[Narrator] Tonight on The Curse of Oak Island...
[Charles] Looks like we're getting started.
-Oh, yeah, we're spinning off. -[Charles] We're due
-for a little good karma. Yeah. -We are.
We just have to find that one thing.
-[Gary] We got a signal. -Hey, hey.
[Gary] I should be able to pinpoint it. Ooh! Look at that.
-See if you recognize this. -[Marty] Wow.
That might have been an individual with Masonic ties.
Yes. Well, that is extraordinarily cool.
All right, here we go. It's time to lift that rock.
-[Doug] Absolutely. -[Marty] There it goes.
-[Rick] Wow. -[Marty] Look at that.
-Yeah! -[laughs]
[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.
♪ ♪
[Marty] Okay, this isn't such good news, Rick.
It's not a happy thing.
We just got going on TPF-1.
A lot of pomp and circumstance, the team all energized.
-Yeah. Yeah. -And we are at about 25 feet,
and we're stuck.
[Narrator] Before a new day of exploration
can begin on Oak Island, brothers Rick and Marty Lagina,
their partner Craig Tester and Scott Barlow
meet to discuss a shocking setback
that has occurred in the Money Pit area.
If you notice, this is our current canister.
And it is digging into fill rock.
-And we got stuck at 25 feet. -[Craig] Yeah.
They can't pull it up, they can't push down.
The auger, of course, can go in and out,
-but the cans itself won't move. -Yup.
All right. Start her up!
-Let's find some treasure, boys! -[whooping]
[Narrator] Just one day ago,
the teams from Soletanche Bachy Canada
and ROC Equipment began a new excavation method
using a seven-foot-diameter auger
in the hopes of rapidly installing a steel shaft,
known as Top Pocket Find.
It was at that location where soil samples collected
from more than 200 feet deep in the solution channel
during the team's core drilling operation
revealed high traces of silver.
But after encountering gravel some 25 feet deep
that was used to backfill one of the team's previous
and much more shallow excavations,
the drilling rig was unable
to advance the steel caissons deeper into the ground.
And while ROC Equipment's massive rotating oscillator
could be used to continue the dig,
parts needed to operate it won't arrive
on the island for two more days.
So, we have to decide what to do.
-Yup. -[Craig] Well, to save days,
we'd just move over here and go ahead and drill
one that had very little backfill.
[Scott] Yes. To me, it's a really good area because
the 1850s drill casing that we brought up.
H.5-8.5.
-That's right there. -[Craig] Well, we theorized
-that that core barrel could've -Core barrel. Yeah.
-brought up that coin. -That's right.
It was from the correct time period when they knew
-where the Money Pit was. -Yeah.
I just think that's a really good location.
[Narrator] Earlier this year,
while drilling borehole H.5-8.5
to explore the solution channel for signs of treasure,
at 178 feet deep,
the team recovered a piece of old drill pipe
that may be connected to a drilling operation
by the Truro Company in 1849.
That is when a 14th century Portuguese silver coin
linked to the Knights Templar
was reportedly recovered from the original Money Pit
by drilling foreman James Pitblado.
The new hole location is one of the holes that we picked.
And it's in the area that still has very elevated amounts
of silver and some other metals in it.
We know we're definitely gonna go back to Top Pocket Find,
but we need to make some holes and get down
to the bottom of the solution channel out here,
and we don't want to wait around
so, we're gonna dig this one.
You know what? Maybe it's karma.
-You know? Yeah. -It's really over here.
-[laughs] Fine. -Well, not only that, but
maybe we only need one hole.
And maybe karma's saying, "You know what?
-It's not here. It's here." -[Scott] Maybe that's the name
-for a new caisson. -[Marty] Karma.
-Karma-1. -[Marty] Karma-1.
Nice joint effort, guys. Excellent.
-Teamwork. -Teamwork.
-Makes the dream work. -[laughter]
In a worst-case scenario, or a very negative situation,
you've got to look at the upside.
Maybe it's good karma.
Maybe we are forced to move to this location.
This area still has precious metals in the water
and might contain some secrets.
Okay, well, I guess it's time to go up there and make it so.
-Yeah. -[Rick] Yeah.
-[Marty] Karma-1. -[Rick] Let's go.
[Narrator] Later that morning,
as the teams from SB Canada
and ROC Equipment reposition equipment
to the new digging location known as Karma-1...
[Craig] Is he working his way back this way?
-[Tom] Yeah. -[Craig] Okay.
[Tom] The cobble is so tricky.
Where we are now, I mean,
we're sort of on the perimeter of it here.
[Narrator] ...Craig joins Tom Nolan
and other members of the team on Tom's property
in the northern region of the swamp,
as they continue to investigate a cobblestone pathway.
I know Steve's been surveying,
marking all the stakes as they've come up,
so it'll be interesting to see what Steve has on his map.
Yeah, everything we've found,
be it a stake or the cobble, he's pinned it.
And you want to just continue working your way around here?
We're just going to do a continuous loop
right over to where we left off on the other side.
-Okay. -Yup.
Okay, sounds good.
[Narrator] After uncovering numerous sections
of the cobblestone path throughout the swamp
that have been lined
with eight-sided wooden survey stakes,
the team is hoping to find clues
that may help determine if it is related
to other mysterious structures in the swamp,
such as an empty brick and slate vault,
the potentially 16th century stone road
in the southeast corner, which may be of Portuguese origin
and the massive, paved area near the center
that could be as much as 800 years old.
[Rick] We have a multiple number of carbon dates from the bog
that lend credence to the belief that people
were here doing something in the 1200s and the 1600s.
Possibly Knights Templar, the Knights of Malta,
but are they the ones?
Are they the who? We don't know that yet.
Maybe there'll be some answers as the work proceeds.
Is that a stake?
[Gary] It looks like a stake, Al.
[Alex] Where were you digging, Al?
Just right behind me.
-Close to the road? -Uh,
no, I think I got that closer
-to my track here. Yeah. -Okay.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.
Yeah, definitely one of those stakes.
Eight-sided, as well.
-Is it really? -[Craig] No kidding.
I'll pass it down to you guys.
[Gary] No mistaken that. That looks like an oldie.
No, that's... that's the same stake
we've been finding over and over again in the bog.
Seems to be right along the edge of the swamp.
[Gary] And normally when we find these
old stakes, we find cobbles in the area.
[Tom] Yeah. They're connected.
[Alex] Should we survey that in?
-Yeah, I would think so. -I think we should.
Yeah. Let's do that then.
I'll text Steve and let him know
that we need that surveyed so that we can continue.
-[Craig] Okay, guys. -Yes.
[Narrator] Due to the potential historic importance
of the eight-sided survey stakes,
the team has Steve Guptil record their precise locations
to help determine if they bear any correlation
with other features on the island,
in addition to the cobbled path.
[Alex] We're getting close to having uncovered most,
if not all, of the north side of the swamp.
And one of the major finds that sticks out is
this... this row of stakes.
[Gary] Here we go. Artifacts.
[Alex] To me, it's the alignment more than anything.
You know, it's the combination of all these individual stakes
that's gonna point the direction
that we need to take the treasure hunt.
-We got a signal! -Hey.
[beeping]
-Al! -[Gary] We got a signal.
-[beeping continues] -[turns off engine]
Nonferrous signal
-in that last load. -Hey.
[Gary] I should be able to pinpoint it.
Let's see what it is.
Let's see if it's trash or if it's treasure.
-[beep] -There it is.
[beeping]
Got it in my hand.
Oh-ho, what have we got here?
Wow.
[Gary] Ooh. I think it's lead, and
I see things on there. Do you see some kind of design?
[Alex] It does look like it has markings.
[Gary] Almost like a crest or a coat of arms on there.
-Mm-hmm. -Maybe some
kind of coin or token.
[Narrator] In the northern region of the swamp...
Guys, check this out, what we've just found up here.
I wonder what he's come up with.
I don't know.
[Narrator] ...Gary has just discovered a curious
and potentially valuable artifact.
Check this out.
Alex and I believe we see a design on the front of it.
Sure does look like some kind of coin or token.
[Tom] There is a pattern on that.
[Craig] Yeah, I see a couple lines
that are shiny, little specks
making their way through this patina, if you will.
-What is it made of, Gary? -There was a low to mid tone.
First, I'm thinking lead,
but I believe it's some kind of copper alloy.
Or might be a mix-- we have found
some strange metals on the island.
Might be even pewter.
-Yeah, it's not very heavy. -No.
[Gary] It's a head scratcher, isn't it?
[Craig] Yeah, it is.
Just the edges of it remind you
of an old silver piece of Spanish coin.
-Yeah, the front of it's busy. -Mm.
The back is rounded, but it's soft.
So, what we're seeing is just material stuck to it.
That's a great sign then.
So, there's a chance this could be,
like, an old maravedi or some other coin.
-That's what I would-- -Yup.
Be my guess.
[Gary] I like the look of what we have uncovered.
We don't know what it is, but I know where it came from. Ooh!
This was bang on the deck
of the excavation in the swamp.
This has been there a very long time. It's encrusted.
I don't know
if it's a kind of seal.
It could be a button, but I'm hoping it's a coin.
I think we should get this back to the lab.
-[Gary] Yeah. -Get it back right away.
[Gary] Oh, I'm looking forward to seeing what this looks like.
[Narrator] As a new morning breaks on Oak Island...
[Charles] Looks like we're getting started, Peter.
[Peter] Oh, yeah, we're spinning off.
We're due for a little good karma.
We are. Yeah.
[Narrator] ...Peter Fornetti and Charles Barkhouse
oversee operations in the Money Pit area
as the Karma-1 caisson is about to break ground.
We have so many pieces of equipment here.
We have two different crane systems.
We have a front-end loader to move material.
But what I really like is the fact that
this year we have an auger, which,
as it's spinning, you can see the material come out.
It's really, really cool to see that in action.
[Narrator] In order to get down to the solution channel,
SB Canada and ROC Equipment are using the massive auger bit
to rapidly drive through soil,
hard clay or debris
and bring the spoils to the surface.
Once the Karma-1 shaft penetrates the solution channel
below a depth of approximately 160 feet,
the auger will be replaced by a giant dig bucket
that will safely collect any remaining spoils
and possible treasure.
We're moving over to the hopefully named Karma location.
It's not in a backfilled area,
so we don't have to worry about this rock
that caused the first one to seize up.
If it lives up to its name and the karma is good karma,
I hope it's one and done.
I hope we find something in the solution channel.
Anywhere between 170 and 220 I'm really excited about.
-Yeah. -I know
that we have 250 feet of casing,
so, if there's a deep target, we're going to get it.
We certainly are.
We've got all the tools here
to really go deep and hopefully find that one thing.
That you can put in my uncle's hand.
Well, you came here as a skeptic, right?
But you're starting to move over to our side.
You're coming from the dark side over to the light side.
[Peter] Based on what we're finding,
there's more evidence that
-work was done down here. -Yeah. Yeah.
We just have to find that one thing,
-and it might be this hole. -I'm looking forward
to seeing something come up out of there
and finally put this story to bed.
Yeah. Let's do it. Right here. Karma.
[Narrator] As the Karma-1 shaft descends
toward the solution channel...
[Marty] All right, guys. Today is the big day.
Big day, big boulder.
[Narrator] ...Rick, Marty and Craig are on their way
to Lot 8 on the western side of the island.
I have a question for each of you.
What's under it?
I'm thinking maybe a tunnel.
That would be absolutely fabulous.
Exciting as hell.
Well, let's go find out then, shall we?
It's time.
[Narrator] After weeks of patiently waiting,
they are about to remove a massive obstacle between them
and possible answers to the Oak Island mystery:
A 40,000-pound boulder.
While this feature has never been documented
by previous searchers,
over the past two months,
the team has been methodically
excavating around and beneath the boulder by hand
and discovered a series of evenly spaced stones
holding it in place,
as well as a backfilled void beneath it.
[Fiona] I'll show you, there's a really good spot.
[Peter] All right.
[Narrator] After inserting a camera into the narrow space
that was cleared under the boulder,
video evidence was recorded of a possible tool...
It's gold looking.
[Doug] It certainly is.
[Narrator] ...and even a gold-colored substance.
And soil samples recently collected beneath it
contained unnaturally high traces of lead.
We're seeing as high as 140 parts per million lead
in that organic matter underneath the boulder.
[Narrator] This has made Dr. Ian Spooner and the team
speculate that there may be an old mine shaft underground
that the boulder is concealing.
[Marty] Morning, team!
[all] Morning!
-[Marty] Are we excited? -Whoo!
-Absolutely. -We are emboldened!
-You've been working on that one, haven't you? -I have.
-[laughter] -What time is it,
-Marty? -It's time to lift that rock, Gary.
Oh, I can't wait to get stuck in.
[Narrator] Now archaeologist Laird Niven
has given the team permission to lift the boulder
using a 130-ton crane.
Here it comes, folks. Right there.
We're about to get this show on the road.
It's very exciting. I've been wanting to move
the Lot 8 boulder as soon as I heard about it.
Every scientist who has looked at it
says that this giant boulder
was moved into position.
Well, people don't do that even today for no reason.
Back in the day, it would've been a massive undertaking,
so it's very exciting as to why
this thing was placed there and what on earth is underneath it.
[Laird] All of a sudden, the chains don't look big enough.
[Jack] No, they don't.
[Rick] It's exciting. You can tell
there's a little bit of a buzz in the air that...
people are hopeful that once the rock comes up out of the ground
that there'll be an aha moment and you'll see something,
i.e. answers to the Oak Island mystery.
Here, in real time, we're gonna get an answer.
Is there something underneath it or not?
[Marty] All right.
-Okay. -We're gonna have liftoff.
[Scott] Everybody back up.
♪ ♪
-Here goes. -[Gary] Here we go.
[chuckles] Ooh. This is off the chain.
[shutter clicks]
[Marty] Look at that.
-[Fiona] Wow! -[Jack] No way.
-[Marty] Look at that. -[Alex] Nicely done.
-[Gary] Wow. -[Marty] Piece of cake. Big piece of cake.
[Fiona] Look how deep it was in that bottom.
[Narrator] On Lot 8, a crane has just lifted
the 40,000-pound boulder...
Okay. Let's go take a look.
...a boulder that the team suspects
may have been moved into place long ago
in order to hide something beneath it.
[Gary] The heck is going on under there?
Laird, you're up.
Initial observation is there's no sterile subsoil.
We're seeing organics
that were introduced somehow.
Um, and not naturally.
[Marty] 'Cause that dark soil's not supposed to be under it.
[Craig] Yeah. Looks like a filled hole.
Exactly.
[Alex] And we don't see any structures yet.
But that doesn't mean there's nothing down there.
There could be something much deeper under there.
-Absolutely. -Okay.
[Laird] The boulder's lifted out,
and it should be sitting in glacial soils
from 10,000 years ago,
when it was originally deposited naturally.
But all of those soils have been removed from under it.
It confirmed 100%
that that boulder was not in its original position.
-What time is it, Marty? -It's time to metal detect, Gary.
-Woo-hoo! -[chuckles]
Right. I'm gonna get stuck in.
[Laird] It's confounding to think about
who got that out, how they got it out.
All right, here we go.
I'll do this side first.
[Laird] And I think it reinforces
the theory that this was a coordinated effort
by a well-organized, large group of people
for whatever reason.
-Nothing. -[Gary] No.
Just not getting any metal hits.
-Not on the outside. -[Fiona] That doesn't really surprise me
either though, 'cause if somebody did this
and was wanting to hide it, you're really gonna be careful
about not dropping artifacts in there, too.
[Alex] Plus, we've excavated even some
1800s shafts in the Money Pit and there's no metal.
I mean, it's just wood all the way.
So, no metal hits doesn't mean
that there isn't something down there much deeper.
[Marty] The conjecture is the Lot 8 boulder
was placed for some reason.
Dr. Spooner is certain the metals in the soil
doesn't fit the soil composition as it should be.
[Billy] I think you can definitively say
it was worth moving 'cause there's all topsoil there.
-It doesn't make any sense. -[Marty] I absolutely think
there's a possibility that this boulder covered
something buried deeper, in terms of potential structures
or finds that could help us solve the overall mystery,
because it was done a very long time ago
for an important reason.
And we haven't figured that out yet.
I think the mystery continues.
It's possible we could've closed the door on it just now.
We could've picked this up and said, "Looks like it was
-in place naturally," but we didn't. -Exactly.
[Fiona] When it was being lifted, I did not see
any signs of any-any sort of,
um, mechanical equipment touching the underside.
So it's still a bit of a mystery
how they ever would have moved this in the first place.
Okay, well let's go to the next step,
which is sampling, correct?
And you guys got to do your thing
-real carefully, all that. -Cleaning up, yeah.
We're gonna clean up all the loose soils around the edge,
clean up the loose soils in the middle,
and see how far down it goes.
[Fiona] It could be much deeper than what we're seeing
-on the surface. -[Rick] I'm still very hopeful
-there's something under here. -Absolutely.
This could absolutely be the highlight
of this year's entire efforts.
There's no question about that.
So we just got to let the work proceed.
You guys do your thing and we'll come back.
-We'll keep you posted, too. -Yeah, okay. All right.
-If we find treasure, we'll let you know. -Okeydoke.
Let's let 'em get to work.
-[Alex] Okay. -[Marty] Gary. Yeah. -[Gary] Thanks.
[Narrator] As the investigation on Lot 8 continues...
...later that afternoon...
[Marty] So, now, you three found this artifact
in the north part of the swamp.
When we first found this artifact,
it had a big dome of dirt
-over the top. -[Alex] Yeah. We knew we could see
markings, but we didn't know what to make of it.
-Yeah. -...Marty, Craig, and other members of the team
join Laird and Emma in the lab
regarding the artifact that was found one day ago
near the cobblestone pathway.
We were hoping it was a coin, a token.
So what is it, Laird? Emma?
Well, I learned a new word today,
"exonumia."
-Ooh. -Which is
nongovernment-issued, uh, metals and tokens.
-So it's not a coin. It's a special item. -Yeah.
[Laird] Yeah. So this is one of the first
commemorative pieces made in the United States.
-Wow. -Really? -[Emma] Mm-hmm.
So now, see if you recognize this person.
[Marty] George Washington.
-Oh. -Yeah.
[Marty] Father of our country right there.
-[Alex] Yeah. -[Laird] That's right.
And if we flip around to the other side...
...it's actually an urn. It's a funerary urn.
-[Alex] Oh. -So this is a-a-a medal
from 1800 that commemorates
George Washington's death
on December 14, 1799.
-Well, that is extraordinarily cool. -[Alex] Yeah.
And the hole in the top is deliberate,
because these were meant to wear at a service
for George Washington...
-Wow. -...on February 22, 1800.
-So just unique just to that funeral? -Yeah.
And, interestingly, Washington was a Mason.
Right? This was designed by Jacob Perkins, who was a Mason.
That's really something.
[Narrator] Jacob Perkins of Newburyport, Massachusetts,
was an inventor who designed bank notes
and developed anti-counterfeiting techniques
for U.S. currency in the late 18th century.
He created the Washington Funeral Medal
to serve as a unique Masonic tribute
to President Washington,
who was also a well-known member of the Freemasons,
the secretive fraternity that many believe
descended from the Knights Templar.
It's extraordinary if you found it in Boston.
-Yeah. -Right? It's really extraordinary to find it here.
-[Alex] Yeah. -Yeah. They're rare.
I think it speaks to somebody of pretty high status.
I-I find that extraordinarily exciting.
-You do, too, don't you? I can tell by your-- Yeah. -Oh, yeah.
Yeah, it-it-- Well, it's like everything we find.
-It makes no sense. -But this--
[Alex] Well, this is-- this is the second president
that's actually tied to the Oak Island mystery.
Because there's FDR and there's George Washington.
And they were both Masons.
-Both those presidents. -For sure.
[Narrator] Ever since the discovery of the Money Pit
in 1795,
Freemasons such as Daniel McGinnis,
Melbourne Chappell,
and Franklin D. Roosevelt have either led or been involved
in nearly every organized treasure hunt on Oak Island.
And just as curious are the many Masonic symbols
that have been found across its 140 acres,
including a man-made feature in the northern region
of the triangle-shaped swamp that may represent
the All-Seeing Eye.
[Marty] I-I really like this.
I think this is really trying to tell some kind of story.
-Yeah. -Well, what's it doing here?
-I have no idea. -[Marty] Well, listen, I would be remiss
if I didn't get Big Brother over here.
So... hang on, let me text him.
Okay.
[Marty] "Something you need to see."
[laughter]
[Gary] Bloody amazing, isn't it?
[Marty] He'll be here in a minute, I think.
-[Alex] Hey. -Hello, Big Brother.
-[Craig] Hey, Rick. -So...
what-what secrets do we have today?
-[Craig] Here it is. -No secrets,
but a great story.
Who is that?
[Rick] Well, that's Washington.
-Yep. -It sure as heck is.
[Narrator] In the Oak Island lab,
Rick joins the team to see the Masonic funerary medal
bearing the likeness of George Washington.
[Laird] So, it's an 1800 medal
commemorating George Washington's death
in 1799.
Really?
Found here, on Oak Island, in the swamp.
Hmm.
[Marty] This almost has to be
somebody very much associated with George Washington.
That might have been an individual with Masonic ties.
[Marty] Yes. It fits in
with one of my pet theories.
[Doug] Yeah. Somehow, Oak Island
-was associated with revenues... -Yeah.
-...to fund the American Revolution, right? -Right.
[Cort over Skype] We know Freemasons,
who were Knights Templar,
that they had a hand in the creation
-of the United States. -Yeah.
[Narrator] In 2018,
author and researcher Cort Lindahl,
along with his brother Bruce,
presented the team with this compelling theory.
Louis Alexandre Rochefoucauld,
in his friendship with Benjamin Franklin
and Thomas Jefferson, may have actually told them
of Oak Island or whatever secret was there.
[Narrator] It was Cort's belief that secret knowledge
or Templar treasures on Oak Island
was given to General George Washington
and other leaders of the American Revolution
by a member of the Rochefoucauld family,
a family of French nobles with ties to the Knights Templar
dating back to the 12th century.
[Bruce] They could have had part of the treasure
from Oak Island as a way to finance the war
and help establish the new country.
[Marty] Holy smokes.
Watch your step. This stuff is slippery.
[Narrator] Following their meeting,
Bruce, Marty and members of the team
examined a carving located on the island's northern shore.
[Marty] One, two,
three, four, five, six, seven, eight,
nine, ten, 11, 12, 13.
[Narrator] It was a carving believed to depict a symbol
known as "An Appeal to Heaven."
Commissioned by General George Washington in 1775,
the symbol adorned battle flags
throughout the 13 American colonies
to inspire support
for the revolution against Great Britain.
[Rick] One has to remember that in 1800,
the treasure hunt had just started.
What was someone doing, with a commemorative token
of George Washington's funeral,
traipsing about in the north end of the bog?
It defies logic.
Unless that person had knowledge
of some enterprise happening on the island.
Maybe it's possibly connected to the group of individuals
responsible for the vault in the swamp.
It probably would be worth looking at
who was still living on the island
in this period of time that might have had sympathies
-to the revolution on-on the American side. -[Marty] Yes.
I think that's what it's crying out for.
-Yeah. -Yeah. I do.
-You gonna go back there? -Oh, yeah.
And I always say the same: "All it takes is one good find."
-This is a good find. -It is a good find.
-It's excellent. -We got to get back to work.
-All right, we'll see you, then. -Thanks. -Yeah.
[Marty] Excellent. Excellent, excellent.
[Narrator] Later that day...
-[Craig] Hello. -[Ian] Hey, Laird.
-Hey, Fiona. -Hi.
-Wow. -Boulder's gone.
That's pretty impressive.
[Narrator] ...Craig, Jack and Dr. Ian Spooner
arrive at the site of the Lot 8 boulder.
It came up like nothing.
Zero resistance. And interestingly,
it looks like this may have been all
-rock-lined. -[Ian] Yeah.
And we now have the opportunity
to see if there's metals in that soil
that might tell us a little bit more about what was happening.
-Yeah. -It may help guide your work
because if we see an area that's,
you know, high in metals,
-we should be really careful with that. -Yeah, okay.
I think it's a good idea just to run a quick XRF.
Okay.
Your machine's taking a-an image
-right off the surface, right? -Right off the surface. Yeah.
So, we can do the top of the upper layer,
the top of the lower layer, and even hit it from the side
-to get different ideas? Okay. -Yep.
[Ian] So, let's get this thing sparked up.
I see you brought in the, uh, A-Team here, guys.
-[soft laughter] -Uh, I'm gonna come down there,
and you guys can tell me what's going on.
[Craig] Just getting ready to test the soil down there
-for anything else. -[Ian] Anything else, yeah.
-Well, let's run the XRF. -[Ian] Yes, so,
I'm gonna scamper down there and do some scans.
Okay.
[Narrator] Because Dr. Spooner
has previously detected lead in the soil beneath the boulder,
he will now scan the entire area
that was previously covered by the boulder
with a Vanta XRF spectrometer.
By emitting a stream of X-rays,
the device can identify various types of metals
in the soil that may not be natural to the environment.
[Ian] So, we should be all warmed up.
-This is ready to go. -[Marty] Okay.
But, uh, I'm gonna get down in there...
Well, I like the instant gratification
-of that machine, so hop on down there. -Yeah.
[Marty] Lead shouldn't be in those organic soils.
There's nothing around the boulder.
So, it's another indication
that this thing covered something.
A handheld XRF gives you immediate data on the elements
that might be in various quantities in the soil.
I want to know what's underneath it,
and I want to know in a hurry.
[Fiona] So, you're in the area right now,
where we had the high lead samples.
[Ian] It's showing something
that I didn't see in the other sample...
Oh.
-...which is some silver. -Yeah.
[laughter]
[Fiona] Silver is exciting, isn't it?
[Marty] Yes, it is.
It's showing some silver, and copper there.
[Fiona] Silver is exciting, isn't it?
-Yes, it is. -[laughs]
[Narrator] On Lot 8,
Dr. Spooner has just made a stunning discovery
in the soils that were covered by the massive boulder.
So, to be clear, then you're finding
more of the silver content in the lower layer,
not in that upper layer.
Well, and that's very preliminary.
-It has to go to Emma. -Could that be
from something seeping up that you could be detecting?
If there was silver here at one point,
it could leach into that soil.
Well, what if it's still there, underneath?
Yeah, I think there's every possibility.
[Narrator] Could Fiona be correct
that Dr. Spooner may have detected evidence
of a large cache of silver
buried deeper below this feature?
If this was an air shaft, for a tunnel,
then there would be forces
that would be bringing up, let's say mists and things.
-Yeah. -Super saturated air
that could carry along and then condense under here.
Yeah, but where's the silver coming from?
-Treasure, right? Yeah. -Yeah!
Well, that's the conjecture.
I think it goes much deeper.
Lifting the boulder initially confirms
that it was placed by people.
The next step, uh, is for the archaeologists
to carefully excavate
the dark soils and then see what's underneath them.
Silver is just as exciting
as gold when you're talking about a treasure hunt
and you're talking about coins.
I mean, the Pitblado coin didn't have any gold in it.
It was a silver coin, with copper.
Silver and copper. Showed up right here, so...
I want to know where the heck it came from,
and we don't know that yet.
Interesting results.
Anomalous results, we need to do more work.
-Yep. -And Craig and I
-got plenty of other work to do. -[Fiona] Okay, that's great.
[Marty] Perfect. All right, let's get after it.
[Fiona] Okay.
♪ ♪
[Narrator] Two days later...
[Rick] Welcome to the war room.
I am very enthusiastic about what we will learn today.
[Narrator] ...as operations continue across the island,
members of the team meet via videoconference
with archaeoastronomy expert Professor Adriano Gaspani.
To me, the most inscrutable, hard-to-understand,
uh, data in the swamp are the stakes.
The position of them, the orientation of them.
I believe they are trying to tell us something.
So, I tasked Emiliano with getting in touch
with Professor Gaspani and having him look at that data.
The professor has done an incredible amount of work
with Nolan's Cross.
That also goes through the swamp.
Yes.
[Narrator] In 2022,
Professor Gaspani conducted a peer-reviewed study
of the six megalithic boulders that form Nolan's Cross.
Based on historical alignments
that the boulders had with certain stars in the night sky,
Professor Gaspani believes that Nolan's Cross was created
in approximately 1200 AD
by members of the Knights Templar.
It's almost undeniable,
these stakes are put in these orientations for a purpose.
Professor Gaspani's unique perspective,
using archaeoastronomy-- stellar, solar alignments--
he may be able to give us a timeline.
And if indeed it can point us in the right direction,
or give us the elusive bull's-eye,
it would be fantastic.
I would like to welcome Professor Gaspani
and, uh, Marzia Sebastiani,
who's, uh, kind enough to translate
for Professor Gaspani.
Thank you.
[Narrator] Now, after receiving
Steve Guptil's detailed survey of the eight-sided stakes
that have been discovered in the swamp...
[Narrator] ...Professor Gaspani
has completed his analysis
of their possible historical alignments
with specific stars and constellations.
[Marzia] So, these are the stakes
that are located in the north.
It's two separate groups: red and light blue.
And there's one very interesting aspect.
[Marzia] Why is this so important?
[Marzia] Deneb is the main star
in the Cygnus constellation,
and we have a map of the Cygnus constellation on Nolan's Cross.
[Emiliano] This very peculiar stellar alignment
that Gaspani found for the stakes
share the same constellation with Nolan's Cross.
[Narrator] When Professor Gaspani reported his belief
that Nolan's Cross was constructed around 1200 AD,
he came to that conclusion
by matching the location of the boulders
with historical positions of certain stars in the sky,
including Deneb in the Cygnus constellation,
a constellation that multiple researchers over the years
have suggested aligns with the cross.
[Doug] Very interesting.
[Marzia] The two sets
of stakes were dated astronomically.
[Marzia] And make us think, once again,
that this link
with Templar culture was present.
[Emiliano] This is mind-blowing to me.
[Marzia] My conclusion is that Europeans
with Templar culture were present
on Oak Island
in the 13th century.
-It's quite astounding. -[Narrator] In the war room,
Professor Adriano Gaspani has just presented his analysis
that a line of the eight-sided survey stakes found in the swamp
could date back to the 13th century,
and share historic stellar alignments
with the boulders of Nolan's Cross,
meaning that both features may have been created
by the same people nearly 800 years ago.
[Steve] If those stakes
represent something from the 1200s,
then that means there's a plan out there.
And so, for me,
that's probably the most important piece
that I've taken from this,
because what we're missing is that plan.
Right? And it goes back to even what we found this year:
the Lot 8 boulder
and the Lot 5, uh, marker stone.
Many of us here believe that those are potentially
settlements in that time period, the 1200s.
They might be part of a bigger plan to survey a treasure.
[Emiliano] Maybe we-we haven't found
other structures that carry those alignments,
and they're still there.
[Tom] What we need to do
is-is target some areas.
There's three large boulders
that form the stem of Nolan's Cross.
The stem of the cross goes through the bog,
not very far from the stakes we found.
I think we'd be crazy not to search that.
Who knows what we can find in there.
[Rick] I think Nolan's Cross
is saying something to us that we have yet to understand.
There is a New World, Old World connection
vis-à-vis these stakes, these structures
and these alignments.
I would like to go back and revisit the stem of the cross.
It's too significant.
I think within that construction, there are clues
that will be incredibly instrumental
in helping to solve this mystery.
My hope and belief
is that we finally put a few puzzle pieces together.
The stakes are reflective of something,
and I think the work in the bog needs to continue.
-Right. -I think we should all,
uh, be quite proud
of where we have taken the Oak Island mystery to date.
And it's things like this that will help
tell the story, and the story,
hopefully, eventually,
will lead to the treasure.
So, Professor Gaspani, we all, as we sit here,
we're exceedingly interested in pursuing this,
and, uh, we want to thank you both very, very much.
-Grazie mille. -Grazie mille.
Thank you. Thank you.
-[Alex] Ciao. -[Rick] Ciao, yeah.
[Narrator] For Rick, Marty and their team,
a week that began with a daunting setback
has ended with renewed hope that they are closing in
on the truth behind the 231-year-old mystery.
Having now discovered evidence of precious metals
buried deep in the Money Pit area,
and beneath a megalithic boulder on Lot 8,
compelling new data has affirmed
that Oak Island's secrets could stretch back
nearly 800 years.
So, now, as the team digs deeper for the ultimate answers,
the stakes for what they may find
have never been higher.
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