[narrator] Tonight on The Curse of Oak Island...
[Charles] We're in a sweet area right here.
There's metals in the water. High metals.
We're looking for the one thing.
This could be where it's coming from.
-Yeah. -Exactly.
-What are you seeing, Peter? -Definitely a void
that goes on for a long ways.
[Rick] We're gonna get to the bottom of this.
There's a heck of a lot of bricks up here.
[Craig] Maybe it'll lead to a vault.
Wow.
[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.
♪ ♪
So, BN-14, we're down to 108.
-It's not really that soft yet, Steve. -That's right.
[narrator] At the top of a new morning
on Oak Island, brothers Rick and Marty Lagina and their team
hope to finally pinpoint a legendary treasure
at the bottom of the Money Pit.
We're in an area of the Peacock where
we've had an open void, and, hopefully,
we're gonna be able to find it again.
We're in a sweet area right here,
-so, if it's there, we'll find it. -Exactly.
[narrator] Today, the team is drilling borehole BN-14
in the so-called Peacock,
an area where they have discovered
loose soils between 50 and 150 feet underground
that sits nearly ten feet above the solution channel.
Whoa. Whoa, whoa, whoa.
[narrator] Two weeks ago, while drilling
just three feet west of their current location,
the team found a possible man-made cavity
measuring ten feet high.
-[Steve] So, we're into the hole. -[Charles] Okay.
[narrator] And when an underwater camera was placed
in the cavity, they captured images that suggested
it could be an offset treasure chamber.
The shapes, the tapering, the alignment
appears of human origin rather than the natural environment.
[narrator] Now, the team has two goals.
First, they hope to drill into the mysterious void again
and determine just what is in there.
And second, penetrate the solution channel
several feet deeper,
where high traces of precious metals
have been repeatedly detected in the water.
Who knows what the next core's gonna bring us.
[Marty] From a scientific standpoint, I am very curious
as to what in the heck the Peacock is
and hope to get some data on that.
Is it an offset treasure chamber
right above the solution channel?
We have a core, gentlemen.
[Marty] Knowing what's in these strange areas
that are associated with the solution channel
could point us to where the treasure is.
So, I think we're on the right track.
-[Charles] What do you got, Adam? -118.
-118 -Thank you.
BN-14, 108 to 118.
Looks like it's getting a little soft.
Let's have a look.
Firming up down here, but
-we're getting quite loose up above. -Are we ever.
Yeah. Wow.
-So, this is really coming apart. -[Steve] Yeah.
[Terry] So, I would say
there's a little too much sediment.
It's not completely washed-out. It's not a void.
-No. Not yet. -We're getting close to the void.
-Yeah. -[Terry] So, hopefully, we're gonna
-find the offset chamber. -[Steve] Yeah.
-We'll get some evidence of that treasure. -Yeah.
From here on out, it gets interesting.
[narrator] As the drilling continues
in the Money Pit area,
Rick and members of the team arrive on Lot 8,
located on the western side of the island...
-[Rick] You got a lot more work done. -[Laird] Yeah.
But I have to ask, Laird, what do you think?
It's weird.
[narrator] ...where members of the team are investigating
a massive boulder that Laird found one week ago,
and which appears to have been placed
above evenly spaced stones.
[Laird] Because you can see defined edges.
[Rick] Right.
-You can see it coming up here. -Mm-hmm.
[Laird] Which is odd.
My curiosity was instigated by the placement
of those stones on the outside.
[Laird] They're almost regularly placed.
-[Rick] Yeah. -[Laird] Right? Yeah.
And there's some evidence of a void,
a space of some sort under there.
[Rick] Yes.
You know, the more this shapes up to be something made
rather than natural, the more curious I become
of the December Triangle on Zena's map.
Mm-hmm.
[narrator] The December Triangle?
In 2016, the late author and researcher Zena Halpern
presented the team with a map of Oak Island
that she believed had been created by
the Knights Templar in the 14th century.
Curiously, it marked a number of locations
in French that, when translated to English,
corresponded with known sites, such as the Money Pit,
the Stone Triangle, and the swamp.
Could Doug be correct that this boulder feature
might align with another site on the map
known as the December Triangle?
If this is one point on that triangle,
there could be a couple more out there.
Well, we might be able to help you solve
-part of the mystery. Peter has a camera. -Yeah.
-Okay. -[narrator] Now, after Laird
and the archaeology team
have begun to excavate a possible
artificial void under the boulder,
the team will use an inspection camera
to look for important clues beneath it.
Peter, put the camera down,
-let's see what we see. -Okay. Where do I go? Yeah.
-Right over this way. -Okay.
[Rick] It has been manipulated.
We don't know of any efforts
in any of this historical narrative
associated to this work on Lot 8.
But I think the thing that's in everyone's mind is,
what could possibly be underneath it?
What are you seeing, Peter?
[Peter] Definitely a void that I'm following.
It certainly goes on for a long...
...ways.
I think it's very soft underneath the rock,
which is odd.
Okay.
I hit some compact soil.
Is it at the very bottom, Peter?
Yeah.
I'm able to follow it down,
but this material is much more compact.
It's firm enough that, four feet away, I can't push through it.
-Four feet's a long ways down. -Yeah.
If something was buried there,
-you'd almost expect them to backfill it. -Mm-hmm.
[Doug] Can you do a test pit right
-where Peter is? -Yeah. That's exactly what I was thinking.
That way, there's two purposes.
-What's down and-and what's in. -[Laird] Yeah.
[Rick] Both Fiona and Laird are of a like mindset,
and that is that we're making progress in a very
archaeologically disciplined way and they would be resistant
to a drastic change in the approach,
i.e. a large excavation, and I currently agree with them.
[Peter] I think we got everything we can
-from the camera. -Okay.
Let's clear it off and see what we get.
Well, I know one thing, no pun intended,
-but you're gonna get to the bottom of this. -[laughter]
Okay. Well, I think we will let you continue
-to do your work. -Okay.
-Okey doke. Good luck. -See you later.
[narrator] As the work on Lot 8 continues...
It's gonna be interesting to see if we find more stakes,
if-if there is a line that's gonna take us right across
into the south end of the swamp.
[narrator] ...Craig Tester, Tom Nolan,
and other members of the team continue searching for clues
in the northern region of the swamp.
It looks like it's heading towards
-that vault that we found. -Mm-hmm.
-I'd love to find another one. -Yep.
[narrator] They are hoping to uncover more sections
of a cobblestone path found one year ago in this area
that was lined by eight-sided survey stakes
and led to an empty brick and slate vault.
The vault-like feature in the map is outlined exactly like
the vault-like feature found in the swamp to a T.
[narrator] A vault which appeared to be
drawn in a 19th-century book
containing Masonic codes and a map of Oak Island
that researcher John Edwards believes may be connected
to missing treasures of the Knights Templar
and a related order known as the Knights of Malta.
What's that right there?
Is that a stake right there?
Maybe.
I think it is.
We'll know in a minute.
-[Alan chuckles] -Oh, yeah.
Yep.
And there we go again.
Eight sides on this.
Yep.
That's amazing. Very consistent.
That kind of goes to the center area towards the vault.
Yeah. It's moving in that direction.
Al, wouldn't mind scraping in that area a little bit more?
And see those rocks that are at the very bottom there?
-Yes. -[Craig] I want to see if
there's any kind of platform or not.
-Perfect. Yep. -Okay.
As we're uncovering, uh, some of the material,
you know, we're starting to uncover rocks.
I don't know what it's telling us yet,
but it's a starting point.
If it's a road, then we can follow it.
Maybe it'll lead to another vault.
[Tom] It looks like they're kind of placed in there,
-but, uh... -Yeah.
It seems like it's an awful lot of
swamp material underneath it.
-Yeah. -Um...
Well, sort of like the stone path on the other side.
-Same-same idea. -Yeah.
-So why is a rock sitting on swamp material? -[Tom] Yeah.
-And why is the wood in there mixed with it? -[Craig] Yeah.
Yeah, I think I'll text Dr. Spooner,
-see if he can come out here. -Yeah.
It'll be interesting to know what he says about it.
-[Ian] Tom. Craig. -Dr. Spooner.
-[Ian] How are you? -[Craig] Good. Good.
-We have some questions, hard to believe. -Yep.
[narrator] In the northern region
of the Oak Island swamp,
Dr. Ian Spooner arrives to inspect a possible
stone structure that was just uncovered by the team
and marked with an eight-sided wooden stake.
We're finding, right in through here at least,
a number of rocks. Okay?
And it seems to still have peat underneath it,
-like it wasn't sitting on sea level. -[Ian] Right. Yep.
It just seems so crude,
and yet, thought through.
And so, I wonder if, somehow, that ties into some of
the other structures that we're seeing the stakes in the ground.
-[Craig] Yeah. Okay. -[Ian] So, I'll just take a look.
[Craig] As Tom and I were looking at the stones
underneath the sand, we felt it was a road or path or something.
It's different from what we see, uh, further into the swamp.
So, our thought is, let's get in there
and see if we can find something of significance
that may help date when this structure happened.
I see there's...
-Is that a cut piece? -[Ian] Yeah.
It's what-what we want.
-And it was down deep? -Yeah.
-It was down here in the peat. -[Craig] Good.
[Ian] I can test this to try to date this structure.
-Okay. -Whew.
So, what I know for sure
is this is at least three rocks thick
-where I was digging. -Mm-hmm.
Same with the stone road. I-I find it amazing,
-it was built on swamp. -A lot of swamp. Yeah.
-Okay. Well, I'll take that back. -[Craig] Okay.
-Thank you very much. -Thank you, Dr. Spooner.
[Rick] We have come to learn that every time
you dig in the swamp, you're gonna be surprised.
We have found artifacts.
We have found constructions,
all of which imply
the swamp is very complex, probably as complex
or maybe even more so than the Money Pit.
Wow. There's a heck of a lot of bricks up here.
This load was full of bricks.
At least four of 'em.
Those bricks do remind me of the bricks
that were associated with that vault over there,
-so... -Oh, yeah.
We're getting more and more bricks. I'll toss 'em over.
[narrator] Bricks?
Found near the newly uncovered stone feature?
Could Craig be correct
that, perhaps, they are related to another vault in this area?
[Craig] All the things in the swamp,
the vault, the stone road,
the stone path, all these stakes
that are going throughout the area,
it was all there for a purpose. Man put it there.
It means man was doing something very significant here.
We got to figure out what.
Between what looks like a stone road
and the lot of bricks we found, you know, I think
we're finding something significant here.
Maybe we can follow it that way and see if
we can come up with another vault.
I mean, it's definitely moving to that side of the swamp,
-so it'll be interesting... -Yep.
-...to see just where they take us from here. -Mm-hmm.
-Okay. Good day. -Thanks, Al.
[Alan] Excellent. Thank you, guys.
-[Craig] Thank you. -[Gary] See you, mate.
[narrator] The next day...
[Rick] So, lady and gentlemen,
we find ourselves in another war room.
And today, Emiliano has kindly offered to come
and give us an update on his research.
Thank you, sir.
[narrator] ...Rick and members of the team
meet with Emiliano Sacchetti.
[Alex] With what we found on the island
and especially the known historical connection
between the Knights of Malta and Nova Scotia,
I was excited to see
what we could find in the historical record.
[narrator] In light of discoveries made on Lot 5,
such as two 17th-century buttons,
a number of Venetian trade beads,
and a 17th-century folded coin that all may be connected
to the Knights of Malta...
What I'm presenting today is almost a year of work.
[narrator] ...Emiliano has uncovered new research that
he is eager to share with the team.
I conducted this research in Rome, in the Vatican archives,
in Ottawa,
at Library and Archives Canada
to research the presence
of the Knights of Malta here in Nova Scotia.
Today, I'm-I'm presenting some new information
about Isaac de Razilly,
who was the governor of Acadia.
[narrator] In 1632, a wealthy French Naval captain
and Knight of Malta named Isaac de Razilly
led a battalion of approximately 300 men
to establish the colony of Acadia,
which is now modern-day Nova Scotia.
And curiously, he built his headquarters--
known today as Fort Point-- on the LaHave River,
just 15 miles south of Oak Island.
So, what we know is that this guy
sailed from west coast of France,
and in two months, arrived here in Nova Scotia.
He landed in LaHave, where de Razilly built his fort.
He was travelling with Nicolas Denys, a businessman.
We know that, from a journal that Nicolas Denys kept
during this time in Acadia,
and there's a passage, annotation,
that is really interesting and revealing to me.
And it says, "Setting out from LaHave,
we went clear to the head of this bay,
where we found some other island with big oaks."
[narrator] Is it possible that the island of oaks
described in the journal connected to Isaac de Razilly
was referring to Oak Island?
If so, was de Razilly simply exploring?
Or was it because he had knowledge of something
of great value hidden there,
based on his high-ranking position
in the Knights of Malta?
Among the other things in Ottawa,
what I found very interesting is two documents.
The furniture, clothes, fabric, silverware,
everything that was in his possess.
It's very detailed.
One of these two inventories
was written here in Nova Scotia, in LaHave.
The other inventory, a year later in France,
where de Razilly family was residing.
If you compare the two inventories,
some items that were listed here in LaHave
are not present in the inventory a year later.
Between Nova Scotia and France, we have missing items.
[narrator] In July of 1636,
Isaac de Razilly died suddenly of unknown causes.
His belongings were inventoried in Acadia
before being shipped back to his family in France.
However, when a second inventory was taken
of what was actually delivered,
several items were not included.
[Emiliano] So what are the missing items?
We have a copper astrolabe,
we have two flintlock muskets, and two leather-covered chests.
Uh, what did those leather-covered chests contain?
Maybe they have been used
to move out of LaHave,
Razilly's riches.
For now, we know that it never reached France.
And I think I also have some
interesting information
about his potential presence here on Oak Island.
[Rick] Oh, really?
Is it possible that Razilly's missing items
have been hidden here
on Oak Island?
-[Rick] Quite interesting. -[Doug] Yeah.
[narrator] In the war room,
Emiliano Sacchetti has revealed documented evidence
that two chests of valuables belonging to Isaac de Razilly,
a Knight of Malta who was headquartered near Oak Island,
went missing after his death in 1636.
We know that the Knights of Malta did own
or have in their possession some relics.
The order brought relics from the Holy Land,
so maybe one of the mission
Razilly's men undertook was to move things to Oak Island.
I've always objected to the idea that what was done here
-was to protect temporal wealth, meaning money. -Mm-hmm.
-There's something else. -Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
If you're gonna go through the effort of, uh,
engineering a-a system like we believe
happened here, it's going to be more than just
your chest of coins, probably, that you put down there.
Yeah.
And two more of the missing de Razilly items are
two flintlock muskets.
That reminded me of what you guys found in Lot 8,
and this is this artifact.
You guys know it, and it's an amazing piece.
This is a-a flintlock plate coming from a firearm.
[narrator] In 2021,
while metal detecting on Lot 8,
just yards from where the team
is currently investigating the massive boulder feature,
Gary and Marty discovered an iron flintlock plate
from a musket, that could date as far back as the 17th century.
[Emiliano] So, we can't rule out the possibility that this
was part of one of the missing muskets of Isaac de Razilly.
-Mm-hmm. -[Doug] What you're saying is we potentially have
some circumstantial evidence that they had
a presence here on the island.
Yeah. Well, you said it better, but...
[laughter]
[narrator] Is it possible that Emiliano has found
a key piece of evidence
supporting the theory that Isaac de Razilly
and the Knights of Malta
brought Templar-related treasures to Nova Scotia,
that were eventually hidden on Oak Island?
[Rick] The folded coin, the Venetian beads, the buttons,
the majority of the artifacts are 1600s,
so maybe it's connected with the Knights of Malta.
Isaac de Razilly was here in Nova Scotia.
There are two missing leather-bound chests.
Might they be associated with a treasure here?
It's possible.
Emiliano, we've had many talks how important research is,
and this just reaffirms that fact.
Ultimately, it will be responsible,
or partially responsible, for
understanding what happened here on Oak Island.
So, I applaud you for doing it.
I thank you for doing it. Doug and Judi as well.
But there is a search component.
It's starting to look like we have to go to Fort Point.
And I think everyone sitting around this table
would all agree, so if we can arrange that,
it could be an important component
of finding the answers here.
-Yeah. -And we need to go do it, so...
-Okay. -Sounds good.
[Peter] Thank you.
[narrator] Later that day...
...while members of the team
carefully dig beneath the boulder on Lot 8...
[Gary] All right. Here's the next one, Scott.
-[Scott] Okay. -[narrator] ...several yards to the south,
Gary and Scott search for more clues where Gary
has already detected and flagged buried metal objects
close to where the team found the musket flintlock.
Scott.
[beeping]
-Let's check it out. -Yep.
[Gary] I'd like to find something connected
to that feature behind us, mate.
[beeping]
Let me see if I can pinpoint it.
[pinpointer beeping]
-Got it. Got it. -Oh, you got it?
-Oh. Shotgun shell. -Oh.
[Gary] You can't win 'em all,
but like I always tell the guys,
you got to dig through the trash to get to the treasure.
All right, mate. I'll put it in the pouch, and we'll move to
-the next flag, which is just over there. -Move on.
[Gary] We have to keep digging in the area
and, hopefully, recovering artifacts because
one of the great things about metal detecting on Oak Island
is you never know what's gonna come out the hole next.
All right. Here's the next one, Scott.
[beeping]
-Good hit? -Yeah.
Good nonferrous hit.
Should be just there.
Nice one.
Sounds a lot better now.
Come on. Be something good.
Got it out.
Ooh. I like finding lead.
It's a lead splash.
[Scott] It makes you wonder how it gets here.
-Yeah. -In the middle of nowhere,
-there's one random piece of lead. -Yeah.
And you know what you had to go through to dig that out.
Now, I know Katya
found a really nice bale seal
just over the wall there.
Um, there's a chance it could be
-a folded over piece of bale seal. -It's possible.
[narrator] Could Gary be correct
that he and Scott may have found another piece of a bag seal?
Like the one recently found in this area
that could date back as much as seven centuries?
[Gary] But I'll put it in the bag, mate,
and we'll put the flag in there.
Sounds good.
[narrator] Because the team has recently created
a so-called heat map to help them organize
their discoveries across the island
according to their potential age,
Scott is marking the site of this find with a flag.
Nice one, mate. A little bit of mystery lead.
Moving on.
And the next flag is over here.
All right. Let's see what this one sounds like.
[beeping]
Great strong signal just there.
And we are a stone's throw away from that feature now, Scott.
-It's certainly a rocky lot. -Yeah, it is.
I like the rocks, mate.
It helps trap targets from sinking deeper.
[pinpointer beeping]
What have we got here?
I know what it feels like, and I'm hoping it is.
We have got some big chunks here.
I believe this is it.
I think this is a big piece of iron, look.
See that, mate? There's a big, big chunk of iron
right there.
You could chunk around that,
because if this is an old piece of iron,
it would really help us try and explain
this feature behind us on Lot 8.
I agree. We need an artifact or something
-to tie this to man. -Yeah.
It's out.
Oh, what have we got here? Woo-hoo!
[Scott] Amazing.
[Gary] Oh, what have we got here?
It's a couple of links of chain.
[Gary] Oh, yeah, it is. Older style chain as well.
-It's oval links. -Yeah.
[narrator] On Lot 8, Gary and Scott
have uncovered what could be another important clue.
It's obviously hand-forged, by the look of it.
You can feel it has some weight to it, like older iron.
[Gary] Yeah. I know these oval links are old.
And I mean, chains go back all the way
to Roman days and beyond.
I'd be curious to see the scan of that when they X-ray it.
See how collapsed these links are
from what kind of load it may have been pulling.
[Gary] Yeah. That's a good point.
Just recently, we found some really big ox shoes
in a line heading towards this feature.
We have a-a large boulder right there
that we're suspecting may have been moved into place.
If you were gonna move that boulder,
-you would need chain and some really big oxen. -Yeah.
Oh, yeah, mate. These could be the missing links.
[narrator] Could Scott be correct?
Is it possible that this iron chain
might be related to the massive boulder,
where the team has found evidence suggesting
that it was lifted and placed above a ring of smaller stones?
[Gary] When you look at the connections
to this mysterious stone boulder,
it doesn't get any better than this piece of chain.
Chains are used for pulling and hauling.
This could be the missing link we've been searching for
to find the treasure. I like the sound of that.
But we know where we got to go
to get the results on this, mate.
-It's back to the lab. All right. -Perfect.
Plant that sweet flag of victory,
and we'll see what Emma has to say about the find.
-Sounds good. -Good digging, Scotty.
[Scott] Good finding, Gary.
[narrator] As Gary and Scott
conclude their search on Lot 8...
I think we missed the void at 148 feet,
but we should hit the bottom of the solution channel
-in this hole. -Yeah.
[narrator] ...Rick and Dr. Spooner
arrive in the Money Pit area,
where borehole BN-14 has reached a depth below 150 feet,
but unfortunately, encountered no evidence
of the potentially man-made void.
[Ian] I mean, I'm still interested, because we're
at a depth that is right verging on the solution channel.
-Right? -Yep.
And we're close to your favorite borehole, C.5N-13.5.
-Yep. -[Steve] Every time you tested
that borehole, it returned metals.
It's connected to the solution channel.
[Steve] Yeah.
[narrator] The team is hopeful that a major discovery
could still be made
once the drill reaches the solution channel
because it was just eight feet away
in borehole C.5N-13.5,
where water tests conducted in 2024
revealed some of the highest traces
for gold and silver that have ever been obtained.
We have a core, gentlemen.
[Ian] It'll be interesting to see what it is.
Yep.
[Rick] We didn't find the void.
So, again, my mantra is: "stick to the plan,
cover the area, use all the data we obtain
to dial in on where the treasure might be located."
It's that simple.
-What do you got here? -198.
-[Steve] 198? -Yeah.
-Okay. -Okay.
[Steve] We're probably now into the solution channel.
Okey doke. Let's cut it open, see what we got.
Um...
So, is this sand generally seen at this level?
[Scott] It is a little odd at that depth to-to have it.
It's pretty good sand, isn't it?
-[Ian] Yeah. -It's a clear path of water movement.
[Ian] Absolutely. Like, this would
move water very, very nicely.
This could be what you'd expect in a void that got washed.
There's metals in the water, high metals.
But where is it coming from?
-Yeah. -[Ian] If you have a till that has gold,
and it gets washed,
it leaves behind the precious metals that are in the till.
But what we will for sure take is
a sample, a large sample of this.
Right.
We'll take that section and bag it.
[narrator] Several weeks ago,
Dr. Spooner began a new kind of testing procedure
to look for precious metals in soils
that the team recovered from the solution channel
nearly 50 feet to the southwest.
Those results are still pending,
but could be much more accurate
than water tests in locating the possible treasure.
[Rick] We've spent a great amount of time and energy
doing soil samples because that's where
the signature, if you will,
of metals in the water would be held.
-All good? -A little more.
[Rick] So, we will continue the soil and water sampling
from these depths to try to ascertain whether or not
there are precious metals in the area.
[Ian] That's good.
[Rick] It's unfortunate that we didn't find the one thing here,
but we have to remember the point of this exercise
was to define the solution channel to a greater extent.
That really was the goal here.
There's always the one chance that
there's actually something there.
So, that's the way you have to look at it.
Every time and every way,
-you have to remain positive. -[Charles] Yes.
It's on to the next one, gentlemen.
[Rick] You bet.
[narrator] With another golden sunrise on Oak Island...
[Ethan] We've uncovered this weird area.
These rocks are super flat, and they're, uh, not in situ.
They're on top of what looks like subsoil,
but that's also loose.
[narrator] ...Rick and Gary arrive on Lot 8,
where members of the team have just found
more evidence of man-made workings
next to the massive boulder.
There's no flat rocks in this whole feature here.
They look like stepping stones from here.
They kind of do look like pavers, huh?
-They are very unusual. -[Rick] Hmm.
You should ask Terry where these types
of stones might have come from.
Yeah. I think it's a great idea.
-We've never seen 'em before. -No.
[Rick] I think the archaeologists
are actually quite excited about the flat stones
around the Lot 8 boulder
because they look for anything that is out of place.
Something you might not expect to find.
-Hi, guys. -Hey, Terry.
Ethan has uncovered some thin, flat stones that-that
just don't look like anything else around here.
-Okay. -[Rick] So, we asked Terry to come down,
uh, because he's a geologist, and he can
give us his opinion about what the feature might be.
Is it natural? Is it man-made?
Okay. That's interesting.
That's granite.
Those almost look like flagstones,
which would show that somebody was trying to flatten
-or pave an area. -[Laird] Yeah.
-Which is curious in itself. -[Terry] Sure.
Let's have a look at them here.
Those types of flattened granite sheets,
it wouldn't happen naturally, I wouldn't think.
And have you seen it anywhere else on the island?
No, I haven't seen anything quite like that.
[Laird] It's very, very odd. Yeah.
[Rick] Putting a name like flagstones
to that is reminiscent of the description of the Money Pit.
As they started digging, they came across flagstones
laid out in a pattern, like a floor.
[narrator] In 1795,
when Daniel McGinnis and his two friends,
Anthony Vaughan and John Smith,
began digging in a strange 13-foot-diameter depression
on the eastern end of Oak Island,
they found a uniform layer of flagstones two feet deep
that were packed together,
as if forming a seal for something buried below.
They would soon realize that they had discovered
the original Money Pit.
Is it possible
that these granite flagstones were buried next
to this massive boulder for a similar reason
as those found at the top of the Money Pit?
If so, just what might the team find buried beneath them?
[Fiona] This is getting weirder and weirder.
-Oh, yeah. -[laughter]
[Rick] To me, the importance of this structure--
we'll call it the Lot 8 mystery--
it's singularly unique.
I think everyone is now firmly committed to the idea
that it was manipulated by people.
I don't know what to make of it.
I hope, as the process continues,
and it will continue, uh,
that there will be some answers forthcoming.
-Yeah. -It'll be interesting what's under here.
-Mm-hmm. -Yeah.
And in order to do that, I guess we will leave you
-to your efforts. -Okay.
-Gary and I will go back to work. -Good luck.
[Laird] Thanks, Terry.
[narrator] Later that afternoon...
[Rick] You know, we find ourselves in the lab again.
I know this is a chain from Lot 8.
That's all I know about it.
[narrator] ...Rick has gathered with other members
of the team in the lab,
where Emma has just completed her analysis
of the iron chain
found one day ago on Lot 8.
So, you two were instrumental in the find and the recovery.
Why don't you tell us about the item
-in front of us? -Yup.
This piece of chain was 20 yards
west of the big boulder,
and it's an older-shape link.
And I'm hoping that this is an old piece,
because of the artifacts we've recovered on Lot 8 already.
Yeah.
So, what have you found out about it?
So first, I'll just bring up the CT scan,
just to get a clearer view of the original shape.
[Gary] That looks really well made.
[Emma] Yeah. So, it's forged.
The seams-- there's no butt-ends, there's no welding,
obvious welding signs.
All of these point towards a non-modern link.
So, we'll just move on to the composition.
It's a very pure iron.
It's averaging at 99%.
And I'm just gonna say it off the bat,
good signs for pre-1800s date range.
-Brilliant. -Yeah.
[Rick] What date are you putting on this?
[Emma] Okay. So, I'd say,
comfortably 1600s, based on the composition.
But technically,
-it could go back to the 1500s. -Wow.
[Emma] So, I'd say, comfortably 1600s,
and could technically go into 1500s.
-Brilliant. -Yeah.
[narrator] In the Oak Island lab,
Emma has determined that the pieces
of iron chain found on Lot 8,
and near the massive boulder feature,
could date back well over a century
before the discovery of the Money Pit.
[Emma] Especially because
you do still see some traces of phosphorous.
So, that in there is aligning
with the iron industry during that time period.
[Scott] You see from the image, though, it's had a hard life,
a rough life, because you can see on the corners how
-it's thin on the curve. -[Emma] Oh, the wear patterns.
[Scott] Yeah, the wear patterns.
[Emma] It went through some heavy workload.
[Scott] Well, if you were moving a 50,000-pound boulder.
-[Emma] Exactly. -[Scott] You know,
it's 20, 25 yards away from that big boulder
on Lot 8 that was really curious, so,
if it was placed there, this may have been
-the chain that hauled it there. -[Rick] Hmm.
Chains hang around for a long, long time.
Those dates certainly align
-with the Knights of Malta. -[Laird] Yeah.
That timeline fits.
-Yup. -[Rick] We know that, right?
We know they were in Fort Point.
-Isaac de Razilly, right? -Yeah.
[narrator] Could Rick be correct
that the team has found another piece of evidence
that may tie the Knights of Malta
to the Oak Island mystery?
If so, could this chain also be related
to the flintlock that was found on Lot 8,
the massive boulder feature,
and perhaps the two missing treasure chests
that once belonged to Isaac de Razilly?
[Marty] Here we have something
that we all probably walked past 20 times.
I'm talking about this big boulder.
Well, this says several things, doesn't it?
The first thing you think is,
if this is really that significant,
and the archaeologists seem to think it is,
how many other things like it are all over the island?
The other thing we also have is a metal chain,
found by Scott and Gary.
It probably wouldn't be so significant,
except it's found very near the big boulder.
So, I am very curious as to what this might be.
We don't know what's underneath that boulder yet.
Can you imagine when that boulder's moved?
Maybe this chain was used to lower something down there.
There might be some other chain there,
but a different color. Maybe gold?
-Ooh. That would be sweet. -[laughs]
There's all kinds of possibilities
about what this boulder represents.
Sure, it could be covering a shaft.
There could be an interment
of something precious or significant underneath it.
I think everyone is now firmly committed
to the idea that it was manipulated.
We found multiple artifacts in the area.
I think it's an important facet
to helping solve the Oak Island mystery.
Well, it's a pretty cool find.
It's an interesting possible connection.
You have this intriguing boulder on Lot 8, right?
We have interesting finds in close proximity
that we have yet to explain, which is very interesting.
It begs for more data,
but in order to do that, we've got to get out back
-and find some more. -Yeah.
-Let's get to work. -Yeah. Hopefully,
-there's some more answers there. -Okey doke.
Thank you both.
-[Laird] See you later. -[Gary] See you.
[narrator] Despite the frustration
that Rick, Marty and the team face
in locating a vast cache of gold and silver
that has been detected deep in the Money Pit,
they have now discovered another man-made feature
near the surface that may also contain something
of great value and historical importance.
Could both of these sites on Oak Island prove
that a generational conspiracy took place
to hide sacred riches from the Holy Land in North America?
The evidence suggests
that the team's tireless efforts to find out
will be well worth the reward.
Next time on The Curse of Oak Island...
[Joan Dawson] Welcome to Fort Point Museum.
We brought a few artifacts.
[Alex] Do you think that
the Knights of Malta would've used
-beads like that? -Yes. They may well have
visited Oak Island.
[Terry] This is the kind of loose slurry
of mud that we were looking for.
That speaks to a chamber. Or the offset chamber.
[Charles] That's where treasure can hide.
We're all extremely interested in the Lot 8 feature.
[Alex] We need to see what's under that rock.
-Wait. You see that? -Oh, my god. There's a pearl.
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