicone.
But both those leads
are naturally occurring leads, like you can ore them.
So, that one is of interest because
you don’t see something like that.
It gained my curiosity even further.
So I did an XRD scan afterwards.
The initial mineral that I found that it matched to
is a sample found in the mines of Iran.
But when it matches a sample,
it doesn’t necessarily mean it comes from that exact mine,
but anything that lies on
the same geological belt,
which goes across Italy,
near France, Spain.
So there is a sample off the coast of Italy,
and it’s matching those results.
So this comes from somewhere in that region.
EMMA: So this comes from the mines of Iran
or Sardinia, off the coast of Italy.
NARRATOR: In the Oak Island Interpretive Centre,
archaeometallurgist Emma Culligan
has just shared an astonishing scientific report with the team.
The lead artifact
discovered two days ago on Lot 5
may have originated in the Middle East
or several regions of Europe, including Italy.
Nothing like that exists in the North American continent?
No, it doesn’t occur in North America.
MARTY: What about age?
Shed any light on that?
EMMA: It’s hard to date this lead.
Um, it’s really pure,
-so it can be old. -Mm-hmm.
But the fact that I am getting a hit from Sardinia,
which, you know, there is Roman mines there.
NARRATOR: Is it possible that
the lead artifact discovered on Lot 5
could have originated in Italy?
If so, could it be related to the Roman coin
that was found earlier this year,
and also support the belief
of researchers such as Zena Halpern
and Emiliano Sacchetti
that members of the Knights Templar
were connected to the Oak Island mystery?
The fact that this type of ore
stretches across, uh, Southern Europe,
it’s the trail of the Templars.
Could this artifact be associated with that?
It could,
but there’s a lot of work to do yet
before you make that statement.
But it is on the trail of the Templars.
So, once again, we have an unknown item
coming from places it shouldn’t come from. How’s that?
Yeah. (laughs)
Based on where it was found, we think it’s very old.
Appearance and shape might mean something to somebody.
-Mm-hmm. -MARTY: So we get it out there.
Somebody’s going to know what that is.
-MARTY: Yeah, I would think so. -There’s no question about it.
MARTY: I’m keenly interested in this.
It has scalloped edges,
and it has a peculiar shape,
and it has peculiar holes in the center of it.
So our hope is that it might be rather significant.
Okay, so we dig the heck out of Lot 5.
-Agreed. -So, look, I’ll follow up
on all this, and as soon as
any data at all comes in, I’ll let everybody know.
Okay, let’s get that done.
Emma, thank you very much.
MARTY: Thank you, Emma. Stay on it.
EMMA: All right.
NARRATOR: At the end of another successful week on Oak Island,
Rick, Marty, Craig and their team
are more encouraged than ever
that the discoveries they continue to unearth
may soon reveal the answers
to a 228-year-old mystery.
But as they dig deeper,
could they actually be closing in
on a treasure of biblical proportions?
Perhaps it’s just a matter of time,
and their ability to avoid a deadly curse,
that will tell.
NARRATOR: Next time on The Curse of Oak Island...
ALEX: Wow.
-We’re at 13 feet across. -LAIRD: Wow.
ALEX: That is the exact same dimension
as the Money Pit.
To me, it changes everything.
-Oh, look at that. -Oh, look at that.
That’s nice. Fantastic!
That’s got to be the oldest metal artifact
ever to come out the swamp.
It’s the oldest I’ve seen in Nova Scotia.
It’s Roman from 5th century.
JACK: Oh, no way.
-How sure are you of this? -I’m 100% sure.
-Wow. -Wow.
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