This week’s The Curse of Oak Island showed compelling theories of human activity dating way back to the 1200s and argued that these ancient folk may be responsible for the Oak Island mystery.
A lot of last night’s airtime was taken up by the guys worrying about the approach of Hurricane Lee and their concern it might cause damage to the Garden Shaft, Lot 5, and elsewhere.
Perhaps for that reason, this episode was heavy on the theory. First, the guys were joined in the War Room by one of Ian Spooner’s colleagues, geoscientist Aaron Satkowski, to discuss his isotope analysis of two artifacts pulled out of the ground in the Money Pit area.
Aaron examined two pieces of wood, including an ax, excavated from the spoils of the old RF1 caisson at about 180 feet.
The RF1 hole was excavated back in Season 7, and the guys still reckon it might be the spot closest to the original Money Pit. The caisson was placed between the Chappell and Hedden shafts.
Aaron focused his study on measuring the isotopes within the metallic element called strontium found in each artifact.
The geoscientist explained that strontium can be used to identify the geographic origin of the artifacts, much like a fingerprint.
Aaron proudly told the guys that the artifacts originated in southeastern France or northern Italy.
New evidence further links Oak Island with Europe and possibly the Templar Knights
This news thrilled the team as it suggested more links between Oak Island and the original stomping grounds of the medieval order of Templar Knights.
Last season, Rick Lagina and a few others traveled to Italy, where they examined old Templar churches and hiding spots and discovered ancient symbols that have also been detected on Oak Island.
The infamous Knights were also clearly linked to their native France. The 14th-century lead cross, uncovered by Gary Drayton in 2017, is believed to have been made using materials from mines in southeastern France.
All this mounting evidence continues to feed the theory that the Templar Knights or their successors buried treasure, such as ancient Christian relics, on Oak Island.
This news also sent the borehole drill team back to re-investigate the RF1 location, but so far, without any success.
Elsewhere on the island, Ian came up trumps with the Carbon-14 results of the wood found on old tree stumps recovered from the swamp. The wood was dated to the late 13th century and early 14th century.
This news, combined with the previous C-14 dating of the paved area, suggests something big and human-made occurred in the marshy area in the 13th century. This is the same time period when the Templars were most active.
Meanwhile, all this caused Rick to remember their visit to Italy and archaeoastronomer Professor Adriano Gaspani.
Rick Lagina suspects major activity occurred on Oak Island in the 1200s
Archaeoastronomy is a scientific discipline examining how ancient stone monuments were built to align with stars or other celestial objects. Two famous examples of this are Stonehenge and the Great Pyramid at Giza.
By examining how these monuments align with the stars today, archaeoastronomers like Gaspani can date when they were built. Last year, Gaspani told Rick that Nolan’s Cross was likely built in 1200 AD.
Last night, Rick suggested they put Gaspani to work again on two other stone structures, the stone triangle on the south shore and the stone cairns, also known as the pirate piles, found on Lot 15.
The stone triangle featured stones from the beach that allegedly pointed toward the original Money Pit but were sadly destroyed in the 1960s. The cairns consist of five pyramid-shaped constructs that point toward the swamp.
Rick wants to give Gaspani the coordinates of both these stone features to see if he can determine if they were aligned with the stars and when they were built.
If those dates come back in the ballpark of 1200 AD, it could prove that a significant operation occurred on the island in the 13th century. And what a discovery that would be!!
“It’s medieval, baby!” would be Gary Drayton’s reaction.
The Curse of Oak Island airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on History.