Narrator: Tonight on the curse of oak island...
Marty: We are drilling in the blob
Where the gold is coming from.
Terry: Ho. Look at this.
Miriam: Oh, my god.
Rick, you've been looking for this for a long time.
Jack: Oh, yeah.
Corjan: That is the mark of the masons
-For the knights templar. -Charles: Oh, wow.
Could be from a medieval templar church.
The date I got was 1028 to 1172.
-Jack: Oh, no way! -That is really cool.
-12th century, right? -Even earlier.
-Doug: Yeah. -Yup.
Templars, baby.
(laughter)
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.
♪ ♪
Terry: Cn-11, here we go.
-Hey, guys. -Terry: Hey, alex.
-How you doing? -So, we're in the blob here?
Yes, we just broke ground here a minute ago.
Narrator: For brothers rick and marty lagina,
Their partner craig tester and the rest of their team,
A day of great anticipation has just begun on oak island--
One that they hope could reveal the ultimate answers
To the 228-year-old treasure mystery.
We are in the center of the blob here.
The area that we expect is the highest concentration of gold,
-We're right in the middle of it. -Terry: Absolutely.
We've tracked this through the area where
The relatively high gold concentrations are coming from.
We're tracking it back to its source in the north.
Right.
Ian: Oh, that's beautiful.
Nice and clear.
Yeah, that's... Looks great.
Narrator: One week ago, geoscientist dr. Ian spooner
And his colleague dr. Matt lukeman
Collected new water samples
From previously-drilled boreholes
In the money pit area,
With the objective of tracking the source
Of precious metals that have been detected
Throughout the area over the last two years.
Fred: To the west of that line,
We're seeing gold and silver values
In a number of monitoring wells.
Narrator: When the samples were analyzed
By hydrogeologist dr. Fred michel,
The results were nothing short of astonishing.
Ian: The area in pink there
Would be exactly where the gold is.
Wow. That is astoundingly good news.
-Yeah. -Onward
-And into the blob. -(laughter)
Narrator: According to the processed data,
The treasure that people have been searching for since 1795
Appears to lie somewhere within a 70 by 25-foot zone
Several feet west of the garden shaft,
At a depth between 80 and 120 feet.
Now, the team is making their first attempt
To pinpoint the fabled riches in borehole cn-11,
A borehole located some 27 feet west of the garden shaft
And dead center in the treasure zone,
Which marty lagina has now officially dubbed "the blob."
I, personally, am very excited about this.
We are drilling in a scientifically delineated area
Where the gold is coming from,
The origination of the soluble gold.
The blob could be the treasure.
We could drill into something interesting at any time.
Terry: That's right.
We may come across the source
As we drill these holes. Absolutely.
Hopefully, we can find the mother lode.
Narrator: As the core drilling operation in borehole cn-11
Continues in the money pit area...
Miriam: Helen, I've got another...
Chunk of iron here.
Super corroded.
Similar to the other ones?
...Nearly half a mile to the west,
Jack begley, along with archaeologists helen sheldon
And miriam amirault, continue investigating
A mysterious man-made stone foundation on lot 5.
After purchasing this four-acre property just three weeks ago,
The team has already made
A number of incredible discoveries,
Including ancient tools
And a half-coin of roman origin
Dating back more than 2,000 years.
We're finding amazing artifacts in here,
And it's a relatively undocumented area,
So that's interesting.
Is that pottery?
Rick: It's pottery. Glazed.
Narrator: One week ago, rick,
Marty and metal detection expert gary drayton
Discovered the site after unearthing metal artifacts
And english pottery dating back
More than half a century before the discovery of the money pit.
Wow, look at this. It's a copper nail.
Laird: This is turning out to be really something else.
Narrator: After helen, miriam
And lead archaeologist laird niven
Began inspecting the feature themselves,
They quickly made more intriguing discoveries,
As well as evidence that it was deliberately buried by someone
More than two centuries ago.
Now they are looking for more artifacts
In the hopes of identifying just who constructed it
And why they attempted to ensure it would never be found again.
Looks like that soil
May be getting a bit lighter down there,
Which means we might be hitting the bottom.
Jack: Finally getting to the bottom.
-Miriam: That would only be... -Whoa.
That would only be the bottom of that corner.
-Helen: Yes. -Meaning it's probably sloping down.
-Helen: Yeah. -I feel like
-It continues on, kind of, both directions. -It could go both ways.
-Even-- maybe even that way, too. -Yeah. Yeah.
So, these rocks in here, they're really tightly packed in.
So I'm wondering if...
(clicks tongue) ...Maybe, like, it is the edge of a wall.
-But we have to keep going to find out. -Jack: Yeah.
Rick: If you apply logic, the only peoples
That could have done this would have been the or--
People who did the original work, depositional work.
But it's early in the discovery phase.
So we have to be patient.
Hey.
-Hey, craig. -Have any luck?
Oh, lots of bits of... Little bits of charcoal.
Uh, but helen found something really interesting.
Here, come over here and take a look.
Helen: The stones?
Yeah.
So, craig, when we're taking those out,
They're fairly loosely consolidated
-And voids in between them. -Mm-hmm.
These are packed
Really tightly in there.
Maybe that actually is inner wall.
We reach a stone layer,
And the stones seem irregularly placed.
They seem, you know, filled in,
Like they're not part of a feature. But...
Some of the stones on the exterior wall
Seem to be placed.
So that's leading us to believe
That these are actually part of a feature
And the loose stones were sort of just filled in.
And, miriam, you tell him about your soils, too.
Yeah, so right in this corner...
-Craig: Mm-hmm. -...And a bit in this corner,
I think it's sloping down,
Because it's way deeper in this corner
And-and there's... You know, there's no end in sight.
Craig: Interesting. Good.
-And more finds. -Helen: Yeah. -Yeah, there's lots...
There's lots coming out today, so...
-Craig: Wow. -It's pretty cool.
I-- now just find something
That says specifically when it was dug
-And who did it. -(laughing)
Yeah. Exactly.
And for what purpose.
Okay. Well, I just wanted to check in.
-Mm-hmm. -I'll let you keep after it, and...
I'll see you after a bit.
Miriam: Okay, see ya.
Narrator: Later that afternoon...
Craig: Okay, gentlemen.
Lot 26 has been our interest over the years.
...Craig tester, along with rick lagina,
Have gathered members of the team
-In the war room. -To me, I mean, more work needs to be done there yet.
Narrator: Given the success of the water testing
That has been conducted in the money pit area
Over the last two years,
Rick and craig have recently had dr. Ian spooner
Apply this technology to a mysterious feature on lot 26,
Located on the western side of the island.
Years ago,
Dan blankenship and I were wandering over by lot 26.
Came across a well.
No ice on it, and it was the dead of winter.
Freezing cold. Way below zero.
And we thought, "what? That-- I-- that's curious.
Why is there no ice on this well?"
Narrator: The well on lot 26 is curious
For a number of reasons,
Including the fact that it is on property that once belonged
To two of the island's most mysterious landowners.
In 1784,
It was purchased by captain james anderson,
An american freemason who is believed by some
To have potentially smuggled treasure to oak island
During the american revolution.
Then, in 1788,
Anderson sold the lot to samuel ball,
A former american slave who established
A humble cabbage farm on oak island.
However, in the following years,
He would inexplicably become one of nova scotia's
Most wealthy citizens.
The team has previously investigated the remains
Of a massive stone wharf off the shore of lot 26.
So is it possible that this mysterious well
May also be connected to the riches
That some believe captain anderson brought to the island
And the great fortune of samuel ball?
From the moment I saw the well in the wintertime years ago,
It wasn't frozen.
That was the real "aha."
Why is this well so unique?
Dr. Spooner and I decided to go ahead and take a sample
That's a few feet away from the pond there to see
If it would tell us anything.
And, uh, we've gotten the results back.
I'll turn it over to dr. Spooner.
Ian: So, we got samples
O-of the water from the well.
And, uh, it was one of our only
Silver hits outside of the money pit.
(laughter)
Well done.
Narrator: In the war room,
Geoscientist dr. Ian spooner
Has just shared a report with the team
That water samples taken from a mysterious well on lot 26
Revealed trace evidence of possible treasure.
Ian: The thing that, uh, I want to just bring up...
But just some background here.
So, this is the location
With the pond in front.
Lot 26 pond.
And the lot 26 well is right about where that arrow is.
The lot 26 well, it is very crudely made.
If craig had not shown it to me,
I wouldn't have thought it was a well. I don't know--
I would have thought it was just a... Hole.
Water's right to the very top.
And the construction,
-It's rough. -Rick: The only reason
Why I did come upon it was because
It was the middle of winter. There's snow on the ground.
I saw it, you know, and I thought, "well, that's strange.
Why is-- why isn't that iced over?"
It has, perhaps, easily escaped observation
For a long, long time.
That's why we need to core and date it.
Absolutely.
Rick: Is it possible that this well is in an area
That has real treasure?
We have dr. Spooner's water sample,
Which showed an elevated level of silver.
Hopefully, you know, some organic material can be found
That can be carbon-dated.
Once you have those answers, you can move forward.
Let's get a sample and have it c-14 tested.
-Right. -We have to follow up,
'cause that was years ago I found that well.
And only now, only now,
Are we learning something really incredible.
Let's keep moving forward.
Ian: Absolutely.
Narrator: The following day...
Laird: Here it is.
...Dr. Ian spooner
And archaeologist laird niven
Arrive on lot 26
To further investigate the mysterious well.
You wouldn't know it was a well.
Looks crudely made.
-Uh... -It does.
I'd want to get as much data as possible, because...
I-I always wonder what brought them to dig right here.
-I don't know. -Some inherent knowledge they had?
-Ian: So, I'm gonna get this corer set up. -Okay.
Narrator: Although the team is eager to find out
If the well contains anything of great value,
Laird has directed dr. Spooner
To first collect a core sample of organic materials
In the hopes of determining just when it was constructed.
So, this is a piston corer. So, just looks--
It basically works like a syringe.
I don't know if you've ever had a blood sample taken.
-Yeah. -Yeah. And pull it out.
-That's what this thing does. -Okay.
This is the piston head. So, this goes on.
-It's just like the plunger on the syringe. -Mm-hmm.
Ian: Just like that.
What I do is I hit the bottom.
I know how deep it should be.
About that far to the gunk.
Laird: Yeah.
About three feet.
And so we just go down like this.
As I push down, I pull up.
-And there's-- I can feel the bottom right there. -Mm.
Marty: The well is-is really quite amazing.
In the context of other things found on lot 26,
It maybe, uh, moves the dial upwards.
And we're trying to figure out how old it is.
So lift it up.
Marty: Because lot 26 has always been mysterious.
Let's just see how we did.
Oh, quite good.
Excellent.
There we go.
That's a pretty good core.
-We can see mud in the bottom of it. -Yeah.
And then I know it got at that interface between...
...Abandonment
-And construction. -Mm-hmm.
-So, yeah, let's-let's head back up. -Okay.
Yeah. I can't wait to see the results.
Narrator: The following morning...
-Where are we at? -Well, we're
Just pulling a sample
-From 59 to the bottom. -Good.
Narrator: While the drilling operation in borehole cn-11
Continues toward the believed treasure zone
Of approximately 100 feet...
If the pictures... Do it justice,
I think they could prove to be quite interesting.
...Rick lagina, oak island historian
Charles barkhouse and researcher corjan mol...
Are traveling some 50 miles southwest
To the city of liverpool, nova scotia.
I know we're going to see some carvings on stones,
So can you fill me in a little bit?
Well, we were actually contacted by a gentleman
By the name of isaac rafuse.
And he believes
That these carvings just may pertain
To what we're doing on oak island.
Yeah.
And I know corjan is quite excited to see them, also.
I-I am, I am.
You know, they remind me of fontarcada.
-Right. -And I think it's incredibly exciting
-That it's close to the island. -Oh, okay.
Wow, that's deep.
Narrator: Over the past three years...
Okay, let's see what we can find.
...Corjan mol has shared research and acted
As a guide overseas for the team...
Revealing a number of possible connections
Between the oak island mystery and the knights templar,
A christian military order that some believe
Hid sacred religious treasures in the money pit
Sometime between the 11th and 16th centuries.
Yeah, look at this.
-Right there. Yeah. -Rick: It's perfect.
Narrator: Some of corjan's most compelling revelations
Were made one year ago in portugal,
When he showed the team numerous stone carvings at 12th-century
Templar strongholds--
Such as the church of fontarcada--
That were exact matches
To ones that have been found on oak island.
The circle and the dot in the center of the cross.
That's one of our symbols on the h+o stone.
This, to me, screams knight templar.
Rick: This is it.
This is the spot.
-Hey, guys. -Hey. How're you doing?
Narrator: Arriving at their destination,
Rick, charles, and corjan are greeted by local landowners
Isaac rafuse and nick fralic.
So I-I just want to say, you know, thanks for inviting us
Because the-the point of all this
Is we've got a heck of a mystery on our hands,
But according to these two gentlemen,
You've got a little bit of a mystery of your own.
(laughs) yeah. We're excited to show you.
-Well, why don't you lead us on? -Yeah, we'll take you down.
-All right, great. -Lead the way.
Rick: There's information everywhere.
My parents used to own a home just up through here, so...
Rick: And we have to be wise enough to listen
To people who may have an understanding
Of local artifacts that we currently do not understand.
There's still information out there that might be
Highly relevant to solving the mystery.
Yeah, just watch your step, guys.
Yeah.
All right, so the first marking that we wanted
-To show you guys is over here. -Okay.
Oh, wow.
This one has been here for a very long time.
The gentleman that showed me
Said that he had asked his father about it.
And his father said when he was little, he asked his dad,
And said it had just been there forever.
We were told this might be a british broadhead,
But we don't know.
We just know it's been here for a really long time.
Narrator: Dating as far back as the 14th century,
The broadhead symbol was a stylized
Representation of an arrowhead,
Commonly stamped on objects to signify ownership
By either the british government or british nobility.
So that would go back to, like, the, like,
The founding of liverpool.
Narrator: Because nova scotia was an english territory
At various times between the 16th and 18th centuries,
Is it possible that this carving was simply made
During one of those periods?
It doesn't... See how this comes...
-Like, like that? -Yeah.
Doesn't the broadhead mark come like that?
-You know what I mean? It comes to a point. -Yeah.
This-this melds into a point, whereas a broadhead
-Arrow mark comes like that. -Yeah.
And in many cases,
The broadhead, the middle leg will be...
-Rick: Is longer. -...Longer than the two ones on the side.
-Right. -Corjan: And the other thing is
The broadheads were put on, on everything
Basically that the, that the king, uh, purchased.
So, it could be weapons, uh, equipment.
They put it on trees if they wanted to use them
For ships, but never on rock.
I think that's unlikely.
To me this looks like, uh,
What we call a "goose paw" in, uh, in europe.
And if that's what it is, that would be something,
Because that is the...
The mark of the masons for the knights templar
In medieval europe.
Charles: That is very cool.
Nick: Super cool.
Narrator: In liverpool, nova scotia,
Approximately 50 miles southwest
Of oak island,
Rick lagina and members of the team
Have just been shown a rock carving
That researcher corjan mol believes could have been made
By members of the knights templar.
Many of them worked on the cathedrals
And the great churches.
So this, to me, is a goose paw.
And you see them in-in churches
All around the mediterranean--
Uh, northern portugal, Spain, southern France,
Italy, sardinia-- you will often find this mark
On the cornerstone of confirmed templar churches.
So it could be from a medieval cathedral builder.
-That's pretty cool. -Mm-hmm.
Narrator: A so-called "goose paw" is a symbol
Depicting the webbing of a goose's foot that was
Adopted by stone masons originally from the holy land
Who aided the templar order in constructing cathedrals
Across europe between the 11th and 14th centuries.
Nick: And what do you think that would indicate?
Why would they carve it there?
I'm a templar, I come here, we have masons,
We need to build stuff.
Imagine, you come here, you have 30 guys in a boat.
You know, you arrive here from the ocean.
-Nick: Yep. -Take a sloop, you know,
Take it up the shore there.
-And then put this... -It's definitely a deep enough harbor.
Yeah, and then put this symbol here to, uh,
-To tell your friends that you were here. -Right.
So now you can see the carving quite clearly here.
Narrator: Over the past decade,
Rick, marty, craig and the team
Have investigated numerous sites in nova scotia featuring
Stone carvings believed by some
To be connected to the templar order.
These include the overton stone,
Located some 140 miles southwest of oak island...
What makes it portuguese templar?
Alessandra: The shape of it.
Narrator: ...As well as at a site
In new ross, just 20 miles to the north
Of the island, where some believe the templars
Constructed a fortress in the 14th century.
Rick: It's incredible what it may represent.
Narrator: Is it possible that the team has now found another carving
That could help support the theory
That the knights templar visited nova scotia--
And perhaps oak island-- many centuries ago?
Rick: So there are two things.
One, this is certainly worth further investigation.
We have something that's carved by the human hand
In a very unique place and it may have
-Codes or ciphers within it. -Charles: Yeah.
-Nick: Yeah. -And two, just the hint
Of what it might represent, right?
You just said it could be someone who
Brought his experience creating cathedrals and...
And templar churches.
-Yeah. -But I want to make certain.
-Corjan: It needs research. -It needs research.
-That is very cool. -Super cool.
So did you say you had more carvings than this one?
Yeah, we do. We have some more carvings to show you.
-Corjan: Wow. I can't wait, man. -Charles: Lead on.
Nick: Yeah, just watch your step, guys.
Rick and isaac: Yeah.
Got some good lighting on it right now.
-Yeah. -So this is it here?
-Nick: Yeah. -Corjan: Oh, wow!
Isaac: If you, if you, look on the underside, there's a very...
-Oh, there, yep, yeah. -...Distinct cross carved here.
Is that, like, a circle or something at the base of it?
Isaac: Yeah. Just below it there's a circle
With a line, it looks, through it.
-Charles: Okay. -Down here, you've got a half
A circle with a dot in the middle.
Corjan: Oh, yeah.
Isaac: And then here, you've got this.
Two definite, uh...
Branches on a line here and then some,
Another, another piece that could be an "x."
So I would say this is a globus cruciger.
That's what they call it, the, the circle
With the cross on top.
Can mean a number of things: God, jesus.
Really?
Narrator: Dating back to the fifth century ad,
The globus cruciger is a symbol featuring a cross
Setting above an orb or circle
Representing christianity's dominion over the world.
Corjan: But I'll tell you something.
I think this here, this was one of the marks in fontarcada
-In northern portugal. -Mm-hmm.
Narrator: Is it possible that rick and members of the team
Have found a carved symbol less than 50 miles
From oak island matching one found at a medieval church
In fontarcada, portugal?
A church known to have been constructed
By members of the knights templar?
And then, if you remember, that might be a mason's mark.
-And then maybe they belong together. -Charles: Yeah.
Rick: There's no question that
Oak island was not the singular obsession
Of-of people traveling from
The old world to the new world.
Very intricate.
Rick: So if there's anything
Within the province that indicates
Pre-columbian visitation
To the new world, it's... It's of interest to us.
And, uh, I think these carvings might represent that.
These are intriguing symbols.
They may represent some very significant information.
The symbols were used for centuries, right?
To represent information that was
Meant for a specific few individuals.
-We're gonna go back and we're gonna do our homework. -Corjan: Yeah.
We hope that these clues might lead us further in our,
In our search for answers.
-They just might. -Appreciate it. Really do.
-That is cool. -Yeah.
Narrator: The following morning...
Charles: Hey, terry.
-Hey, charles. How ya doing? -Good.
...Charles barkhouse arrives at the money pit
After being alerted by terry matheson
And alex lagina
That the drilling operation in borehole cn-11
Has reached the target depth between
80 and 120 feet.
Terry: We're at 108.
And we're just about to push 108 to 118.
And we're going to take a close look,
-See what it gives us. -Right.
We've got some gold and we're chasing it up gradient.
Hopefully, the signal gets stronger,
We get more and more gold in the water.
Alex: Hopefully, these cores have something
-Made of gold in it. -Yeah, let's chase it down.
All right, we got a core coming up,
-So let's see what it brings. -Right on.
-Good for that one. -Okay.
Marty: This borehole is more exciting than normal
Because a void in this area
Could be the source of all this metal
That is leaching out, including gold and silver.
-118? -Yep.
Marty: So if we can pin down where that gold is
Going into solution, there could be the treasure.
Hey, mike! How're you doing?
Pretty good, pretty good.
So there's your hard material-- really, really tight stuff
In the last run-- 118 right there.
I actually took that one to 19, just to,
Just to make sure I got a good plug in it.
Well, let's clear the table and see what we got there. Okay?
Okay.
Thank you.
Right there, look at that.
That is very unusual.
In the middle of all this bedded stuff, you have a fine
Sand in tighter materials.
So that's a classic example of where material
Has been shot into an area under pressure.
It says there's some human activity nearby.
And, oh, my god, I can't believe it.
Narrator: In the money pit area,
After drilling to a depth
Of approximately 119 feet
In borehole cn-11,
The oak island team has unearthed possible evidence
Of man-made workings in the same area
Where high trace evidence of gold
Has recently been detected.
What this does maybe suggest is that there's some, been some
Activity or rearrangement of material through this area.
Wow. Well, it seems like a good thing for us.
That's, well, absolutely.
That's what we wanted to see. This is good news.
Alex: We've got the gold numbers that are higher in this area
Adjacent to the garden shaft.
We've got an area of disturbed
Soft ground, which means you're close to...
Human activity, maybe a structure, or a treasure.
So for a lot of reasons, it's, it's a really
Exciting area to investigate.
Do we push a little deeper?
Um, I think all we might encounter is a little bit
Of slush if we go deeper here.
If we can move in the direction of the consolidated material...
Narrator: Because recent water sample testing
Has suggested that a large source of gold sits between
80 and 120 feet underground in this area...
There's a lot of smoke here, and we need to just
See if we can find the fire.
...It is geologist terry matheson's opinion
That it lies several feet to the side
Of where the team is currently drilling,
Rather than deeper below.
You want to take a water sample, right?
-Yeah. -Sample it from the install depth, right, terry?
-Yep. -Sounds good. -Thanks, mike.
Narrator: Before the team removes
Their drill casing in order to begin their next borehole...
-Alex: Paul, you want a hand? -Paul: Yeah.
96 is right here.
...They will collect a water sample from
Cn-11 so that dr. Ian spooner can test it
In hopes of further pinpointing
The location of the believed treasure.
There we go.
Rick: It's exciting for all of us.
We finally have the location where
The so-called elusive treasure may reside. It's possible.
But you still have to hold it in your hand.
-How'd that go? Pretty smooth? -Paul: Yeah.
We're going to do a series of more holes around this area.
Fantastic! Then we'll carry on and move to another hole.
Alex: Okay, so paul and I are going to take
These samples back and get them ready to go.
Okay. Thanks a lot, guys. Take care.
Narrator: As the core-drilling operation in borehole cn-11
Concludes in the money pit area...
Jack: So, are you guys finding anything?
Um, I think we're nearing the bottom,
But artifacts are still popping out.
...Back on lot 5, jack begley
Is assisting archaeologists helen sheldon
And miriam amirault as they continue
To excavate the mysterious, man-made stone feature.
I'm still finding ceramics and pieces of iron and glass, so--
It's... You know, there's still more in here.
All right, I'll get back to sifting.
-Let me know if you guys find anything else. -Miriam: Yeah.
Narrator: While miriam and helen remove sediment
From the structure, jack is sifting
The materials with a screen
In order to look for potential clues or valuables.
Oh, my god, helen.
Helen: What do you have?
A clay pipe stem.
-In the rocks. -Oh, wow!
Helen: In the rocks? We hardly get any of those
-On the island. No. -I don't think I have found
-A single one. -No.
Yeah, and gary says he typically finds lots of them.
It's perfect for dating. Like, it's in the feature.
-Helen: Yeah. -And based on the size of the hole...
-Of the borehole. Yes. -...We can tell how old it is.
Jack: And how do you get a date from it, exactly?
Helen: It's the size of the borehole.
-Jack: In the middle of it? -Yeah.
So the hole going through the pipe stem changed over time.
So why-why is it just a piece of pipe stem?
Helen: Because they were quite fragile.
And they were fairly cheap to buy.
So, they used to, like, import them by the barrel load.
And so, they were one of the cheaper
Throw-away things of the time.
Kind of like a cigarette butt.
Yep, similar to that.
With a clay pipe, what is the date range
Of its use in general?
The earliest pipes, I think, were in the late-ish 1500s.
And you'd get them up until the late 1800s.
Miriam: Oh, this'll be great for dating this feature.
This reminds me of when we were in the southeast
Corner of the swamp, excavating the stone road
And rick was asking, "where are all the clay pipes?"
We weren't finding any, so it's really interesting
That they're here and not there.
I'm kind of wondering maybe if lot 5 has something
To do with what was going on in the swamp.
Oh, yeah.
Narrator: Could archaeologist miriam amirault
Be correct that the stone feature on lot 5
Might be related to the stone road discovered two years ago
In the swamp,
A stone road that is believed
To be at least 500 years old
And potentially connected to the portuguese sect
Of the knights templar?
Maybe they were living here and working there?
-Miriam: Yeah. -Something like that?
So maybe lot 5 has more to do with it than we think.
That's something that rick's been wanting to find
-For quite a while. -Yeah.
Jack: I'm gonna give him a call.
Jack: Hey, we're over here!
Miriam: Hi, guys.
Almost can't see you because of the amount of rocks
-You pulled out. -(chuckles)
Narrator: After being alerted that an artifact
Possibly dating back to the 16th century
Was found in a man-made feature on lot 5...
Gary: Talk about digging deeper.
...Rick lagina and metal detection expert gary drayton
Arrive to receive a detailed report on the discovery.
Okay, guys. I'm actually kind of excited about this find.
-The archaeologists are excited, we're excited. -Yep.
-Now, rick... -Mm-hmm.
...You've been looking for this for a long time.
The one thing?
Well, not-not the treasure, but...
-It's something really good. -(chuckles)
'kay?
Oh. Clay pipe.
Gary: Oh, a clay pipe stem.
Oh, yeah.
It definitely is that.
And you're right-- I have been looking for that.
-But we all have. We all wonder why. -I remember. Yeah.
Gary: Oh, yeah.
That's a smoking hot find.
(chuckling)
Rick: But can you date that?
Not right at the moment, but we'd be able to
-Once we get back to the lab. -We can-- we can get a date range for it
Based on the-the size of the borehole
-That goes through the pipe. -Rick: Oh, really? -Mm-hmm.
It was actually found within the rocks of the feature.
So we think it was deposited as this was constructed.
Helen: And then, at some later point in time,
It was filled with rocks in the middle.
The rocks in the middle were very loose and jumbly,
With gaps between them.
-Mm-hmm. -The ones here on the side
Are cemented in.
-Miriam: Mm-hmm. -Like, not actually cemented in there,
-But they don't move. So... -Yeah. -Rick: Mm.
I've played with stone enough to know that
-That piece there... -Helen: Yeah.
-...That's purposeful. Yeah. -It's to wedge it. Yeah.
Rick: Implying some sort of permanence
-To the structure. -Yeah.
The nice thing about this is this is
The oldest european deposit
We have found on the island.
Which is pre-discovery of the m-money pit.
Mm-hmm.
A test pit
Indicating pre-depositional work--
It's interesting. It's exceedingly interesting.
And the hope is that we'll find something more
Than just a little piece of pipe stem.
I think lot 5 continues to be as mysterious as it has ever been
And we just need to continue to look.
You know, this is probably not isolated,
-Based upon all the finds we've had. -Miriam and rick: Mm-hmm.
Uh, there's something that happened here.
-Rick: Yeah. -Jack: I'd say
-This is just a start. -Gary: Yeah.
And it's luck that we would pick this one spot.
So it's-it's great that you were here to be able to find it
And then for us to come in and sort of...
-Bring it all together. -Rick: Mm-hmm.
I-I'm hopeful that there's more information.
A-and this strongly suggests there is.
Gary: And only on lot 5
Can the pits and hitting rock bottom be a good thing.
(all chuckling)
Narrator: Later that afternoon...
Craig: Okay, gentlemen.
So, got some exciting information, I think.
Dr. Spooner recently went out
And, uh, cored the freshwater well.
Narrator: ...Rick lagina joins craig tester
And other members of the team in the war room
To hear dr. Ian spooner's scientific analysis
Of the strange well located on lot 26,
A well containing water that has already yielded
High trace evidence of silver.
I'll turn it over to dr. Spooner
And let him describe the core and then the results.
Ian: Thank you. Yeah.
What we got out of it, I think, was completely unexpected,
Right from the get-go.
Um, but just some background here.
The circle that we see there in dashes,
That's really where the well is, so...
Next slide there, steve.
(mouse clicks)
And so here's the core.
Now, you can see that there's twigs in it,
There's little stones that might have fallen in it.
So, I dated that little brown piece of wood at the bottom,
Which I will say-- this is very important--
Was probably not in the mud
But was probably in the dirt
At the bottom of the well.
So it's more likely associated with construction.
And how I know that is, it-it sort of went...
-Below the mud in the core. -Oh, okay.
Ian: And this is where it really,
Really got interesting.
The date I got on the twig at the bottom
Was, um, 1028 to 1172.
♪ ♪
(whistles)
Jack: That's a long time ago.
Ian: The date I got on the twig at the bottom was
1028 to 1172.
-(whistles) -this is brilliant. -Ian: Yeah.
-Great. -The dates, it blew me away.
I mean, what's this doing in this core?
-Yeah. -Narrator: In the war room,
Geoscientist dr. Ian spooner
Has just presented the team with an astonishing report.
The stone well located on lot 26,
Which has been scientifically determined
To contain trace evidence of silver,
Was likely constructed as much as eight centuries prior
To the discovery of the money pit.
So, there we go.
That's-that's where we sat with this core.
To me, it was just a whole bunch of surprises.
You can see up there,
The date, it's rock-solid.
Rick: There you go.
Doug: You're saying the science suggests
That, basically, that well could have been created
At the same time
As the disturbances in the swamp,
Because the bottom of your cores in the swamp
Were also coming out in the 1200s.
-That's the paved area. -Yeah, the paved area.
So this is a date in the 12th century.
-Is that right? -Right.
Doug: So that well could be
Contemporary with the swamp.
Right.
-Yeah. -Yeah. The dates are
All matching.
-Right. -That's very interesting.
-Yeah. -Doug: That is really cool.
If that well is that old,
I mean, you got to really think
About what happened on this island.
Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
Well, like templars were here or something.
Well, there you go, jack.
You-you got to wonder what the story is.
Templars, baby!
(laughter)
Narrator: Is it possible that the well on lot 26,
Along with other finds made in recent years,
Including the 12th century paved area
And the 500-year-old stone road in the swamp,
The structure on lot 5,
And even the stone carvings located across nova scotia,
Validate the incredible theory
That members of the knights templar
Visited oak island on numerous occasions
In order to hide their sacred treasures?
Now we have connective tissue, perhaps,
Between a very unique feature on lot 26, the well,
And the 1200 date in the swamp.
Maybe even gold in the money pit.
And we might be close to an answer here.
So, I'm very hopeful.
I was shocked when the numbers came out,
And I'm hoping they can tell
Part of the oak island story.
Yeah.
Rick: That date may have
Incredible impact,
Uh, as we try to make association
With other areas on the island.
Yeah.
Rick: And so we should have a plan
To figure out what this might mean.
That's the way to do it.
-Yeah. -Jack: Why not try
To section the area off and have the archaeologists go in there,
-So we can go section by section? -Craig: Yeah.
We can find anything significant in situ.
-I agree. -Laird: Yeah.
I can do that over the next few days.
All right. So, with that,
-Let's keep our eye on the ball and... -Mm-hmm.
...And keep moving forward.
Yep.
Rick: Okay. Let's go.
Let's go.
Narrator: Since 1795,
Determined treasure hunters have been mystified
To explain what happened long ago on oak island.
Their only certainty,
Given the construction of the money pit,
Was that something of immense value
And of great historical importance
Must be buried deep below.
Now, thanks to a disciplined application of science
And methodical digging,
Rick, marty, craig and their team
May finally be zeroing in
On a treasure trove
Of answers.
Next time on the curse of oak island...
Charles: We got wood here, gentlemen.
-Got to be a tunnel. -Craig: Yeah. This is a tunnel
Pointing towards
-The garden shaft. -Absolutely.
There it is, mate.
-Look at that. -Wow.
This is a first for oak island,
Which is fantastic.
So, in terms of where it is from,
-You got roman empire going on here. -There we go.
Marty: We're chasing the gold in the money pit.
Wow. There it is.
-That's what we're looking for. -Yeah.
-Finally! -(chuckles)
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