[Narrator] Tonight on The Curse of Oak Island...
-[Rick] Heads up. -[Terry] We've broken through
-into the solution channel. -That's what we're looking for.
[Marzia] The three churches have exactly the same
stellar alignment of Lot 5.
This could be a tunnel shaft entrance.
-Maybe it's just right under here. -[Rick] A piece of wood?
[Marty] What's wood doing down that deep?
Maybe this wood came from the original Money Pit.
[Craig] If there's wood at the top, maybe there's gold
-at the bottom. -Possibly treasure on deck.
Ooh, hoo-hoo, what have we got here?
[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.
♪ ♪
-[Craig] Hello, down there. -[Fiona] Hi.
-Hi, Fiona. -Oh, wow, Fiona.
-You've gotten so much done. -Wow.
This must look a little different from before.
-[Alex] Yeah. -[Narrator] A new day
on Oak Island
brings the team fresh hope for a breakthrough discovery
as Rick, Craig and members of the team
investigate the cradle-shaped feature of stones
on Lot 8.
I can't wait to show you h-how this is progressing
and what I'm seeing in here.
It's, uh, it's-it's been changing as I've gone along.
Oh, yeah.
So, once we removed that-that third layer of rocks,
we came across a substance which was like mortar.
Like, a cement-like material. So, it makes me feel like
they did this in a way that they wanted these rocks
to stay in place for some reason.
And what I've discovered, this morning,
as I've been digging around this,
this particular area here.
As I've been removing the rocks--
they were extremely hard to get out--
but I've got enough of the smaller rocks out now
that I think that maybe you should see
if you could get that moved.
[Alex] I have gloves on.
-Want me to give it a try? -I think you guys,
any of you would be welcome.
You'll notice there's still some of what I call
-these pinner rocks holding this in place. -Mm-hmm.
I'm gonna try to just step right down
so I don't move anything, hopefully.
Oh, it's pretty sturdy.
All right.
Oh, yeah, that's in there. That's true.
[Narrator] After revealing this formation
beneath a 40,000-pound boulder,
the team has discovered handworked blue clay
and a mortar-like cement
which were used to seal the stones together.
And after scientifically examining the soils
within the feature, they have found traces of silver and lead.
This suggests evidence of another possible structure
containing something of great value
may be buried deeper below.
-[Alex] Got it. -[Fiona] Did you get it?
-Yep. No problem. That's no problem. -Oh, I'm amazed.
Okay. Where do you want me to throw this? Over there?
-Well, how about right here? That's fine for now. -Okay.
[Fiona] I'm actually keeping all of these rocks,
because I just want to get an idea
of how many we've taken out in total.
It does look like
there's some dark organic underneath it there.
[Jack] Mm-hmm.
[Fiona] The mortar-like material was done very well,
and we had three types of it.
We found a very, very fine one, which was down here.
And if I were to put it on my trowel,
you can see how fine it is.
A very fine powder material, which is actually
similar to what you're seeing on the outskirts of this.
And we've taken samples to see if we can compare them.
Then we had a very blue-like clay sample,
if you can kind of see some of it in here.
-[Jack] Mm-hmm. -But this blue,
blue-gray clay, um,
had some very similarities, according to Dr. Spooner,
to what we think the puddling clay is at the Money Pit.
So, we've taken samples to compare
against the clay that we found
at the Money Pit, just in case it matches.
And then you have this third mortar material,
which is what you see at this north end.
Very cement-like.
What I'm wondering is if any of those have materials
that are not from here.
You know, sourced from somewhere else,
then-then, it's proof positive that it's deliberate.
We're also gonna compare it to the mortar material
that we found on Lot 5.
-Mm-hmm. -And we think Lot 5's pretty old.
But if we do get matches, then that could be information
-for both sites as well. -[Jack] Based upon
the analysis of the mortars, we'll be able to pin down
-when this was built. -Yeah.
You know, to me, it's... i-it's so amazing,
but what is it? What does it mean?
I mean, at this point in time, we have no idea.
No idea. So...
This could be a tunnel shaft entrance.
Maybe it's just right under here.
Yeah. Well, it definitely goes deeper.
[Rick] Some of us want to dig below the cradle
with heavy equipment.
And I know that
the archaeologists, especially Fiona,
have an intense desire to do it in a very disciplined fashion.
I think all parties agree that, if something's underneath it,
we want to know what that something is.
We just have to be patient.
What are you gonna do? You're gonna bisect it there?
The plan is to do a bisection on-on this left side here.
-[Alex] Mm-hmm. -We'll take it right down,
look at exactly how they constructed it.
And I think, as we're removing these rocks,
I would like to get samples of the soil underneath.
Okey doke. We'll let you get-get after it.
[Jack] Great job.
-[Alex] Thank you, Fiona. -[Fiona] Thanks, guys.
[Narrator] Later that afternoon...
-[Alex] Guys. How's it going? -[Gary] Hello, Alex.
-Hey, Alex. How you doing? -[Narrator] ...Alex and Jack
arrive in the Money Pit area
where the excavation of the TPF Shaft
has nearly breached the solution channel,
and in an area where soil testing
during their core-drilling operation
detected high traces of silver more than 200 feet deep.
-Where are we at? -We're below 167.
-Okay. -And we're into something very hard.
We're cutting into it. They've got some good recovery.
We can see little bits of gypsum
if we're really close to the ledge that overhangs
the solution channel.
[Narrator] Previous drilling that reached
the solution channel has made the team aware
of a thick ledge or layer of bedrock
between 150 and 170 feet deep
that acts as a ceiling for the large natural cavity.
-Hey. -[Jack] Hey, Rick. -[Terry] Hey, Rick.
-How you doing? -Good. Do you see how much smoke
is coming off there, the kind of heat that's being generated?
-[Terry] There's a lot of heat buildup on that thing. -Yep.
That's been chewing into bedrock.
-You can see the caked gypsum on the side of it. -[Gary] Wow.
[Gary] And we're so close,
really tantalizing, but this material that comes up,
we've got a really good chance
of actually finding some top-pocket finds.
-Yep. -[Rick] Absolutely.
There's no give-up around the table, so...
-Get after it. -[Alex] Sounds good.
[Narrator] As the teams from SBC and ROC
work to drill through the bedrock ledge...
[Marty] Gentlemen, it is data and analysis time.
Always a good time, uh, always interesting.
[Narrator] ...Rick, Marty, Craig and other members of the team
have gathered in the war room.
We have an-- a bona fide expert
in laser ablation, Dr. Chris McFarlane.
He's been in this war room before.
Let's get him on the screen.
Here we go.
-[Marty] Dr. McFarlane. -Hello, fellas.
[Narrator] The team is meeting with Dr. Chris McFarlane,
a professor of geochemistry at the University of New Brunswick.
It is one of the leading testing facilities
in North America for the study of historical artifacts.
We're gonna discuss
the decorative lead piece found by you, right, Gary?
-Yeah. Charles and I. -Yeah.
[Narrator] Dr. McFarlane has analyzed a lead artifact
found earlier this year in spoils removed
from the round feature on Lot 5.
[Marty] So, what did your ablation
and isotope analysis say about that?
Yeah, just pulling it up here.
[Narrator] Laser ablation is a process
of removing microscopic samples from lead objects
using a high-powered laser.
The isotopic values of the samples
are then analyzed to potentially identify
not only when the object was made
but also the geographic region where it originated.
The decorative lead piece,
the encrustation on it is quite sodium-rich,
which suggests, you know, that it's been there a while.
The silver content
-is, uh, actually quite high. -Wow.
And it's sort of anomalous compared to
modern lead.
-Okay. -The actual fabrication
is probably preindustrial,
and predates
anything happening in North America
in the turn of the last century, more or less.
Oh, wow. Okay.
Quite typical
of a Central European source.
And by Central European, I mean
U.K., France and Germany,
sort of in that part of the world.
-[Rick] Really? -[Jack] Wow.
-[chuckles] -[Chris] I do have
a-another piece of information
-for you, though. -Good.
It also bears
some similarity with the scalloped artifact
from Lot 5 that we previously analyzed.
Isotopically, it matches this decorative lead piece, right?
Correct. Yeah.
-Wow. -[Doug] And we think that's from
-medieval times. -[laughter]
[Gary] That's really, really cool.
Isotopically, it matches this decorative lead piece,
-right? -Correct. Yeah.
-Wow. -[Doug] And we think that's from
-medieval times. -[laughter]
[Gary] That's really, really cool.
[Narrator] In the war room, Dr. Chris McFarlane
has just informed the team
that the lead artifact found in the spoils
of the round feature on Lot 5
has a similar composition
to the potentially 14th-century scalloped disc
that was also found there in 2022.
[Chris] It came from a deposit
of a similar age,
somewhere across Central Europe.
[Marty] Interesting. That's pretty neat.
[soft laughter]
Okay, and we can also infer that it doesn't fit
the mining profile of North America?
Yeah.
[Marty] And that's probably
what we can garner from this, correct?
Yeah. Those are all true statements, I would say.
[Marty] Okay, well, good. So, this, this fits with the bulk
of the artifacts from that area.
[Narrator] In addition to this lead piece
and the scalloped disc,
the team has found numerous artifacts in the Lot 5 feature
that predate the discovery of the Money Pit in 1795
and originated in Europe.
These include a button made of arsenical bronze
that may be at least 700 years old,
two decorative buttons and several glass beads
that may date to the 17th century
and two glass gemstones
that may have originated in France
during the mid-18th century.
[Rick] We now have artifacts on Lot 5 that...
on a bell-shaped curve,
on the far end, you have the Roman coins.
On the other end, you have pottery and glass
and other artifacts that indicate
people were there in the early 1800s.
My belief, it speaks to, again,
that this effort here on Oak Island long ago
was done multigenerationally.
Okay. Dr. McFarlane, thank you very much.
Always interested in finding out what you have learned,
and we appreciate it.
-Always a pleasure. -Thank you. -Thank you.
[Rick] Okay doke, I think we all have a lot to do,
so let's go.
[Narrator] The next morning...
-[Carmen] Well, look here, guys. -[Doug] Hey, Carmen.
-[Emma] Hi. -[Carmen] How you doing?
-Good to see you. -[Narrator] ...Doug Crowell
and other members of the team
meet with Carmen Legge in the Oak Island lab.
You got some more stuff to show me?
We've got a couple pieces of chain here
-that look pretty old. -[Carmen] I'll have a look.
[Narrator] Carmen is examining
two hand-forged sections of chain
that were found in the spoils of the Karma-1 shaft.
The shaft excavated one week ago,
less than ten feet from where the team
is currently digging in the Money Pit area.
[Doug] This has made its way down
into solution channel depths.
And that's what we're hoping to see,
for signs of a collapse of the Money Pit.
[Carmen] Oh, I see.
Well, they're both similar.
They have a-a big, elongated link on the end.
A lot of times, these was used
to create sort of a basket
for lowering and raising items.
Right.
You picture a treasure chest wrapped in chains, right?
-It's possible. -Yeah.
[Narrator] If Carmen is correct,
is it possible that the team has recovered chains
that may have been used
to lower something into the original Money Pit?
Carmen, is there anything about that chain that you see
that may indicate where it may have been made?
Uh, I'm gonna have to say no, Scott, because...
this is a generic chain style, chain design,
made over many, many years.
I do notice that this one here
has a bend in the middle of the long link.
And that reinforces my idea
that it had to fit going through and then lock in.
And some stress or force onto it bent that link a little.
This one was made by a blacksmith that knew his stuff.
This one here, however, wasn't.
Yeah, I'm gonna say that these were made
-by two different blacksmiths. -[Doug] Emma,
I'm curious about the dates.
Based on the metallurgy, I would give these, um,
late 1600s to mid-1700s,
and typical of some European regions.
Wow. I kind of like Emma's date range
because I'm kind of partial to Duc d'Anville's expedition.
I mean, that was 1746.
Is that from, uh, his efforts?
That would be a perfect fit for the date range,
and you did say Europe for a point of origin.
[Narrator] Could Doug Crowell be correct
that these chains may provide another potential link
to the Duc d'Anville?
A French admiral with ties to the Knights Templar,
the Duc d'Anville is believed to have ordered
treasure to be buried on a wooded island
in this area back in 1746.
This is corroborated by part of a ship's log
that Doug found in the Nova Scotia Archives.
[Rick] The chains that were found in the Karma 1 spoils,
one artifact does not substantiate a theory
in its totality, but it does give you a clue.
We're in the same area with the Top Pocket Find location,
and hopefully, it will yield results.
It's very exciting.
I mean, finding something that old from deeper
than the deepest shaft in the Money Pit
is a reason to keep going.
Fingers crossed we find some more.
And I'm sure there is more.
-[Doug] Thanks, Carmen. Thanks, Emma. -[Scott] Thanks, Carmen.
-[Scott] Thanks, Emma. -[Emma] Thank you.
[Narrator] Meanwhile...
[Mikayla] I'm ready to find something in this feature
that's gonna tell us something truly significant about it.
[Tansy] I can get behind that.
[Narrator] ...Laird Niven and other members of the team
are back on Lot 5,
investigating the rounded stone foundation.
[Mikayla] After I get this bucket filled,
maybe I'll do a little bit more closer.
I hope we find more artifacts.
[Narrator] After the scientific report
on the mysterious lead artifact,
the team is eager to search
for additional clues.
[Rick] Obviously, humans created this.
But why is it here? What's its purpose?
Who did it? When did they do it?
You see it as it sits in front of you,
and all the work that's been done by Laird and his team.
But because of multigenerational activities,
we still struggle with who was here first.
[Tansy] It would be great if you could find a bead right now.
[Mikayla] There's a high potential to find even more.
[Tansy] All right. We can do that.
Oh. I found something.
-Hey, Laird. -Yo.
I've got something here.
What a great start.
Hey, Laird. I've got something here.
Cool.
It's metal.
Oh, it's got a little pattern to it.
[Narrator] In the rounded feature on Lot 5,
Tansy Rudnicki has just discovered
a curious artifact.
[Laird] It's got a finished edge,
which is kind of neat.
A bit of a design.
That looks like the rim of a button, perhaps?
It's got a definite edge, which is good.
-It's tiny. -[Tansy] It's thin
-for a button, isn't it? -It is.
But last year, there was a button found right in here
that turned out to be made of recycled arsenical bronze,
uh, from the medieval period, which is pretty interesting.
[Narrator] Is it possible
that Tansy has just found another clue
that may date to the same period as the believed medieval button?
And perhaps the scalloped disc
and lead artifact that were also uncovered here?
If so, could it be more evidence
that this feature was originally constructed
more than 700 years ago?
[Laird] The occupation of the round feature on Lot 5
is undocumented,
so we turn to the archaeological evidence,
and it's telling us that the last occupation on Lot 5
was the end of the 1700s.
But what's really significant
are the earlier artifacts we're finding,
the ones that date from before 1750,
showing two occupations.
But we've got lots of work left to do,
so hopefully, we're gonna find even more.
We found some nice stuff, right?
Beads and buttons just in this area.
-Yeah. -And that's why we're expanding
this way, um, to see what else is there.
Right? This is the main yard.
So, there's just a lot going on here.
High activity means they lose things,
and they obviously have, which is cool.
It makes me want to just keep expanding. [chuckles]
-Same. -[both laugh]
I mean, that's a great find, so I'm gonna take it back
to the lab and we'll see what it's made of.
-Whoo! -I'll let you know. All right.
-Keep digging. -[Tansy] All right. See you.
[Narrator] As the investigation of Lot 5 continues...
...later that afternoon...
[Marty] Top Pocket Find.
-Let's hope it's named properly. -[Rick] Yep.
[Narrator] ...Rick, Marty and Craig arrive
in the Money Pit area where the TPF Shaft
has finally broken through the bedrock ledge
and reached the solution channel.
-Hey, guys. -Marty, how you doing?
[Marty] Good.
Okay, Terry, how deep are we?
They're pushing me over just a little
ahead of the casing at this time,
so they're at about 175.
-Okay. -Oh, so we're just about there.
Exactly, because we're into the void beneath the ledge.
That's what we're looking for.
And that's exactly what we're looking for, Marty. For sure.
Looks like we're switching to the hammer grab there.
[Terry] There we go.
[Narrator] Because the team
has now breached the solution channel,
they are now replacing the auger cutting tool
with a hammer grab and dig bucket
to safely retrieve the spoils,
and hopefully, evidence of treasure.
[Gary] He's just dumped another load, mate.
-So, let's do some beeping. -[Terry] For sure.
[Gary] All right, let's find some good stuff, Rick.
[Marty] We know we've broken into the solution channel.
If the treasure or a piece of the treasure
is down there, it should be around this depth.
Now it's getting exciting.
I want to see what's in those drill buckets.
[Rick] I thought I saw a piece of wood.
That's it.
Is that wood?
[Alex] Yeah. A piece of wood.
[Craig] Yeah.
I'm gonna go check on that piece of wood,
just in case it's something.
-Okay. -Rick,
-I'll take that piece of wood. -Right there.
-I'll grab it. -[detector beeping]
[Marty] What's wood doing down that deep?
It's been a long, long time
since the last wood that we saw coming out of the hole.
This is not, like, a tree
that fell into a sinkhole or something.
-That's a clear cut. -[Alex] Yeah.
So, it's been, you know, shaped or utilized by somebody.
[Alex] Well, I guess it's possible that it pulled up
just shy of the bottom of the Chappell Shaft.
-Yeah. -I mean, we could be at the edge.
[Narrator] Could the team be correct
that they may have encountered evidence of the Chappell Shaft,
the shaft built in 1931
in an unsuccessful attempt
to recover a believed seven-foot-tall treasure vault?
-I'll see if it floats or sinks. -[Gary] Yeah.
If it sinks, that's a hell of a sign. Isn't it, Rick?
-That's what Dan always thought. -Yeah.
[Craig] You know, one thing that Dan Blankenship
had always said, when he brought up wood,
he'd always test it by putting it in a bucket.
His experience was, if it sank, it was old wood.
If it was-- if it tended to float,
it was more modern, s-searcher wood.
So, we always do that test right away.
It goes down like a rock.
And seeing it sink right then, well,
it's also telling me that this isn't searcher wood.
There shouldn't be wood this deep.
[Alex] It sinks like a rock.
So, if that's the case, then maybe this wood
came from the original Money Pit.
Well, that's pretty cool. We're looking for a collapse.
This virtually proves it.
-[Gary] Yeah. -[Narrator] Could Marty's notion be correct?
Is it possible
this wood is not from a searcher shaft
but perhaps the original Money Pit?
[Marty] Bits of wood are extremely important,
because this is the first indications
that-that the collapse, in fact, occurred and that we're near it.
And maybe the treasure, too.
I mean, this is where we detected
a whole bunch of silver.
[Adam E.] We're into that end of the day.
[Marty] Okay, so, how deep are we?
We are about 186, 187.
I mean, things are moving, things are still turning.
I think we're gonna call it a day for today.
[Rick] We're not gonna give up until we figure out
what that hole has to tell us.
And we need to keep going. We need to keep looking.
Tomorrow, you know, we're gonna go to the bottom
of the solution channel and we're gonna see what's there.
Period. And if everybody crosses their fingers,
-we'll find something. -[Craig] If there's wood's at the top,
-maybe there's gold at the bottom. -[Gary] Exactly.
[Marty] But we got to get there, Adam,
so we want to make hole tomorrow.
-[Adam E.] Yep. We're working on it. -All right.
[Rick] Okey doke. We'll pick it up tomorrow.
Thank you, Adam. Thank you, Quinton.
[Terry] That's great. Thanks, guys.
See you in the morning.
[Quinton] How we looking, my man?
[Josh] We're getting there.
[Terry] We're in the solution channel right now,
so time is gonna tell.
[Narrator] As a new morning dawns on Oak Island...
All right, chaps. Possibility of treasure on deck.
[Narrator] ...members of the team carefully search
through the spoils being unearthed from the TPF Shaft.
[detector beeping]
-[sustained beep] -[Gary] We got a signal.
And I don't think it's in that slop,
I think it's underneath it.
[Craig] Okay.
♪ ♪
Ooh. Uh, let me, let me have a pinpoint, mate,
because you might've got it out.
Let's see what this is.
[high-pitched beeping]
-Got it in my hand. -[sustained beep]
Now this has got potential.
I don't know what that is, but it's a little bit different.
With the black around it, you never know what it could be.
[Craig] Yeah. But it's been there a while.
-[Gary] Yeah, it's been there. -Yeah.
[Gary] There's a probability it could be iron.
Yeah. You got the depth?
The bottom of that hole we just pulled it out of, 193 feet deep.
-Okay. -Okay.
[Gary] I love me chunky iron.
When you find an old artifact encrusted in the clay,
you know it's been there a very long time.
What a heck of a start to the day.
-All right, guys. Good morning. -[Gary] Good morning!
What have we got for exciting finds?
-Anything this morning? -Yep. We have got a good find.
We just pulled it out of the clay,
and this has got a lot of potential, mate,
because of the color and the tone it gave me.
This is more than likely gonna be iron.
-[Alex] Hmm. -[Marty] Wow.
-[Gary] It's got potential. -[Marty] Yeah,
this is definitely dense.
Wow, this is old. We didn't... this is...
-It-it looks old. -Yeah.
-[Marty] How deep?
193.
Well, that's way, way, way, way, way below any searcher.
-Yeah, and actually... -God, I hope this
-is something neat. -Going through the, uh...
going through the bedrock plateau above it,
if there was a collapse into this region,
which that seems to indicate,
then that could be signs of the original Money Pit.
-Yeah. -[Alex] The only reason we could be finding
stuff like this below where searchers have been before
is either the original works
or evidence of the collapse of the original Money Pit.
And that would be a great, great indication
that we're in the right place
and that there's really something going on here.
[horn honks]
-Billy's waving to us. -Let's take a look.
[Craig] What you seeing, Billy?
[Billy] See, Craig, it looks like a piece of wood
in dark ground, but more interesting, it's...
it's in dry material.
Yeah. Yeah, that whole side
looks like it was up against a different material.
Yeah, exactly.
-Good eye. -[Terry] We're near the bottom
of the TPF-1.
We found what I feel is solid material
adjacent to loose, slushy material.
It's a good indication that you might have
an open void nearby
where treasure could fall into in the solution channel.
-Are we doing any good? -[Terry] Hey,
we're dropping like gangbusters here, and we just
-pulled up wood. -[Craig] Look how on this side,
it's all got a... more of a drier,
sandy, compared to the muck
-that they're bringing up everywhere else. -[Terry] Yeah.
So, I think we could be adjacent to an actual open void.
-[Craig] Yeah. -That's what I think we're seeing here,
and that wood didn't get there itself.
No, no. That-that's out of place at 195 feet.
-Wherever we're at, that's... -[Terry] Absolutely.
-195-ish. Yeah. -Yeah.
-Let me see that piece of wood, please, Alex. -[Alex] Yeah.
-It's heavy, dense. -That's even better.
It's-- that's a piece of shaped wood.
Yeah. There's only one explanation
that I can come up with right now for why
-that's down there, and that is the collapse. -[Craig] Yeah.
We're getting another confirmation of it.
It's very, very interesting.
Good.
Let's bring it back to the lab.
[Gary] Is that the deepest we've ever
retrieved wood?
Anything substantial, yeah.
[Marty] If you find something in the solution channel,
well below where any searcher ever was,
if that got there, then the treasure could get there,
and we have solid indications
that there was a treasure here.
So, any artifact below searcher depth is exciting.
-Hey, Quinton. -Hey, guys. -Hey, Quinton, how you doing?
-What do we got? -We're down to 206.5 feet.
-Okay. -So, we are-are
right down to where you...
-are hoping to be or very close. -Very close.
We're within ten feet of the bottom. We almost have to be.
The bottom around here is, uh, 215 to 217, 218,
so we're getting very close.
-Yeah. -[Rick] I mean, this is where
it starts to get exciting,
because you're about to reach the bottom
of the solution channel.
There's every hope that, as this process continues
and the spoils come up aboveground
and Gary metal detects, he'll find it.
Billy just scooped out another piece of wood.
[Rick] Every time you put a can in the ground,
you're hoping to find the one thing,
and there's all kinds of reasons to believe that we will.
[Gary] That is some Money Pit stew.
This is pretty soft-- I mean, look at that.
-[detector beeping] -It's a good signal.
[sustained beep]
-[Alex] Right there? -Just there, please.
Yep. And anywhere you like.
-[Alex] That's out. -It was right in that chunk there.
It's a good signal.
Let's see what we got.
[high-pitched beeping]
-Ooh, hoo-hoo, what have we got here? -[Terry] Oh, wow.
-[Alex] Whoa. -[Gary] Oh! [laughs]
[Gary] Ooh, hoo-hoo, what have we got here?
-[Alex] Whoa. -Oh! I saw the roundness.
-[Alex] Yeah. -[Narrator] While searching spoils
from nearly 210 feet deep in the solution channel,
the team has just found a metallic object.
[Rick] It's brass, isn't it?
Yeah. It looks like-- it's almost like a-a bearing?
Is that what it is?
[Gary] Only one way to tell, and that's to...
ask Adam.
Adam's coming in now.
What is that?
[Adam E.] It's a button head. That's what it's called.
-[Rick] It's off of your stuff? -Not from ours, but more like
if you were running a smaller diameter,
-and it would be on your outside. -Yep.
-[Rick] A button bit. -Little button bit.
I thought we had a gold coin for a minute.
[Narrator] Unfortunately, the button bit
is merely a cutting tool
that likely broke off the rim of a smaller-diameter caisson
as it broke through bedrock
during one of the team's previous dig operations
in this area.
-Okay, mate. I'll put it in my pouch. -Thank you, Adam.
-[Gary] Thanks. -[Alex] Thanks, Adam.
[Rick] It's disappointing, because
it's not what we're looking for, obviously.
But again, because it's not part
of this work currently undertaken by SBC and ROC,
it has fallen from above,
and that proves once again
that heavy thing migrates down through the soils
to the bottom of the solution channel.
[Terry] Well, look who's here.
Hey, guys. How you doing?
Uh, we, uh, we're on bottom with, uh,
the drill dig there, so about 215.
-215. -It's all good.
We're at the bottom. That's where we want to be.
-That's where we want to be. -[Alex] Perfect. Thanks, guys.
-Yep. -[Craig] Still finding quite a bit of wood
falling out of the bucket.
There was a collapse into the solution channel.
-[Alex] Yeah. -[Marty] Had to be. -Yeah.
[Marty] And we know from the records
that the Money Pit itself disappeared.
We just got to bloody find it.
-Look at that. Anything could fall into that. -Let's go see
-if there's anything there. -Yep.
[Marty] Everything we saw in Top Pocket-1
indicates that our theory is correct,
that the Money Pit collapsed into the solution channel.
[Gary] That's it, mate. We gave it a good shot.
[Marty] So, not only is the theory correct,
I think we're getting close to where it happened.
So, we're very excited to keep going.
Now, we proved the theory, but we didn't find the treasure,
and that is probably the sort of elephant in the room
as we're deciding where to go next.
We're searching areas that have never been searched before.
You say it all the time: a technical success.
-It is. -Proof of concept.
-Yes. -Things falling to the bottom
of the solution channel.
The one thing that, obviously,
we're missing is Gary's top-pocket find.
I am not disillusioned at all.
The reality of it, it's a bit disappointing, you know?
But you have to admit that, because you got to climb
that mountain again, right?
[Marty] Keep going.
[Rick] I'm not about to quit.
There's still a lot to hope for,
but at the end of the day,
-we've got to move on. -Yeah.
[Rick] We've got to pick the next location.
And the next location could be the location.
We've only just started searching the solution channel.
[Rick] So, there is a lot to look forward to.
[Narrator] The following morning...
[Marty] Thanks for joining, because this should be
a very exciting war room.
Thank you, Rick, for having us again.
[Narrator] ...as the team considers where their next dig
will be in the Money Pit area...
First, we'll get the professor and Marzia,
we'll get them up on the screen.
[Narrator] ...they are meeting once again
via videoconference
with archaeoastronomy expert
Professor Adriano Gaspani
and his interpreter Marzia Sebastiani.
-Emiliano, I'll turn it over to you. -Well, today,
we are going to present, uh,
an archaeoastronomical analysis of,
of the churches that Charlotte Wheatley
found to be aligned with Oak Island.
[Charlotte] So, we have three churches,
all on the west coast of France, pointing towards the island.
-Hmm. -[Narrator] One week ago, researcher Charlotte Wheatley
pointed out a reference to the city of Talmont-sur-Gironde
in Southern France,
on Zena Halpern's map of Oak Island,
which Zena believed was created by members
of the Knights Templar in the 14th century.
According to Charlotte, three medieval churches
near Talmont-sur-Gironde had ties to the Templar order
and sit on an east-to-west line
that points directly toward Oak Island.
Now, after being given the GPS coordinates
of several structures across the island,
including the round feature on Lot 5,
Professor Gaspani has analyzed Charlotte's research...
[Narrator] ...and compared it with his own study
of historical stellar alignments between the churches
and specific features on the island.
It is true. All the axes of the three churches
would intersect with Oak Island.
Excellent confirmation.
[Marzia] We have an alignment with the rising of Sirius.
And then on the opposite side,
we have a star alignment
with the Pleiades and with Hamal.
And what is really interesting
is when it comes to stellar alignment.
They are exactly the same alignment
that you have in Lot 5.
That's stunning.
This is incredibly thought-provoking.
-Yeah. -So, the two datings
of the structures suggest
the same historical period.
And the elements that we have
seem to point in the direction of the 13th century.
So, thanks to these archaeoastronomical techniques,
we managed to have a date
for, uh, this structure, for this stone in Lot 5.
[Marzia] A date, which is 1236.
[Marzia] We managed to have
a date for this structure,
for this stone in Lot 5,
which is 1236.
-[laughter] -Very interesting.
[Narrator] In the war room, Professor Adriano Gaspani
has informed the team
that, based on historic stellar alignments,
he believes that the round feature on Lot 5
may have been created by members of the Knights Templar
in the early 13th century.
[Marzia] This structure would be built
in the same period where we assumed,
uh, that there was a Templar presence
on Oak Island.
Which is pretty consistent with the dating of Nolan's Cross.
Emiliano, I assume all three of these churches
date to the same era, then, the 1200s?
-Yeah. -Okay.
[Emiliano] Roughly,
by the end of the 1100s and the early 1200s.
Well, I'm having a hard time rejecting this one.
-[laughter] -Yeah.
[Doug] It seems like somebody was here,
-let's say from France, from the Talmont region... -Mm-hmm.
...of France, in the 1200s.
They established a base of operations.
And then, when you consider the Pitblado coin,
the latest date it could be is from 1383.
So, Zena introduced us to her Oak Island map
that mentioned Talmont, right?
And that was supposed to represent a Templar journey
-to the island. -Mm-hmm.
Here we see a lot of these factors converging together.
All these areas that were denoted as significant
on her map are proven to be significant today.
-Yeah. -[Steve] And the latest being the Lot 8 structure,
as well as the December triangle.
December triangle. Yeah.
So, this could well be a multigenerational endeavor,
because they established their base of operations
and then moved something of great value over time.
Yeah.
[Narrator] Could Doug and Steve be correct
that this new research has helped to validate
Zena Halpern's map of Oak Island,
as well as her belief
that the Templar order and their descendants
made repeated trips to Oak Island
beginning nearly eight centuries ago?
The 1200s, years ago, would've been...
we'd have laughed at it.
And that, and that's quite meaningful because
now there's a body of evidence building
that it perhaps is the point of beginning
of some endeavor here on the island to do something.
So, again, we want to thank you both
for your time today.
It's quite stunning information.
I-I think it's amazing.
-Thank you. Thank you. -Grazie.
[Rick] And we need to use everything we have
in our "toolbox," if you will, to prove it.
But we can't prove it without continuing to do the work.
-So, let's get at it. -[Alex] Mm-hmm.
-Sounds good. -[Rick] Thanks, everybody.
[Narrator] The Money Pit's long-held secret
remains elusive, at least for now.
But once again, by searching for clues
where none have thought to look before,
Rick, Marty, Craig and the team
may be closing in on the truth
behind the world's longest-running treasure hunt.
Could the origin of this mystery be older
and more profound than anyone thought possible?
Perhaps one more dig in the solution channel
will reveal the answer.
Next time on The Curse of Oak Island...
[Craig] Here we go.
[Rick] Wait, wait, wait. Hey!
-Guess what? -Well!
-[laughs] Brilliant. -[Craig] Oh, wow.
[Fiona] Oh, look at that.
We're starting to get this material.
[Ian] This is blowing me away right now
because it's nothing I have ever seen before.
-This is a covered well, right? -[Gary] Yeah, it is.
Oh, this has got potential, mate.
Ooh! Look at that.
It's premodern, all the way back to medieval.
-[Jack] No way! -[laughter]
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