This week on The Curse of Oak Island, the team delved deeper into the mysteries of Lot 5 and dated the tunnel under the Garden Shaft to before the original discovery of the Money Pit.
This week’s episode of Oak Island was so action-packed that Monsters and Critics decided it needed two recaps.
Perhaps the biggest news was revealing the long-awaited Muon tomography survey, which highlighted three areas under the surface of the Money Pit area that need investigation.
These three areas, one beside the Garden Shaft and two more to the southeast of the shaft lie at varying depths and may be possible locations for buried treasure. Follow the link to read more about these discoveries.
However, this week, there were also significant developments on Lot 5, and the results of the carbon-14 dating conducted on wood found under the Garden Shaft were also significant. And, as to be expected, Gary Drayton unearthed another intriguing artifact.
The team has a dedicated crew of archaeologists working on a couple of mysterious stone features on Lot 5. There is no historical record of any settlements in this area. Still, they have found two structures, which are currently described as a circular stone feature and a rectangular stone feature.
Strange Lot 5 feature may be related to 18th-century work on Oak Island’s Garden Shaft
Helen Sheldon has been working on the rectangular feature, proving to be a mystery. The artifacts discovered there date back to the mid-1700s, the same era as the Garden Shaft, and some are older than the initial discovery of the Money Pit in 1795.
The feature is strange because it appears to have been buried in a deliberate attempt to hide it.
This week, the guys found an artifact that appeared to be a link in a chain. Perhaps it was used for hauling treasure?
Also, this week, the guys began an underground scanning operation at the circular feature. The data will take weeks to analyze, but they suspect they may have already found another underground structure.
Elsewhere on Lot 5, Gary and Rick Lagina went hunting for more coins. Lot 5 has proved particularly lucrative for old coins, having recently turned up five coins, including a couple dating back to ancient Roman times.
And they thought they’d found another one after pulling a small circular object out of the ground. However, archaeologists Laird Niven and Emma Culligan brought them down to earth a bit by pointing out it was a lead bag seal.
Lead bag seals were used as fasteners to package large quantities of industrial and military goods. This one was inscribed with the words “I. Lloyd packers,” which Laird learned was a packing company from London that packaged cloth for the British military.
Laird wasn’t sure of the date; he found a reference to the company dating from 1808 but suspected the artifact was even older. The seal used the letter “I” instead of “J” for John, a practice from old English that started dying out in the 1500s.
So there’s a chance this seal is up to 500 years old. Marty Lagina also pointed out that it suggests a military application for the mysterious structures on Lot 5 as opposed to them being simple homesteads.
Tunnel under the Garden Shaft could date as far back as the 17th century
Finally, on this week’s episode, Craig Tester revealed the dates for wood recovered from the eastern side of the Garden Shaft. This piece was thought to come from a large tunnel that appears to run under the Garden Shaft and into the Baby Blob.
The dates did not disappoint, indicating the wood was probably chopped down in the 17th or 18th centuries. This left the guys believing the tunnel could only be original depositor work.
It’s non-stop action on Oak Island at the moment. Long may it continue.
The Curse of Oak Island airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on History.