NARRATOR: Tonight, on The Curse of Oak Island...
GARY: We found these in the Garden Shaft.
CARMEN: It's very old.
It definitely wasn't used to put together structures.
It could be off boxes from the treasure.
There's a wall in the swamp.
It could be related to the stone road.
That red stuff is what's underneath the stone road.
That will place that wood structure further back in time.
Vikings had knowledge of North America
with contacts to early Templars.
They could have had knowledge of this area.
That's correct.
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.
♪ ♪
-ROGER: Hey, guys. -ALEX: Hey.
-RICK: Hey. -SCOTT: Hey, guys.
I can't wait to show you guys this.
Let's flip the plastic off. We'll show these guys
what we've got.
ALEX: It's amazing what you guys managed to get
-out of the Garden Shaft there. -ROGER: Yeah.
NARRATOR: It is the beginning
of another hopeful week on Oak Island
for brothers Rick and Marty Lagina and their team
as they continue a quest to solve
a 229-year-old mystery.
We did a lot of work to get these timbers out of there.
First thing I'm gonna say
is this is the strangest thing
that I think we ever could have encountered down there.
We cannot find any sign of walls or a ceiling.
NARRATOR: However, in the Money Pit area,
what appeared just a few days ago
to be a major discovery some 100 feet deep
at the bottom of the 18th-century structure
known as the Garden Shaft,
has only left them with more questions.
It's strange. It seems to be collapsed.
So, who knows what happened down there?
-SCOTT: Look at that. Right there. -RICK: Wow.
Those are big beams.
NARRATOR: Last week, after nearly two years of tireless work,
representatives from Dumas Contracting Limited
were finally able to expose
what the team believed to be a seven-foot-high wooden tunnel.
SCOTT: If this is original depositor, there's a good chance
that there may be treasure at the end of this tunnel.
Yep.
NARRATOR: A tunnel
that the team had previously drilled through
on several occasions and determined
that it ran due west into the so-called Baby Blob
where high-trace evidence of precious metals
have been detected between 80 and 120 feet underground.
SCOTT: Every one that we pulled out, we did a visual look underneath
to see if we could see the wall timbers hanging down.
There was nothing.
It's like somebody just removed them
and left the floor intact.
NARRATOR: However, after removing a number
of large, hand-cut wooden timbers,
as well as two iron artifacts,
the team was stunned to realize
that the section of the believed tunnel
that they exposed beneath the Garden Shaft
has either collapsed or was partially dismantled
sometime in the past.
We found part of a tunnel,
but the rest of the tunnel is missing.
So, that's disconcerting.
But I think we could learn a lot from these pieces of wood
because this could really be the first time
we found a depositor tunnel underground.
And if it is original works, where was it going and why?
SCOTT: And as you can see, there are some beautiful...
-ALEX: Yeah. -...handwrought, square nails there.
This one here is loose.
You can see the head right here.
NARRATOR: Now, while Dumas works to uncover more
of the mysterious tunnel--
in the hopes of finding an intact structure
that may lead to the source of the valuables
that have been detected nearby...
-ROGER: There you go. -SCOTT: Look at that.
NARRATOR: ...the team will be carbon-dating the wood timbers
and analyzing metal fasteners found inside of them
in an attempt to confirm
that it was built prior to the discovery
of the original Money Pit in 1795.
-What do you think of that, Laird? -LAIRD: Oh, yeah.
That's what I'd want to see.
-So... -Yeah. The handwrought nails.
It's a rose head.
ALEX: How old?
LAIRD: See how nice and slim it is?
I would put that in the 1600, 1700s.
You've got to admit this is one of the most promising finds
we've had so far on the island.
It is exciting.
It feels like we're getting closer.
RICK: It is a total collapsed feature
and we were hoping there would be evidence
that it was partially open.
But all information underground in the Money Pit
is incredibly valuable information.
So, I absolutely hope that this leads us
to finding the treasure.
Let's learn as much as we can
from the items we have retrieved at depth.
Look, kudos to everyone.
This might be a pivotal moment
in the Oak Island treasure hunt.
So, the nails:
I think we should pull all of them,
and the boards as well. Take multiple samples.
Set them aside.
There's a lot of work to do. So, let's get going.
-ROGER: Sounds good. -ALEX: All right.
NARRATOR: While the operation continues
in the Money Pit area...
...later that afternoon...
-MARTY: Hello, guys. -DOUG: Hi, Marty.
-RICK: Hey. -CHARLES: Hey, Marty.
So, gentlemen, we have a guest today:
Dr. Doug Symons.
NARRATOR: ...Rick and Marty have gathered members of the team
in the war room to hear a highly anticipated presentation
from Dr. Doug Symons, a retired professor of psychology
from Acadia University.
I find it very intriguing about the possibility
of Viking-Templar connections.
Doug, if you want to give us a little background and then...
Sure.
Dr. Symons and I met through Dr. Spooner, actually.
We had discussions in the evenings
over those provocative dates in the swamp
of around 1200 AD,
and the stone piles on Lot 15
-were likely created after Nolan's Cross. -Yeah.
NARRATOR: One week ago,
Italian archaeoastronomer Professor Adriano Gaspani
presented the team with his scientific analysis--
and belief--
that the megalithic stone formations,
which have been found on the surface of Oak Island
known as Nolan's Cross,
the stone triangle and five stone piles,
located on Lot 15,
were all constructed in the 13th century
by members of the Knights Templar.
And, curiously, in recent years,
the team has found two lead artifacts
that have been scientifically traced to Scandinavia.
Dr. Symons has delved deeply into that subject.
NARRATOR: Now, based on these findings,
Doug Crowell has reached out to Dr. Doug Symons,
who published his research in May of 2020...
...suggesting that the Templar order
and the medieval Scandinavian culture,
known as the Norse, or Vikings,
may both be connected to the Oak Island mystery.
So, Dr. Symons, if you'd be so kind.
SYMONS: Thank you.
So, I became interested in the European voyages
that could account for these Oak Island finds.
You've got Nolan's Cross
and also the swamp itself dates back to 1200 AD or so.
And my research took me to this time frame.
The 1000s to 1200s.
So, Vikings, they settled the Faroe Islands,
Iceland and Greenland.
And St. Anthony, Newfoundland.
And L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland, around 1000 AD.
Which gives them knowledge of the area.
Hmm.
NARRATOR: It is well documented
that members of the Viking culture
explored and built settlements in North America
as much as ten centuries ago,
reaching as far south as L'Anse aux Meadows,
a location in modern-day Newfoundland, Canada
that is approximately 625 miles northeast of Oak Island.
However, it has been speculated by many academic researchers
based on the 13th-century writings
known as "The Viking Sagas"
that they may have visited areas
much further to the south.
Now, what becomes important about L'Anse aux Meadows,
was from L'Anse aux Meadows, it's easy
to sail down the west coast of Newfoundland
with land in sight.
I don't think it's unreasonable to say Oak Island was explored.
Certainly, Mahone Bay would've been explored.
The trips are described as going to the southwest.
So, I'm gonna tie early Templars to Vikings.
So, was anything else interesting happening
in the world in 1100?
-The Crusades? -The first Crusade.
In 1099, Jerusalem is taken by the Crusaders.
Some of them are the original Knights Templars.
Here is the taking of Jerusalem.
Many people feel that they spent their time
exploring underground and looking for religious artifacts.
NARRATOR: For several years, Rick, Marty and the team
have been researching the order of the Knights Templar
and their possible connection to the Oak Island mystery.
It is known that the Templar order
established their headquarters on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem
during the early 12th century
while defending Christian interests in the holy wars
known as the Crusades.
They amassed a great fortune
by establishing the world's first banking system.
However, some believe that they also
found a number of priceless religious relics,
including the Holy Grail
and the Ark of the Covenant.
The Templar order would eventually be disbanded
by the Catholic Church in 1307,
but their believed treasures have never been found.
Could there be any evidence
that the Templars transported them
to Oak Island with the help of the Vikings?
SYMONS: According to the sagas, in 1107,
there was a King Sigurd of Norway who decided,
"Let's make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land."
So, Sigurd gets together 5,000 men and 60 ships,
and then they are off to Jerusalem.
While they're in Jerusalem,
they tour the Temple Mount, they interact with knights
who would form the Knights Templar
eight years later.
And then what happens?
King Sigurd returns to Norway,
and he leaves many of his men,
and all of their boats
in Jerusalem.
We've got many Vikings left in the Holy Land, 1110.
We don't know what happened to them
or when they would've left.
So, what's interesting about this?
DOUG: They could have had
knowledge of this area
prior to the need to flee...
-Correct. -...or hide something.
SYMONS: So, Templars used
Vikings for transportation to come to
the promised land. North America.
-ALEX: Wow. -SCOTT: Wow.
-MARTY: Wow. -ALEX: That's cool.
SYMONS: So, Templars used Vikings for transportation
to come to North America.
-Wow. -SYMONS: So, here's a summary.
Vikings with knowledge of North America
and how to get there.
Vikings in the Holy Land
with seaworthy ships.
Vikings with contacts to early Templars.
I see all those things as facts.
NARRATOR: In the war room,
researcher Dr. Doug Symons has just
presented his incredible theory
that members of the Viking culture
intermingled with the Knights Templar
during the 12th century Crusades in the Holy Land,
and then helped them transport priceless
religious treasures to Oak Island.
JACK: From what you've shown,
there was a relationship between the Vikings
and the Templars, especially around the Crusader times.
-Yes. -And if anything was found in Jerusalem,
to make a voyage and take it all the way to Nova Scotia,
it actually is plausible.
-Yeah. -ALEX: Yeah, I think that
it could have been done.
The remaining questions are:
-Did they do it? -And why.
-ALEX: And why. -Yeah.
And you've got significant finds
in the same time frame
-as the story's. -Oh.
SYMONS: In the 1000 to 1300 AD range,
you've got the stick in the bottom of
the man-made well that is on Lot 26.
You've got the paved area of the swamp.
-The platform. -Mm-hmm.
The paved area also might have been a landing area for boats.
DOUG: That's interesting, because if that was open to the sea,
it would be smaller ships like that
that could probably come in,
and perhaps that was a dock.
Right.
JACK: Viking ships would be
small enough to fit into the swamp.
SYMONS: Yeah, and you've got
Nolan's Cross construction
in the same time frame.
That's right.
That fits right in.
Wow.
NARRATOR: In addition to Nolan's Cross
and the other megalithic stone formations
on Oak Island's surface that are believed to
have been created
in the 13th century,
the team has also obtained evidence
that a stone well located on Lot 26
and a massive, paved area
that was uncovered in the swamp
may have been constructed more than 800 years ago.
All I know is I'm running out of ways
-to be skeptical about the Templars. -(laughter)
NARRATOR: Could Dr. Doug Symons' incredible theory
that these formations were all created by
members of the Knights Templar
with the help of the Vikings be true?
If so, might that also explain how
the two recently unearthed lead artifacts,
which have been traced to Scandinavia,
ended up on Oak Island?
RICK: The connection that has been presented
between Vikings and Templars,
obviously, we're going to continue to pursue that.
It's a line of investigation
that may be very important to us.
In terms of depositional work on the island,
here is where cultural context means a lot.
MARTY: It is amazing how far back
knowledge of the, uh, of North America
was a lot more widespread
than what I learned
in history in, say, grade school.
I found this really interesting.
-Yeah. -RICK: I agree with you.
We should look further into this
possible Viking/Templar connection
and what it may mean in terms of advancing our search agenda.
-So, thank you very much. -Thank you.
MARTY: Until next time, gentlemen.
(overlapping goodbyes)
NARRATOR: Later that afternoon,
while the investigation
of the possible treasure tunnel below the Garden Shaft
continues in the Money Pit area...
-GARY: Hey, Billy. -RICK: Hey, Billy.
BILLY: Hey, guys.
I'm ready to kick some swamp butt again, mate.
Find some good finds.
NARRATOR: Rick Lagina, metal detection expert Gary Drayton
and Billy Gerhardt are searching for clues
at the southern border of
the mysterious triangle-shaped swamp.
I figure it's like old home week, right?
We came back home 'cause we never finished this.
Not quite. We were close.
In a way, we know what we're looking for.
We're definitely looking for more pieces of
-what we found earlier. -Yep.
-BILLY: We found wood from ships.
-GARY: Yep. -For that reason alone,
it's worth looking at.
DOUG: Is that a piece of cut wood there?
BILLY: Is that cut wood or not?
I'll go get it.
NARRATOR: In recent years...
-Oh, look at that. -...the team has found
a number of ship-related artifacts in the swamp...
SCOTT: That's beautiful, actually.
...that have been dated to between
the 15th and 18th centuries.
Here's another piece of it.
-Look at that. -BILLY: Look at that.
NARRATOR: However, in 2020,
they unearthed a piece of ship's railing
right near the southern border
that was carbon-dated to as early as the 8th century.
BILLY: We're off the end of the road, right?
Man, would it be something nice if we found
something that really told us who was here
-and when they were here. -I hope so.
-GARY: All right, mate. -RICK: All right.
NARRATOR: Now, in light of Dr. Doug Symons'
incredible theory about the medieval Viking culture
potentially being connected to the Oak Island mystery,
they are eager to see
what other possible clues they may uncover
in this area.
This is new stuff here.
GARY: Whew. Smells like treasure.
Whoa. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
GARY: What did you see, Rick?
RICK: Wood.
Is that anything?
GARY: Good eye, Rick.
Is it cut?
RICK: Yeah.
GARY: Looks like it's got a hole in it, Rick.
There's no metals in there.
But it's definitely shaped.
Think so?
GARY: Yep. And it looks like it could come off a boat.
We found something, Bill. Check this out.
It's an interesting piece of wood.
Any ideas?
Uh...
Well, I'll tell you what it looks like to me.
See how it curves up?
-Yeah. -When you have a wooden boat,
you put little runners on
that were used along the shore.
Like the keel of a boat.
Yeah, so, say you had a big boat here
and you were bringing your little one to shore,
they'd put these little ribs on because they would wear
rather than wear the bottom of your boat out.
We would call them runners.
GARY: Yeah.
-Maybe it hit the rocks... -Yeah, exactly.
-Right there. -...and got broke off.
Good insight, Billy. I'll be putting that in the bag.
NARRATOR: Is it possible that the Oak Island team
has found more evidence of a sailing vessel in the swamp?
If so, just how old could it be?
And who were the visitors that left it here?
RICK: I need to go back.
I got to check on a few things
for the Money Pit drilling.
So, keep digging, keep after it,
-and I'll try to get back as soon as I can. -Yep.
-Okay? -GARY: Okay, mate.
-See you later. -All right, thank you.
I believe that this is a very old mystery.
We have dates from 700 AD with the ship's railing.
We have the 1200 dates in the swamp.
So, there are strong suggestions that there was activity
very early on. But to what end?
That's what makes this so interesting.
-Hey, Gary. -Hey, Steve.
-How're you doing? -Good. Perfect timing, mate.
Billy's just repositioned.
We're digging. You never know what's gonna come out.
-STEVE: That's true. -GARY: Here we go.
There it is. It's solid.
Oh.
Oh!
-Look at what we got here. -STEVE: Oh, wow.
-Yep. That is shaped wood. -STEVE: That's interesting.
NARRATOR: While excavating near the southern border
of the Oak Island swamp,
Billy Gerhardt,
Gary Drayton,
and Steve Guptill have just made
another potentially important discovery.
STEVE: Gary, this looks like it could be an old ship part.
GARY: Yeah.
STEVE: We found the ship's railing
just right over here, and this, to me,
-has a similar finish on the top. -GARY: Yeah.
STEVE: It's about the same size and weight.
And, look,
it has a place where you'd put a nail or a fastener.
Yeah, that's definitely a hole, mate,
from a fastener.
Could be another piece that dates as old
-as that ship railing. -Yeah.
NARRATOR: Hand-shaped wood?
Found in the same area
where the team unearthed a piece of ship's railing
in 2020
that was dated to as early as the eighth century?
This has for sure been in man's hands.
NARRATOR: If Steve Guptill is correct
that this artifact
may be from the same era,
could it represent more evidence to support
Dr. Doug Symons' belief
that Vikings
may have visited Oak Island
approximately 1,000 years ago?
RICK: In terms of artifact recovery in the swamp,
the ship's railing and these
very early, early, early carbon dates,
they have to be telling a story,
and you have to come to an understanding
of what they may or may not represent.
Well, you know what?
-It's worth taking back. -You're right, mate.
-Yeah. -We're taking any interesting pieces of wood back
-because of that ship's rail. -STEVE: That's right.
Piecing the ship together one piece at a time.
GARY: Yeah. This is good.
NARRATOR: While Billy, Gary, and Steve
continue digging for clues in the swamp,
and as the operation
to uncover the possible treasure tunnel proceeds
beneath the Garden Shaft...
-JACK: Hey, everyone. -LAIRD: Hey, hey.
HELEN: Hi there.
On this side...
Have you reached the bottom yet?
This is at the bottom, here.
-That is almost. -All right.
NARRATOR: ...in the northern region of Lot 5,
located on the western side of the island...
I'll go back to sifting.
NARRATOR: ...Jack Begley joins
archaeologists Laird Niven
and Helen Sheldon where they continue investigating
a mysterious rectangular foundation.
HELEN: Sub all the way to the bottom now.
NARRATOR: Since Rick, Marty,
and Craig Tester's purchase of Lot 5
one year ago, the team has made
a number of intriguing
discoveries in and near this site,
including pottery and pipe stems
that have been dated to the same era
as the 18th-century Garden Shaft.
However, just several yards to the south,
the team discovered three Roman coins
dating back to between
1,500 and 2,000 years ago.
HELEN: Not at sub here yet.
-LAIRD: Yeah. -NARRATOR: Now,
Laird and Helen are carefully
removing soil from the bottom of the feature
so that Jack can sift the materials
for potential clues that could help determine
who created it and when.
Oh, I think we've got something here.
LAIRD: What's that?
HELEN: I don't know.
-Ooh, wow. -LAIRD: Ooh, yeah.
(gasps)
HELEN: We have a coin. Look at that.
Oh, my gosh. (whistles)
-LAIRD: Nice. -It's copper.
You can see the bit of green patina.
NARRATOR: A copper coin?
Although the team has made discoveries in this feature
that have been dated to the 18th century...
...could this coin, which was found
in a deeper layer of the foundation,
be older and also help identify
who originally created it?
JACK: Really good find, Helen. This is the type of thing
that Marty's gonna want to see. So, let me
-send him a text. -Good stuff.
HELEN: Yeah. Definitely.
LAIRD: As we work away with our excavations,
it's more and more evident to us that it is
an older and perhaps much more important feature.
So, it's really exciting.
We're finding lots of artifacts, and we can't wait
to get down to the bottom of this.
-Okay. -Hello.
-JACK: Hey, Marty. -I'm here at my favorite pastime.
Anything new?
Yeah. We've just
-popped out a coin. -MARTY: Oh!
-HELEN: Yeah. So... -I like that.
Any dates?
Uh, it's not in very good shape.
-Mm-hmm. -It's copper because you can see
the green patina on it.
At the moment, I would say,
it's a George III half penny.
-It's the same size, same metal. -LAIRD: Yeah.
-Yeah. -HELEN: Same sort of weight,
which is like 1780s.
Nice. That's excellent.
-Right down there in the black stuff? -Nope.
It was actually up here on the side.
-On the edge. -HELEN: Yeah.
Now, I'm actually getting down to the bottom.
I took all that out yesterday,
and what I found was that
this jumble of rocks continued further down
and very few artifacts at all.
So, what does that suggest?
I still think it's an infilled cellar.
-From when? -HELEN: Well,
it was filled in the 1780s.
-So, before then. -Excellent.
NARRATOR: Because archaeologist Helen Sheldon believes
that this possibly 18th-century coin
is an indication of when this foundation
was purposely infilled,
or buried,
what this coin discovery ultimately suggests
is that the feature predates
that time period.
So, the burning questions
surrounding this feature on Lot 5 remain.
Who built it? When?
And for what purpose?
MARTY: Maybe there was some sort of structure
at the rectangular feature,
and then it was intentionally buried.
If we could get a definitive date,
it could be very, very interesting
as to who was here first and what were they doing.
Well, that's fabulous.
Uh, who knows where that might lead.
And we also have this
funny piece of metal that's sticking out,
which I don't know what it is yet.
How solidly is it in there?
It's in there pretty...
Ooh, no, maybe it's wiggling. That's weird. Here you go.
-Oh, look at that. -JACK: All right.
MARTY: Well, how about that?
MARTY: What about that big piece of iron?
HELEN: If I can pry this out.
NARRATOR: While investigating
the mysterious rectangular stone foundation on Lot 5
on the western side of Oak Island,
Marty Lagina, along with other members of the team
have just found another potentially important clue.
HELEN: Oh, wow. I think we've got something here.
LAIRD: Oh, a spike?
Looks like it to me.
Is it square? Rose head?
It's square.
Nicely pointed.
Here, let me have a look.
Thank you.
-LAIRD: That's huge. -MARTY: Yes.
Way too big for a house. (chuckles)
That's a nice example
of a very old nail.
-It's the biggest one we've seen. -HELEN: It's big.
Goodness. Oh, wow.
LAIRD: That's definitely forged.
HELEN: Yeah, it is, isn't it?
NARRATOR: A hand-forged iron spike?
Embedded in the wall of the stone foundation on Lot 5?
Because archaeologists Laird Niven
and Helen Sheldon believe that it would not be the kind
of fastener used in the construction of a house,
could it be an important clue
that might help the team determine just why
this feature was created?
MARTY: It's incredibly gratifying, all the things we're finding,
and the fact that this is bigger than we thought.
This is something different than a domestic structure.
Maybe we're finding the camp
that would've been necessary,
uh, for such a big operation as what happened at the Money Pit.
-HELEN: For its length, it's very slender. -LAIRD: It's thin. It is.
MARTY: And then, of course, we'll test the metallurgy.
-Mm-hmm. -HELEN: Normally, they're more hefty when they're this long.
Interesting piece.
MARTY: All right. Find some more stuff.
JACK: See you, Marty.
You're like a good luck charm.
MARTY: Yeah. This time, yeah.
NARRATOR: The following morning...
RICK: I know one thing, Gary is quite excited, right?
Yep. Pulling metal out of that tunnel that deep.
Brilliant.
NARRATOR: ...Rick Lagina,
Gary Drayton, and other members of the team
meet with blacksmithing expert Carmen Legge
in the Oak Island Laboratory.
Well, without further ado,
here we go, top pocket finds, yeah.
Here you go, mate.
There's the two finds.
NARRATOR: They are eager to have Carmen
and archaeometallurgist Emma Culligan
examine the two metal artifacts
that Gary discovered one week ago
within the possible treasure tunnel
that sets below the Garden Shaft.
RICK: How heavy are they?
GARY: Uh, this one is light,
and, uh, this one's a bit heavier.
Looks like it's shaped,
but I think that the tips have fasteners
and the rest of them are underneath the boards.
ALEX: Carmen, what do you see there?
What's your first impressions, Carmen?
From looking at this from all angles,
I-I-I have no clue what this is.
And that's why we found it really interesting as well.
ALEX: It does, yeah.
Emma, can you run a preliminary scan?
So, the XRF on this one 'cause it's more exposed,
and I'll do a CT scan on this one,
and it shouldn't take long 'cause it's so tiny.
-ALEX: Great. -All right.
NARRATOR: In order to provide analysis
of the two metal artifacts,
Emma will scan the smaller one
using the SkyScan 1273 CT scanner,
a device which emits X-ray radiation
that can penetrate corrosion and sediment on an artifact
to produce a three-dimensional image of its finer details.
She will concurrently scan the larger object
using the X-ray fluorescence spectrometer.
This device emits nondestructive radiation
to reveal the elements that make up an object's composition,
which can potentially help determine its age.
EMMA: Okay, so I did what I could.
-Is that the bigger piece? -Yeah.
EMMA: Right there, you can see that. That's a snap.
GARY: So, more than likely a fastener.
Yeah.
Would it have been a box? A chest?
Excellent. That's a little bit more motivation to get back down
-in that tunnel. -Mm-hmm.
NARRATOR: A metal fastener
found in the tunnel below the Garden Shaft
that was possibly used for hanging a lantern
or potentially related to a chest?
If so, has the team found evidence
of an operation to deposit valuables deep underground
in the Money Pit area?
EMMA: So, this is the smaller one.
ALEX: Is it square?
CARMEN: I would say it is. Yeah.
-It looks-- Yeah. -Yeah, it's tapering. It is handwrought.
-So, from the grain structure, it is wrought. -SCOTT: Nice.
Very old.
-Why-why do you say that? -ALEX: How-- Yeah.
EMMA: Mm-hmm.
That tells me it's very, very old.
When you say "very old," can you put a time period?
-For "very old"? -Uh...
I would say late 1400 to...
-mid-1700s. -RICK: Wow.
CARMEN: Small spike.
Very old.
I would say late 1400 to mid-1700s.
-That's definitely pre-searcher. -GARY: Yeah.
NARRATOR: In the Oak Island Laboratory,
blacksmithing expert Carmen Legge
has just informed Rick Lagina
and members of the team
that a metal artifact retrieved
from the possible treasure tunnel
located below the Garden Shaft
could date back to as early as the 15th century.
Could it be later than the mid-1700s?
-Not in my opinion, no. -Okay.
-That's hugely significant. -SCOTT: Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, that matches the dates that we're getting in...
in the tunnel.
1600, 1700s.
(gasps)
RICK: Wow.
NARRATOR: Four weeks ago,
the Oak Island team received a carbon dating report
that the tunnel just below the Garden Shaft
may have been constructed as much as 150 years prior
to the discovery of the Money Pit.
And while the team's water testing analysis
that has been conducted over the past two years
in previously drilled boreholes
has indicated that there could be numerous treasure deposits
buried across the Money Pit area,
is it possible that they are narrowing in
on when at least one of them was hidden on Oak Island?
RICK: A lot of dates
strongly suggest some earlier level of participation.
But they are so distinctly different timelines
that it makes this puzzle all the more complex.
But it also opens the door
to a lot of other possibilities,
perhaps possibilities that we are currently unaware of.
The hope is, as the work continues,
we will get more clarity.
I will see if I can get ahold of my dad.
Hey.
So, uh, there's a bunch of us here in the lab.
And two pieces of iron came out of the Garden Shaft.
And, uh, Carmen, do you want to tell him how--
what the-the age range was?
CARMEN: Uh, just looking at the structure of the nail
and the size of the nail,
I would say late 1400 to mid-1700s.
With the lack of manganese and the high content of sulfur,
it could indicate yet an older iron source.
-Boom, baby! There it is. -(laughter)
-ALEX: Yeah. -CARMEN: I agree with Emma.
This tends to be, um,
indicative of older metal.
-Yep. -Oh, absolutely.
-Oh. Yeah. -(chuckling)
For sure, mate.
Okeydoke.
-All right. -Fair enough. -We'll keep you posted. See ya.
RICK: This is different.
This is a different moment we are at.
On some level, it's a very pivotal moment.
-GARY: I've got tunnel vision right now. -(laughter)
NARRATOR: Later that afternoon...
GARY: This is it, mate.
I love this spot.
So we'll really have to keep our eyes open.
-All right. -(starts engine)
...Gary Drayton, Steve Guptill
and Billy Gerhardt
continue excavating for important clues
near the southern border of the swamp.
GARY: I'm always excited to get in the swamp,
especially in the southeast corner,
because we have already recovered some amazing artifacts
from this area.
If we can find more parts of that ship,
it will be a great day on Oak Island.
What's happening, Billy?
Just got a little wood here, and I--
What kind of wood?
Somebody's dug down in the swamp, and there--
We got a bunch of horizontal and vertical boards.
There's a wall of a...
shaft, retaining wall, something.
Maybe it's what Fred probed.
GARY: So you think it could be
-potentially what Fred was probing when he thought... -Well...
-...he hit the wall? -There's-there's potential of that.
NARRATOR: A possible wall
buried at the southern border of the swamp?
While investigating this area more than 30 years ago,
the late treasure hunter and Oak Island landowner Fred Nolan
reportedly discovered a wooden wall or dam.
A dam that Fred believed represented evidence
that the swamp was an artificial feature
that had been created centuries ago
in order to hide something of great value.
Is it possible that the team has found
a section of that same construct?
And if so, could it be related
to the potentially 1,250-year-old piece
of ship's railing that the team found nearby back in 2020?
I think we're onto something, mate.
BILLY: I think we got to get the guys here.
Looks like somebody was digging down in the depths of the swamp.
STEVE: You make a good point, Billy. I mean,
it's really close, I would say feet off of the stone road.
-Yeah. -So I think it could be really important and maybe related
-to the stone road. -For sure. -GARY: Yeah.
Let's get back to base, tell the guys.
Good eyes, Billy.
BILLY: Somebody was doing work in the body of the swamp.
IAN: Yeah, that's a good point. So...
this is a little more curious,
-in terms of... -Mm.
...did somebody excavate here,
put that in in modern times or...
-is it older? -Right.
NARRATOR: After a mysterious
wooden structure was discovered
at the southern edge of the swamp
just one day ago...
RICK: You probably want
-to take a look. -IAN: At some point, yeah.
...Rick Lagina has invited geoscientist Dr. Ian Spooner
to inspect the feature.
IAN: What interests me
is it's down into the sediment.
I really want to see the context
of that and the sediment around it.
RICK: Yep.
We can see this red stuff here.
-RICK: Mm-hmm. -That red stuff is what's underneath
-the stone road. -Right.
NARRATOR: Just to the west
lies the potentially 500-year-old stone road
or ship's wharf,
a feature that may date to roughly the same time period
as the wooden tunnel below the Garden Shaft.
IAN: If we start seeing that red stuff within
and around that wood structure,
that will possibly place it further back in time.
Yeah.
NARRATOR: Is it possible that this feature
may be related to the nearby stone road,
as Dr. Spooner is speculating?
And perhaps also to the possible treasure tunnel
in the Money Pit area?
This was always the area that I...
was really interested in.
In terms of trying to find something
that connects the stone road to something else.
-Right. -We know it had to be used for something else,
and they were going somewhere and doing something.
-Mm-hmm. -STEVE: Yeah.
If this is as old as the stone road,
could this have been some sort of a loading
and unloading platform?
That's kind of interesting.
STEVE: You tie something to it, the cargo,
swing it off, unload, load, unload, load.
-IAN: Sure. They'd pull the big boat up. -Yeah.
IAN: They'd unload their goods.
-GARY/STEVE: Yeah. -And they could have built other structures as well.
Yeah.
RICK: There's precious little known
about the southeast corner of the swamp.
I wish I understood
why we're making these discoveries in the swamp
that has endured over two centuries.
I think there were activities conducted here,
maybe not by the same persons
but maybe by a same group or entity
over generations,
perhaps even centuries.
This wood here is interesting, too,
because it's round on the edges, flat on the top.
That's pretty old.
-Mm. -I think the desire
on all parts is to dig
and expose the structure in its entirety
so we can come to a real good understanding of its purpose.
And hopefully there's an artifact or two
that might tell us what its purpose was.
Somebody put a huge effort into installing something,
and, uh... Like, we have to be careful, is all I'm saying.
-RICK: Mm-hmm. -Okay.
RICK: I think that's-that's pretty cool.
-GARY: Yeah. -Yep.
RICK: Okay. For right now,
-let's call it a day. -IAN: Yeah.
-Okeydoke. -Okay.
-All righty. Thank you. -Yeah.
RICK: All right. Good job.
-Thanks, Billy. -BILLY: Yep!
NARRATOR: For the Laginas and their team,
the complexity and intrigue
of the 229-year-old Oak Island mystery continues to grow.
Could it truly have originated
more than a thousand years ago
with a secret deposit of priceless holy relics?
And could there have been a generational conspiracy
that followed
in order to protect and add to
those treasures?
The evidence and research suggest that it's possible.
And perhaps the ultimate question now is,
can Rick, Marty and their team prove it?
Next time on The Curse of Oak Island...
This is the secret of secrets.
The message being conveyed in code
is that the Ark of the Covenant is on Oak Island.
-You can put "X" on the spot? -Correct.
-Holy cow! -Wow!
Is it truly silver?
It is silver.
About 90%.
Yes!
LAIRD: In 40 years,
I can't remember a piece of silver.
GARY: Is that it?
I see it, mate.
Underneath that boulder.
-Look at that! -(gasps)
What the heck is that?
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