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The Curse of Oak Island - Season 13 - Episode 23: Island Hopping
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00:00Tonight, on the Curse of Oak Island.
00:03Welcome to Azores.
00:04There's a number of questions that can be answered in the Azores.
00:08Some things here relate to our search.
00:09We have this on Oak Island.
00:11It's time to dig.
00:12We need to get to the treasure.
00:15Oh, what we got here.
00:17Wow.
00:18You might have some evidence to a 14th century Portuguese presence in Oak Island.
00:24The proof might be underground.
00:26Right here.
00:26Wow.
00:27Fantastic.
00:31There is an island in the North Atlantic where people have been looking for an incredible
00:37treasure for more than 200 years.
00:41So far, they have found a stone slab with strange symbols carved into it, man-made workings
00:48that date to medieval times, and a lead cross whose origin may be connected to the Knights
00:55Templar.
00:56To date, six men have died trying to solve the mystery.
01:02And, according to legend, one more will have to die before the treasure can be found.
01:22Come up a little bit, Billy.
01:24There it is.
01:26There you go, Billy.
01:29As a crisp fall morning begins on Oak Island, workers from Rock Equipment and SB Canada repair
01:37the money pit area where the Laginas and their team plan to dig another eight-foot diameter
01:43steel shaft in the coming days.
01:46It is here where they have detected high traces of silver some 200 feet deep in the solution
01:52channel, which have been scientifically matched to a 14th century Portuguese coin, reportedly
01:59found in the original money pit back in 1849.
02:06While the work continues on Oak Island, over 2,000 miles to the southeast in the Azores Islands
02:22of Portugal.
02:24Gentlemen.
02:25Welcome.
02:26Welcome.
02:27Hello.
02:27Welcome to Azores.
02:28Thank you very much.
02:29Appreciate it.
02:30Rick and other members of the team have traveled to Terceira.
02:35They are following up on the research that suggests members of the Portuguese sect of the
02:39Knights Templar, known as the Knights of Christ, may have used the Azores to safeguard a portion
02:46of their sacred religious treasures before sailing them to Oak Island between the 14th and
02:5216th centuries.
02:54Hey everybody, this is Francisco.
02:56He's a historian here in the Azores.
02:58He's worked with us in the past on the stone walls found on Lot 26.
03:02Yep.
03:04In 2022, Francisco examined photos of a stone wall on Lot 26 of Oak Island, and believed
03:13it could be of Portuguese origin and date back to the 15th century.
03:19Welcome to the Greystone Superstile Church.
03:21It is the oldest church in this island.
03:23It was built in 1455 by the first settlements in this island.
03:28Oh really?
03:29Wow.
03:30What is very important is that this church was built by the action of a Franciscan fire.
03:39Franciscans and the Order of Christ and the Templars were very close.
03:45Close.
03:46Is there the possibility that there was a smaller group that arrived here before the official date?
03:51And so is there anything in this church that speaks to that possibility?
03:55Yes.
03:56Perhaps there's some clues.
03:58Hmm.
03:58I think we're all eager to see inside.
04:00We are.
04:01Let's go.
04:01Let's go inside?
04:03Yeah.
04:03Okay.
04:04There's a number of questions that need to be asked and maybe can be answered in the
04:08Azores.
04:09It would be wonderful to find a smoking gun directly connected to the Oak Island mystery.
04:31All of these were saints that the Templars and the Franciscans used to pray on.
04:39So this likely dates to the 1450s.
04:43This dates.
04:44This is contemporary of the church.
04:47Which would be about 150 years after the dissolution of the Knights Templar.
04:53Yeah.
04:54Yeah.
04:54We're looking at something that the Order of Christ created.
04:58What we have are figures that were important to the Knights Templar.
05:02So this speaks to the continuation of the belief system.
05:05Exactly.
05:05Exactly.
05:06How closely were the Order of Christ related to the Templar order?
05:10Was it a true continuation of the order?
05:12Yes.
05:13It was a true continuation.
05:15Exactly.
05:16So any belief systems, any treasures, anything they were safeguarding came with them.
05:21Exactly.
05:22Exactly.
05:25Founded in 1318 by King Denise of Portugal.
05:30The Order of Christ was a successor to the Knights Templar after their disbanding and persecution by the Catholic Church
05:37in 1307.
05:40While it is rumored that the Order of Christ protected Templar treasures in Portugal and the Azores Islands, it is
05:47known that they were connected to the minting of coins exactly like the one believed to have been found in
05:54the money pit.
05:55We know from documents that there were some people sailing from Azores to the west.
06:04In the period between 1434 and 1446 departed from here from Azores, 54 caravals to the west.
06:16The Templars not always had the ships, but the Order of Christ had the ships.
06:23But what was the destination west?
06:26We don't know.
06:27Perhaps eventually North America, eventually Oak Island.
06:32It's not so landish to believe that an organization like the Order of Christ would have had the capability, the
06:39knowledge, the connections to get to North America to safeguard what they deemed to be of utmost importance.
06:46If you think of the journey of the Templars as a pilgrimage, we know from the Camino de Santiago, at
06:52the end of the pilgrimage, the Templars would leave a goose paw.
06:55You would scratch a goose paw.
06:57Yeah.
06:58I want to share an observation.
07:00If you look up.
07:02So here we have three corners of the chapel.
07:07Only three have three webbed feet.
07:10Three goose paws.
07:12Three there, three there.
07:13Yeah.
07:14Three there, they still have the original red color.
07:18Very interesting.
07:19Which ties this all together beautifully with the symbol that we found in Nova Scotia.
07:28The goose paw is a three-pronged symbol that was designed by the Knights Templar and used to mark important
07:35locations for the Order throughout the Middle East and Europe between the 11th and 14th centuries.
07:42In recent years, Corian has shown the team several goose paw carvings found in places such as the Camerano Caves
07:50in Italy.
07:52A 12th century Templar stronghold, which was created in the shape of a cross matching the design of the lead
07:59cross that was found on Oak Island in 2017.
08:04That is the mark of the nations for the Knights Templar.
08:08Incredible.
08:09And in 2022, Corian showed them a goose paw carving in Liverpool, Nova Scotia, just 50 miles southwest of Oak
08:18Island.
08:20Isn't that a great connection to Oak Island?
08:22Mm-hmm.
08:23We find the same symbol language here that we know both from close to Oak Island and from the place
08:30in Europe where we've been.
08:31So what this place brings is a consistent next step in the journey that we're sketching, a journey that led
08:39from Jerusalem through the Mediterranean basin to Portugal and through the Azores, maybe to Oak Island.
08:47That's more than I expected.
08:49We would invite you to come to the island at your convenience and experience the same mystery, the same questions
08:56that we have puzzled over the lowly's many years.
08:59And maybe with your help and others, we can finally put an answer to these questions.
09:05So thank you, Andrew.
09:08Appreciate it.
09:08Thank you so much.
09:10But we have a lot to discover.
09:11Yeah, let's keep going.
09:12Keep working.
09:13This has been great.
09:14As the team continues their investigation in the Azores, back on Oak Island.
09:20All right.
09:21Well, I think I'm positioned okay.
09:22Perfect.
09:25So hopefully, with continued digging, you find an artifact to give us an answer to this thing.
09:30That would be nice.
09:32Yes.
09:33Marty joins Laird and Fiona on Lot 8 at the stone cradle formation that the team found beneath a 40
09:40,000-pound boulder.
09:42What's the plan?
09:44So we just want to carefully check, see if there's a soil change, see if it's not natural.
09:51Yeah.
09:51And just out of a feeling that something was coming this way?
09:55Why don't I dig this down and look for the roof of a tunnel?
09:58Yeah.
09:58Off chance, I understand, but...
10:00Well, I mean, worst case scenario is you hit a tunnel.
10:04So...
10:04Yeah, which is also the best case scenario.
10:06Yeah.
10:07All right, let's do it.
10:08All right.
10:10Over the past several weeks, scientific testing and investigation at the site has revealed traces of silver in the ground
10:19soil
10:19and possible evidence of a shaft deeper below.
10:23That's a lot of roots.
10:25Now, because Laird does not want to risk archaeological damage to the feature,
10:29he has given Marty permission to dig an adjacent trench to look for evidence of a possible tunnel that may
10:36run beneath it.
10:40It sounded like rocks, but I don't see any.
10:44It's pretty consistent soil.
10:51What the hell is that?
10:54That's interesting.
10:56It doesn't make any sense.
10:59Unbelievable.
11:03Let's see what we got.
11:07I think that's bedrock.
11:09These little chips are starting to look like bedrock.
11:12Yeah.
11:13While digging near the Cradle of Stones on Lot 8...
11:16Oh, that's interesting.
11:17Absolutely.
11:18Marty has made a potentially important discovery.
11:22And yet, we're higher than the base of the cradle over here.
11:28Yeah.
11:29It doesn't make any sense.
11:31Huh.
11:32On the eastern side of Oak Island, the slate bedrock is known to be flat and at a uniform depth.
11:40Because Marty has now confirmed that the Cradle of Stones sits below the bedrock to the side of the feature,
11:46this offers more compelling evidence that the stone cradle is the result of an earlier excavation and may be covering
11:54a much deeper man-made shaft.
11:57But you didn't hit bedrock in the cradle over here.
12:01No.
12:01No.
12:03So, what we need to do next, Laird, then, is...
12:06You need to dig deeper there.
12:08Yeah.
12:08See if you can find bedrock.
12:10Laird doesn't appear to have hit the bedrock at all in that cradle.
12:13So, there's the possibility that under that rock, a lot of digging occurred, which, you know, makes your mind go
12:19to shaft or a tunnel.
12:22So, I'm very excited about it.
12:24I'm happy with the information.
12:26It's moving the needle for me that somebody did dig that out.
12:30Way out.
12:31They did it for a reason.
12:33This is not something that somebody would have done lightheartedly.
12:36No.
12:36I think we really need to take our time and understand this a little bit better.
12:40I think this makes it something even more special than we already thought.
12:44I know a certain Rick Lagina will be real interested in this, too, who will be back from the Azores
12:49soon.
12:50So, I think we leave this all like this in case they want to do more or move something around.
12:56Yeah.
12:57So, let's call it, shall we?
12:58Excellent.
13:03Meanwhile, over 2,000 miles away on the island of Tersera in the Azores.
13:09Hey, Francisco.
13:11Hi.
13:11Welcome to Sreta.
13:13Hey, Francisco.
13:14Rick, Alex, and other members of the Oak Island team have journeyed to the region of Sereda to meet once
13:21again with Francisco Nogueira.
13:25Like we talked about this before, we have the stone walls, like the walls you have in Oak Island, built
13:31by the Portuguese.
13:32This type of construction.
13:34We have suggestions that the wall on Lot 26 bears a distinct Portuguese Azorian style.
13:42There's distinguishing features about the Lot 26 wall that we want to keep an eye out for.
13:46There are larger boulders that run along either edge, and inside of those large boulders there are smaller rubble rocks.
13:54So, that's one thing that we're looking for here.
13:56We want to look at these walls and confirm they're made in the same way.
14:01Yeah, those walls are very interesting to us because carbon dating has said that they were likely constructed somewhere around
14:071470, 1475.
14:10The type of construction that we use in Portugal, that they use in the first settlement here.
14:16And that would put it in what sort of time?
14:2015th, 16th century.
14:21That's very comparable in time to the wall on Oak Island.
14:24Yeah.
14:26Why do you believe it's not earlier than that?
14:28Yes, we don't know for sure.
14:31Nothing says that this wasn't much earlier.
14:34Yes.
14:36In 1427, the Portuguese explorer, Prince Henry the Navigator, who was also a high-ranking member of the Order of
14:44Christ,
14:45officially discovered and claimed the Azores Islands on behalf of Portugal.
14:51However, some believe that the Order of Christ may have been secretly visiting the islands as early as the mid
14:58-1300s in order to safeguard their priceless treasures.
15:02Well, let's go in and see how they compare the wall on Lot 26.
15:06Let's see. Let's go.
15:09I have really never seen anything like this in my life.
15:12It's full of rock walls that potentially predate the official dates of discovery and settlement of the Azores.
15:19Don't get lost. It's a labyrinth.
15:21Looks like it.
15:21Mm-hmm.
15:23Nobody seems to know who built them or what the purpose was.
15:27Here's where it gets exciting because they're great candidates to compare to our wall on Lot 26.
15:33Come take a look.
15:35What'd you find, Yi?
15:40So, look at this.
15:41So, we have small rocks in the middle, big rocks to contain it.
15:47And the width, it's almost the same as Oak Island.
15:52It's very close.
15:54Come take a look at this.
15:57Got rubble right here.
15:58Yeah.
15:59Inside the wall.
16:00Yeah.
16:01Yeah.
16:02You see it everywhere.
16:03Yep.
16:03It's all in there.
16:05The interior of the wall is filled with rubble, small stones.
16:10That is exactly the way the Lot 26 wall was created.
16:15But what you can see is a mirror of the Lot 26 wall.
16:21The question here is, why was this wall built in this manner?
16:24Just that it is on Lot 26.
16:27It's almost like the same technique was used on Lot 26.
16:30So, it's almost like that approach was taken from here to Oak Island.
16:36The same style, the same understanding of how walls function, how you build a wall.
16:43The wall on Lot 26 is unique because we don't have other examples like that in Nova Scotia, right?
16:51Not that we know of.
16:53So, Francesco, would you think these might have been like living quarters for people?
16:58Maybe.
16:59Maybe.
17:00Maybe.
17:00This is a great place to hide or to keep safe something.
17:04Yes.
17:05Interesting.
17:08Might a treasure once have found its way to the Azores and thus to Oak Island?
17:13There's nothing we see within this complex that would suggest anything other than the possibilities when people are committed to
17:22an endeavor like Oak Island.
17:24I've said it many times.
17:26Where there's a will, there's a way.
17:27All you have to do is look around you at this incredible complex of stone and realize that there is
17:34a purpose.
17:36All of that is associated with Oak Island.
17:39This fits all our timelines, right?
17:42Yeah.
17:43It sure does.
17:43Because we sort of suspect that perhaps somebody was here in the 1300s secretly.
17:50This is a great place to hide.
17:53Yes.
17:53We talk about it all the time on the island.
17:55You've got to look backwards in order to look forwards.
17:57And we know just from this little experience here that indeed the possibility of information having traveled through the new
18:06world generationally.
18:08Is there a place on the island where we can qualify a little bit more perhaps?
18:12Yes.
18:13We have a lot to see connected to the Oak Island.
18:15So that's it?
18:16Yeah.
18:16Okay.
18:21As a new day begins on Oak Island.
18:25Billy.
18:26Hey.
18:26Glad to see you here.
18:28All right.
18:29I'm ready.
18:30Marty joins other members of the team on Center Road near the western border of the swamp.
18:35The sand road projects right down here.
18:38And if it's here, then that would be a very strong clue that Center Road was here before the survey.
18:47Right.
18:48The team is preparing to dig a cross section of Center Road to look for evidence that it may have
18:54been built by previous treasure hunters
18:56on top of the sand covered cobblestone road that was recently found running through the swamp toward the belief Portuguese
19:04stone road in the southeast corner.
19:06If the team can find evidence of the sand and cobblestone road here, it could suggest that it was created
19:13by someone long ago.
19:15Perhaps even before a 1762 survey when Oak Island was divided into 32 four acre lots.
19:24As I'm standing here, Billy, I see the sand road you nicely uncovered.
19:29I'm lined right up with it, which also lines right up with Center Road proper.
19:34So I think this is our spot.
19:36Yeah.
19:37Hey, Marty, what time is it, mate?
19:39It's time to dig.
19:41Gary.
19:41Time to dig.
19:42You heard the man.
19:47Give the boy room.
19:53Here we go.
19:56We speculate upon looking at this sand road that it could be directly under the Center Road.
20:03If that's the case, whoever built it came here long before anybody else.
20:10Is that sand there already?
20:12Oh, it might have seen sand.
20:14Kind of, yeah.
20:16That would explain the activity that was here before the money pit.
20:18It would explain the very significant wall on lot 26.
20:22Play rich.
20:22It would explain the rock feature on lot eight.
20:25It would explain virtually everything.
20:27It's a little aboard.
20:28Keep digging.
20:29It's a little aboard.
20:44Keep digging.
20:45There's a rock here underneath there.
20:46Sounds that way.
20:47Yeah, it looks like sand now.
20:50Check this out.
20:54That's where it should be.
21:07There's still a lot of gravel in there, too.
21:11I'm afraid we're getting contamination from the road.
21:13Yeah.
21:14If you want to look at the end of the bucket here, you can see the profile of what it
21:17is.
21:17Rocks.
21:18Sand.
21:19Take a look, Larry.
21:21Oh, here.
21:23But see how it's rocks on the bottom and the sand?
21:25Yeah.
21:27But I mean, that shouldn't be here naturally.
21:30That's not the natural dirt for here, no.
21:32All right.
21:33Gonna have a scan.
21:37I just don't see anything definitive here.
21:41No metal.
21:44This isn't jumping out at me.
21:47It's a little bit tricky to evaluate it because you have to raise the possibility of contamination from modern construction.
21:55So we need to try another location, any sort of ancient road on this island is worth following.
22:05Do we want to put this back, Billy, and try one more right there?
22:08Sure.
22:09As the team repositions to dig another cross section through Center Road.
22:16Oh, look at how pretty that is.
22:18Yeah.
22:18Beautiful.
22:19Rick and members of the team arrive at the Angra do Heroismo Museum.
22:25It's incredible.
22:26Welcome.
22:28Great to see you.
22:29I'm Alex.
22:30Welcome to the Museum of Angra.
22:32Francisco has arranged for the team to look for clues in the museum and meet with local archaeologist Tiago Rodriguez
22:40regarding artifacts that have been found on Oak Island.
22:45We have a Portuguese coin dating to the late 1300s, and if it came through the Azores, that's about 50
22:53years, give or take, prior to the official date that the Azores were discovered and then colonized.
22:57The Portuguese navigated throughout the Atlantic.
23:01We have other evidence that allows us to conclude that the Azores had people before the Portuguese.
23:10We didn't know how much they were, who they were.
23:15So is it possible that some people knew that the Azores were here?
23:23Of course.
23:24It does kind of remind me of the early years of our treasure hunt on Oak Island.
23:29Stories that speak of people from Europe at a time when the conventional story says that people from Europe should
23:35not have been there.
23:36Of course.
23:36And from what Tiago is telling us, it sounds like that is again the case with the story here in
23:41the Azores.
23:43Before you arrived, Emiliano and myself did some scouting here in the museum.
23:47What we came to do here is well illustrated by this stone here.
23:53This is 15th century Emiliano?
23:571454 probably, and it's the oldest stone carving that were found here in the Azores.
24:04This caught our attention, not only because it's possibly one of the oldest or the oldest carved stones that there
24:11are on this island,
24:12but particularly because of what it's showing, you know, the swirls here from the copper piece from the ribbon.
24:21In 2022, the team unearthed part of a copper artifact on Lot 8, decorated with an ornate symbol.
24:30Incredibly, one year later, they saw the similar symbol in a Templar-related manuscript in Reykjavik, Iceland, that dated back
24:38to the 12th century.
24:40I actually have a photo of our copper artifact from Lot 8 that shows that symbol.
24:45Let's see if it compares to what we're seeing here.
24:49I mean, it could be a match.
24:56Well done.
25:00It could be a match.
25:02It has the same middle feature here.
25:05And then on the ends, it could round closed for sure.
25:11At the Angra do Heroismo Museum in the Azores, the team has found a 15th century stone carving that may
25:19be connected to the Knights Templar and the Order of Christ,
25:23which matches a symbol on the copper artifact that was discovered on Lot 8 in 2022.
25:30It shows that when people traveled, they took their symbols with them, right?
25:35Correct.
25:35Correct.
25:36And also that symbol is the one we found in a manuscript in Reykjavik in Iceland.
25:44It was a manuscript from the 1200s.
25:47This is a stone from the 1400s.
25:51And that means that that kind of knowledge or the symbolism was passed on because we are in the Azores,
25:58thousands of kilometers from Iceland.
26:00But still, we are seeing a clear connection between these countries and Oak Island.
26:06Some things here are laid to our search.
26:09The image is telling a story.
26:11We see the decorative carving indicating the possibility that Templars or the Knights of Christ knew of the Azores before
26:21their documented discovery by the Portuguese.
26:24Could it be related to the copper artifact that we found on Lot 8?
26:28I think it's very plausible that they had the ability to make a transatlantic voyage.
26:35Tiago, we've actually brought some artifacts from Oak Island with us.
26:38We were hoping you'd take a look at them.
26:40I would be glad to help and to see.
26:43And we have a room that we can look at closer.
26:47Lead the way.
26:49We're trying to understand the pre-Columbian history of Oak Island and what happened there.
26:57We've brought a number of artifacts.
26:59Tiago is qualified to look at them and render an opinion.
27:02I hope that he can speak definitively about them.
27:07Tiago, we really appreciate you taking a look at these items.
27:10I guess maybe we'll just dive right in and get your thoughts.
27:16This is actually one of the stone shot that we found on the island.
27:20This was found this year actually.
27:28It looks like a stone bullet.
27:31So they have a period of time where they were most used and that links to the 14th century.
27:39Right.
27:40Which could link to the period that you're looking for.
27:43So most probable then is that this is from the 1300s or earlier.
27:48It could be.
27:50They could have been using them later, but it's not common.
27:54So, yeah, it points to the 14th century.
27:58Have you found any around here in the Azores at all?
28:01I've heard of some that are in the Azores, in particular in the Seda Island.
28:07I know they exist.
28:09This is more like human combat face to face to small battles.
28:15But it's interesting because if you have to take this to Oak Island, you have to go by boat.
28:21And you have to be prepared for something.
28:24It implicates a journey where the risk exists.
28:28So it's a very interesting piece.
28:31You know, we're looking at several scenarios of when treasure might have passed through the Azores
28:35and then moved to Oak Island and safeguarded there.
28:38To hear Tiago agree that our stone shot and others like it have been found here in the islands
28:44is the connective tissue we're looking for.
28:49This is so small it could link to a hand cannon.
28:54So it's very interesting.
28:56Now that you mention it, this is a very interesting artifact
29:01and we believe that it may be a small hand cannon.
29:09And I have the report to go along with it.
29:12Earlier this year, when the team first discovered a section of the sand-covered road
29:17in the western region of the swamp, they found part of a hand cannon,
29:22a weapon first invented in China during the 12th century.
29:26After having Emma Culligan examine the piece in the lab,
29:30the team sent photos of the artifact to Maltese military historian Matthew Balzan for his analysis.
29:37In the European culture, it was used in warfare mostly from the 13th to the 15th,
29:45at most early 16th century.
29:49Wow.
29:52The hand cannon were common in the 1300s, yes.
29:57In the report, the most interesting part of this piece for me is the XRF
30:02because it shows a lot of sulfur, which indicates an explosion, which means it was fired.
30:12Once again, links to the unknown, the journey going to the unknown world.
30:18You have to be prepared, you have a ship, you have some kind of weapons.
30:23It's a very interesting piece.
30:25The timelines that Tiago relates, it aligns perfectly for my belief that the effort on Oak Island was in multiple
30:35stages.
30:35I believe it's more aligned with the efforts here in the Azores to possibly protect the treasure in transit from
30:46Europe across the seas to North America and perhaps to Oak Island.
30:51This one here is a deck spike, we believe, from a ship.
30:56It was found a couple of years ago on the island.
31:05The believed deck spike was found in 2023 by Jack Begley while investigating the rounded stone foundation on Lot 5.
31:15That's also a very interesting piece because I've seen this before on the Portuguese ships.
31:22Oh, really?
31:23Yeah.
31:24The square style and the large head that's being hammered, it's a very typical nail that goes on the ship.
31:32It could go on a barrel.
31:33So for the Portuguese, it was very, very common, this kind of shape to be used in boats.
31:40Is there a time period that...
31:43This could be used in the 14th century.
31:50Amazing.
31:55Is it common for the Portuguese and unique to the Portuguese?
31:59Yes.
32:00So for the Portuguese, it was very, very common, this kind of shape to be used in boats in the
32:0614th century.
32:07Wow.
32:08They were very, very useful in linking the wood together.
32:14So it's for more to use in ships than in construction.
32:18Okay.
32:18At the Angra do Heroismo Museum in the Azores, archaeologist Tiago Rodriguez has concluded that a spike found in the
32:28round feature on Lot 5 is not only of Portuguese origin, but could also date back to the 1300s.
32:37That artifact just got much more interesting.
32:39Yeah, it did.
32:39It did.
32:41Could this artifact offer further evidence to support the theory that members of the Templar-related Order of Christ may
32:49have visited Oak Island as much as four centuries before the discovery of the money pit?
32:55I mean, what can you say?
32:57I mean, what can you say?
32:57Without any hesitation, this is Portuguese.
33:00Size, shape, weight, hammered head, everything spoke to him that it was a Portuguese design.
33:09Quite impactful.
33:11Okay.
33:12Next up.
33:13This sparked a lot of excitement for us this year.
33:16It was revealed to us by a family that was associated with the treasure hunt on Oak Island in the
33:22past, and that family showed it to us this year, and it's a Portuguese coin.
33:26For Ferdinand I, minted somewhere between 1367 and 1383.
33:39Wow.
33:41Was this on Oak Island?
33:42Yeah, the story behind this coin is that in 1849, they were drilling to try and strike the treasure chamber,
33:50and this may have come up on the drill bit.
33:54If this is a coin from the 14th century, you might have some answers to linking to the shipping spikes
34:03and other evidence that could suggest an early presence in Oak Island.
34:10Yeah.
34:11And you previously said about the stone shot that it was most predominantly used likely in the 14th century as
34:17well.
34:18Both those objects, we believe, came from underground on our island in the so-called treasure pit.
34:24Yeah.
34:25So there's a connection there.
34:26Oh, almost for sure.
34:27So a lot of these artifacts seem to be centering on the 1300s that we've shown you here today.
34:33Several have, and several are also converging on the 15th century, which happens to be kind of the two timelines
34:40that we were wanting to investigate when we came up.
34:42Yeah, I don't think they are all from the same timeline.
34:45Right.
34:46And I think Oak Island have a lot of very, very, very good evidence that creates a pattern.
34:53Yeah.
34:53The proof might be underground on Oak Island, and we might only do as good as establishing plausibility until something
35:05comes out of the ground.
35:06Yeah.
35:07Yeah.
35:07The forensic evidence seems to point that silver and gold is underground almost certainly.
35:12Mm-hmm.
35:13It's quite impactful to have a person of his experience and his understanding confirm the clues to the possibility of
35:21a treasure moving east to west.
35:23It's a very interesting piece.
35:25Mm-hmm.
35:26There might be multiple treasures connected to the Templars and their descendants.
35:31So, we learn that as you uncover clues, you not only advance the search agenda, but you learn about history
35:40worldwide.
35:42You know, this is a little bit different setting than the war room on Oak Island, but it had been
35:47highly informative, most appreciative of both of your time.
35:50You set us on a course of action that may provide the definitive answers that we seek.
35:56I can't say anything more than just thank you.
35:59My pleasure.
36:00Thank you very much.
36:04Let's go here.
36:05Meanwhile, back on Oak Island.
36:10Oh, the rock under that.
36:11Yep.
36:13Marty Laird and other members of the team have moved to a location a few yards further down Center Road
36:19to look for evidence of the sand and cobblestone road beneath it.
36:28That's sand there.
36:29Yeah, it is.
36:30Yeah.
36:31Looks like it.
36:34The sand goes under the modern.
36:37And that should be, that's right on line.
36:45That's it, is it?
36:48Oh, yeah.
36:49Oh, yeah.
36:50That's sand.
36:51Yeah.
36:52Is this what we're looking for?
36:53Is this?
36:54Oh, that's what we're looking for.
36:56Okay.
36:57Well, then, let's see what's underneath it.
37:04I'll go over and see if there's anything in that sand.
37:08Is that all sand right there?
37:10Yep.
37:11All this is.
37:12I'm getting a little chirping, but...
37:17What here?
37:26There's something there, Dig?
37:27Yeah.
37:28Let me see if I can pinpoint it first.
37:43It's in the end.
37:44Let's see what we've got.
37:45You go, Gary.
37:47Oh, yeah.
37:52You go, Gary.
37:53A nice little nail, the lion nail.
37:58After finding more possible evidence of the sand road beneath Center Road, Gary has just
38:04discovered what could be another important clue.
38:08Could be an ox shoe nail.
38:10We found an ox shoe in the sand road.
38:14Stone throw away from here.
38:17This artifact is actually buried in the sand road.
38:22And this is a foot down.
38:24It's in excellent condition.
38:26Gotta keep hold of this.
38:28Look.
38:28It's going back to the lab, and Emma's gonna run a magic on it.
38:32Maybe we can find out how old it is and date this sand road.
38:38That was the only find.
38:40What we don't have is anything definitive on a date.
38:43Right.
38:44Well, we had the hand cannon, which is very significant.
38:47Yeah.
38:47So we have a lot of old dates in this particular area.
38:51Mm-hmm.
38:51Yep.
38:53Okay.
38:53We find a sand road in the swamp.
38:56It's really well constructed.
38:58It's here for unknown.
38:59Right.
39:00So we have oxen going up and down this road well prior to the time when we thought Center Road
39:07didn't even exist.
39:08So now let's pull that together and say this road was actually just an extension of that
39:14sand road.
39:15Yeah, exactly.
39:16Yeah.
39:16Then it goes, by my reckoning, directly to the beginning of what we've now called the
39:22Portuguese Road, which in fact goes up the hill towards the money pit.
39:27Yeah.
39:27Which leads us to the thought that perhaps Center Road here existed prior to the 1762 survey.
39:36The reason we're here today is to try and prove that theory and we more or less did.
39:41Jeez.
39:41It's always fun finding what you're looking for.
39:44Yeah.
39:44It's Oak Highway.
39:46Pull all that together and it leads to a pretty solid conclusion that the so-called
39:51Center Road has actually been there for a very long time.
39:55It was not created after that survey.
39:59Okay.
39:59And then the next dot to connect, they said, well, there's our connection.
40:03Center Road goes right to Lot 5.
40:05How did Lot 5 get to the money pit?
40:07Well, they just went out to Center Road and then went on to go to the swamp.
40:11So that road could have carried the people back and forth between Lot 5 and the money pit
40:16area.
40:16Simple as that.
40:18It gives credence to what we're doing here, gentlemen.
40:21It helps that these things continually verify that we're not really on a wild goose chase.
40:27No, I think it's been a success.
40:29But now we need to get to the treasure.
40:32Yeah.
40:34I know one thing for certain, for absolute certain.
40:37I know somebody who's going to be keenly interested in this when he gets back from the Azores.
40:41And that would be big brother Rick.
40:43Yeah.
40:44Yeah.
40:44Okay.
40:45Let's get on to the next task.
40:48Billy, put this back together.
40:50Very good.
40:50Yeah.
40:51The deeper and further that Rick, Marty, Craig, and the team look into this 231-year-old mystery.
41:00New clues and revelations only bolster their will to keep digging.
41:05Because whether on Lot 8, in the money pit area, or 2,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean,
41:15one conclusion is becoming more probable by the day.
41:20Oak Island may be hiding secrets that changed the course of history in Europe, and could most
41:27certainly rewrite the history of North America.
41:35Next time on The Curse of Oak Island.
41:38What?
41:39What's that?
41:40It's similar to what we have on Oak Island.
41:42This is from 2,000 BC.
41:45We're starting to find a hidden wall.
41:47Whoa.
41:48This would be an ideal place to deposit treasure.
41:50That sounds great.
41:52Wow.
41:53Oh my gosh.
41:54This is huge.
41:55Amazing.
41:56This is very, very, very significant.
41:59If that was part of the treasure, the rest of it is still the money pit.
42:02Absolutely.
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