- 4 months ago
A sensational medieval map has just surfaced, claiming to hold the key to the legendary Oak Island mystery! Dating back to 1347, this ancient document purportedly details locations identical to Smith's Cove and the infamous Money Pit. Hidden codes within the map hint at vast riches, specifically 'gold,' alongside intriguing biblical references. Could this be the breakthrough treasure hunters have dreamed of for over 200 years? However, not everyone is convinced. Historians and experts are calling this discovery an 'obvious hoax,' citing glaring inconsistencies. The French writing on the map is reportedly riddled with errors, and its sudden appearance coincides suspiciously with the popular TV series, 'The Curse of Oak Island,' needing fresh content. Is this a genuine historical artifact or a cleverly crafted fabrication designed to stir excitement? Despite the skepticism, the intrepid Lagina brothers and their team are not leaving any stone unturned. After decades of relentless searching for the fabled Oak Island treasure, they know even a seemingly fake lead could hide a grain of truth. Dive deep with us as we unravel the mysteries behind this controversial medieval map. Explore the evidence, examine the claims, and decide for yourself: Is this the ultimate key to solving the Oak Island enigma, or merely another chapter in its long history of tantalizing deceptions? Join the discussion on the biggest Oak Island discovery in years!
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00:00Okay, seriously, a medieval map, like one that just pops up claiming to show the exact spot of the money pit, supposedly from 1347.
00:08I mean, this is either the biggest discovery ever or, you know, maybe the most perfectly timed fake for a TV show I've ever heard of.
00:14It definitely makes you pause, right?
00:16And you have to remember the context here is, well, it's intense.
00:19This isn't just some fun little treasure hunt.
00:20There's the whole Oak Island curse thing.
00:22Six people, six people have actually died looking for whatever's down there over like two centuries.
00:30And the legend, the really chilling part, says seven have to die before the island gives up its secret.
00:35So that number six, it hangs over everything.
00:38Wow. Yeah, that definitely sets a different kind of stage.
00:41All right. Welcome, everyone, to the latest Celebrity Gossip with me, Steve.
00:45And me, Ainsley.
00:46And today, yeah, we are diving deep into that wild story.
00:49You know the one, that tiny island off Nova Scotia, the one that's been driving treasure hunters absolutely mad for, what, over 200 years now?
00:56Exactly.
00:57And specifically, we're looking at this totally suspicious new document that just surfaced.
01:02And just to catch everyone up real quick, the whole Oak Island thing kicked off way back in 1795.
01:08Some teenagers, Daniel McInnes was one, found this weird dip in the ground.
01:11They start digging, and boom, layers of flagstones, then oak logs every 10 feet down.
01:16Right. Like, meticulously placed. Immediately signals something engineered, something hidden.
01:21That structure, that anomaly, that's the seed for basically every crazy theory we're going to talk about today.
01:27Mm-hmm. And it's that long, frustrating history of digging and finding, well, mostly finding more questions that makes this new map such a bombshell.
01:38Or maybe a dud.
01:38Okay, let's unpack that bombshell first.
01:41This map, supposedly 1347 vintage, it claims to show detailed drawings, Smith's Cove, the Money Pit location, all labeled in French.
01:48Yeah, French-ish, maybe.
01:49Phrases like Le Zildison, Islands of Oak.
01:52Okay.
01:52And Leitris Trap Hole under the hat.
01:54It sounds amazing, right? Like, the key to everything.
01:56It really does.
01:57Yeah.
01:57Like, finally, a blueprint.
01:58But hold on.
01:59This is where the critical eye comes in.
02:02Historians, linguists, the folks who actually know medieval languages, they've looked at it.
02:06And the consensus is pretty much obvious hoax.
02:09Obvious. Why so obvious?
02:11Ask the language itself.
02:13Forget the drawings for a sec.
02:14The French.
02:16It's just wrong.
02:17Like, basic grammar mistakes all over it.
02:19Missing accents, wrong plurals, articles all messed up.
02:23Things someone actually speaking medieval French just wouldn't do.
02:26Hmm.
02:27So, not just slightly off, but fundamentally flawed.
02:30Exactly.
02:30One expert pointed out that phrases like, vault below earth, look like someone just plugged English words into a translator, word for word.
02:38The syntax, the sentence structure.
02:40It feels modern English translated, not natural 14th century French.
02:44Okay, that's, yeah, that's pretty damning.
02:46Suggests the creator wasn't exactly fluent in 1347 French.
02:50Probably working from English.
02:51That's the strong implication.
02:53And then there's the map layout.
02:54West is at the top, not north.
02:56Wait, west at the top.
02:57Isn't north usually at the top?
02:58Generally, yeah.
02:59Especially by the 14th century for navigation-related maps.
03:03North up was pretty standard.
03:05Having west at the top feels weirdly artificial.
03:09Like someone trying too hard to look old and different, maybe.
03:12But getting the details wrong.
03:15Huh.
03:16Bad grammar, weird orientation, and the timing.
03:19It just shows up now, in 2024.
03:22Right when the current TV show might need a little juice.
03:25The timing is incredibly convenient, isn't it?
03:28Very suspicious.
03:29And yet, the people actually digging there, the Legina brothers, they're apparently taking it seriously.
03:35Investigate.
03:35That's the bind they're in, you know?
03:41Can they really afford to ignore any potential clue, even a suspicious one?
03:45What if, against all odds, it holds something?
03:48But maybe more importantly, this likely fake map actually pushes us towards the real reason people keep digging.
03:53The stuff that isn't easily explained away.
03:55Okay, right.
03:56Let's pivot.
03:56Forget the map for a minute.
03:57What about the actual physical evidence they've pulled out of the ground?
04:01Stuff you can touch, stuff you can date.
04:03This is where it gets genuinely fascinating and baffling.
04:07The coconut fiber.
04:08Ah, yes.
04:08The coconut fiber.
04:09Always comes back to that.
04:11Because it makes zero sense.
04:12Coconuts don't grow in Novostosia.
04:14Not even close.
04:16Yet, they found layers of this stuff buried deep down.
04:20Like, really deep.
04:21Used maybe as packing material or part of some kind of filtration system.
04:24Who knows?
04:25But the key is the carbon dating.
04:28It came back dated between 1200 and 1400 AD.
04:311200 to 1400.
04:32Okay, so centuries before Columbus, centuries before established European presence there.
04:36I remember hearing Marty Lagina saying when they got that result, his reaction was basically,
04:40now what the heck?
04:41Exactly.
04:42That's the moment it shifts from maybe pirates, maybe local legends to something else entirely.
04:47Something older, something unexpected.
04:48That's the hook.
04:49And it wasn't just the fiber, right?
04:51There were other weirdly old artifacts.
04:53Mm-hmm.
04:53They found a Spanish silver coin.
04:55Okay, that's 1650s, so post-Columbus, but still interesting that deep.
04:59But then, this small lead cross looks Christian, looks European.
05:03And the preliminary dating on that, 1300s.
05:07Whoa.
05:08A 1300s European cross buried deep on Oak Island alongside 1300s-era coconut fiber.
05:16See?
05:17That's the stuff that keeps people digging.
05:19Those are the hard pieces of data that don't fit the easy narratives.
05:23But even the physical evidence gets confusing, doesn't it?
05:25Like that famous inscribed stone everyone talks about.
05:28Oh yeah, the 90-foot stone.
05:30Found early on, supposedly covered in mysterious symbols.
05:33People built entire theories around those symbols, Templars, secret codes.
05:37But then, later searches, like one in 1909 by Captain Bowden.
05:41He reported finding the stone, but said it was just plain rock.
05:45No visible markings at all.
05:46So, did the markings fade?
05:48Was it a different stone?
05:49Did someone exaggerate?
05:50Who knows?
05:51And that's Oak Island in a nutshell.
05:52The evidence itself seems to shift, disappear, contradict itself.
05:55It just adds layer to the mystery, makes it harder to dismiss or solve.
05:58And digging for this evidence, whatever it is, has always been incredibly dangerous.
06:03Yeah.
06:03And heartbreaking.
06:04Absolutely.
06:04Those early digs back in the 1800s, constantly getting flooded out, seawater pouring in like
06:09the pit was booby trapped.
06:10Yeah, suggesting some kind of engineered flood tunnels.
06:13Maybe.
06:14Or maybe something else.
06:15We'll get to that.
06:16But the danger became terrifyingly real in 1965.
06:20Four men died down in one of the shafts from gas.
06:24Hydrogen sulfide, probably.
06:26Just overcome.
06:27Awful tragedy.
06:27Four men in one accident, bringing the total death count to six.
06:31Six.
06:32Right back to that legend.
06:33Seven must die.
06:34It's uncanny, isn't it?
06:36Gives you chills.
06:36Yeah.
06:37Seriously.
06:37It feels like the island itself is pushing back.
06:40So, okay.
06:41If someone went to all this trouble, buried stuff deep, maybe set traps, what are the
06:47big theories about what they were hiding?
06:48Let's get into the juicy speculation.
06:50Right.
06:50The what is it question.
06:51The oldest one is pirate treasure.
06:53Captain Kidd, usually.
06:54Legend says on his deathbed he confessed to bearing, like, two million pounds somewhere.
06:59That'd be hundreds of millions today.
07:01Any proof kid was even near Nova Scotia.
07:03Basically none.
07:04Historians are pretty clear on that.
07:06Great story.
07:06Zero evidence linking him to Oak Island specifically.
07:09Okay.
07:10So pirate gold is probably out.
07:11Then you get the really grand theories, right?
07:13The secret societies.
07:14Oh, yeah.
07:15This is where it gets epic.
07:17The Knights Templar fleeing Europe in the 1300s after the crackdown by the King of France.
07:22Theory is they brought their legendary treasure, maybe the Ark of the Covenant, maybe the Holy
07:27Grail to the New World, and buried it on Oak Island.
07:30That timing.
07:31Yeah.
07:31The 1300s.
07:33It lines up with the coconut fiber and the cross, doesn't it?
07:36It does line up chronologically, which is why it's so seductive.
07:38The Freemasons get pulled in, too, maybe inheriting the Templar secrets.
07:43Or, completely different track, Marie Antoinette's Jewels, smuggled out of France during the
07:49Revolution by a loyal lady-in-waiting.
07:51Wow.
07:52Okay.
07:52Templars, Freemasons, French royalty.
07:54It's like a historical conspiracy buffet.
07:57What about the Shakespeare one?
07:58Ah, yes.
07:59The Francis Bacon theory.
08:00The Bacon was the real Shakespeare, and he buried original manuscripts on Oak Island to
08:05prove it someday.
08:05So, basically, anything valuable and historically mysterious might be on Oak Island, according
08:11to someone.
08:11Pretty much.
08:12But notice the pattern, right?
08:14All these theories have this mix of, well, magic, almost.
08:18Huge historical weight.
08:20Knights, queens, lost gospels.
08:23But after 200-plus years of digging, not one single artifact has surfaced that definitively
08:29proves any of these specific grand theories.
08:33So, historians just roll their eyes at this stuff.
08:34Largely, yes.
08:36They'll point out there's zero actual proof the Templars ever reached North America, let
08:40alone Nova Scotia with treasure.
08:42Manuscript theories.
08:43Called pure fantasy.
08:45But the theories persist.
08:47Why?
08:47Good question.
08:48Why do they stick around, despite the lack of hard proof?
08:50I think.
08:51Because the mystery itself is so compelling.
08:54The money pit, the structure, the weird artifacts like the fiber and the cross.
08:57They create a vacuum.
08:59And into that vacuum, people pour their biggest, most romantic historical fantasies.
09:03Finding some settlers lost savings.
09:05Kind of boring.
09:06Finding the Holy Grail buried by fugitive knights.
09:09Now, that's a story worth chasing for 200 years, right?
09:12It fits the feeling of the place, even if the fats don't fully support it.
09:15Yeah, I get that.
09:16It makes the search feel important.
09:19Epic.
09:20Which brings us back to today.
09:22Rick and Marty Lagina.
09:23They're the guys leading the charge now.
09:25Right.
09:25They bought a controlling stape in the island, got the treasure license back in 2006, and
09:31they brought modern tech ground penetrating radar, seismic surveys, big drilling rigs.
09:36A much more serious, funded effort than many before them.
09:40And they seem all in, right?
09:42Especially Rick.
09:43He seems like a true believer.
09:44He definitely comes across that way.
09:46He talks about the cross, the fiber, saying they've seen miracles before and they just
09:50can't stop now.
09:52Which explains why they'd look at even a dodgy map.
09:54They feel they have to chase every lead, just in case.
09:58Their colleague, Craig Tester, often sounds a bit more cautious, like, it'd be great if
10:01it were something big.
10:02Managing expectations.
10:04Okay, but there's a big counter-argument to all of this treasure hunting, isn't there?
10:07Something way less exciting.
10:09Uh-huh.
10:09The geological explanation.
10:12This is the part that often gets downplayed in the excitement.
10:15So what did the geologists say?
10:16Basically.
10:17Oak Island's natural geology might explain a lot of it.
10:20The island has a lot of gypsum and limestone.
10:23Water erodes these rocks pretty easily.
10:25Over time, it can create natural sinkholes, underground cavities, tunnels, water channels.
10:30A money pit could just be a sinkhole.
10:33Yeah.
10:34A naturally formed hole.
10:35It's a strong possibility, yeah.
10:37What looked like engineered platforms every 10 feet might have been natural debris layers
10:42within a sinkhole.
10:43The flood tunnels that kept filling with seawater could just be natural karst formations, basically.
10:48Underground caves and channels carved by water dissolving the limestone bedrock connected
10:53to the ocean.
10:53Wow.
10:54Okay, so the entire complex, mysterious structure.
10:57Yeah.
10:57Potentially just nature doing its thing.
10:59Potentially.
11:00The constant flooding, the weird layers, the deep shaft.
11:03Geology could account for a lot of it without needing pirates or templars or booby traps.
11:08Early searchers finding these weird natural features might have just interpreted them
11:12as man-made structures because they were already looking for treasure.
11:16Confirmation bias, maybe?
11:17Kind of a letdown, isn't it?
11:18Two centuries of struggle, death, millions spent chasing a fancy sinkhole.
11:23It's definitely the less romantic explanation.
11:25But scientifically, it's plausible.
11:27It puts the whole thing in a different light.
11:28So, wrapping this all up, this new map, the 1347 one, almost certainly a fake, based on
11:36the language, the layout, the timing.
11:38Yeah, the evidence points strongly towards a modern hoax, but, and this is the big but.
11:42It doesn't erase the genuinely weird stuff.
11:44Exactly.
11:45It doesn't explain away the 1300s carbon date on the coconut fiber.
11:48It doesn't explain the 1300s lead cross found buried deep underground.
11:52Those anomalies remain.
11:54And as long as they remain, you can see why the searchers feel compelled to keep going,
11:58asking, okay, if this is just geology, then why is this stuff here?
12:01Right.
12:02The fake clue almost doesn't matter because the real mystery, fueled by those few inexplicable
12:07finds, is powerful enough on its own.
12:10And, you know, thinking about it, maybe the biggest mystery isn't even what's buried there.
12:15Maybe it's just the island itself.
12:18Why it has this grip on people.
12:20Why they pour fortunes, decades, even risk their lives chasing something built on so much
12:25legend and maybe.
12:26Just maybe.
12:28Geological coincidence.
12:29That relentless human hope or obsession.
12:31That's the real story that won't go away.
12:33That's a really interesting way to put it.
12:35Maybe the digging, the search itself, the constant hope against the odds.
12:38Maybe that is the treasure the island offers.
12:41A perpetual quest.
12:42Well, that's all the tea we have for today.
12:43If you love this scoop and want more, make sure to subscribe to Stateside Gossip wherever
12:47you get your podcasts.
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