Original subtitles

[tense music]

- [Danny] Mysteries can be buried anywhere.

Under the earth,

[rumbling explosion]

[plane engine hums]

beneath the sea,

or even right under our own feet.

[coins jingle]

And when we stumble upon them,

sometimes what we find can change history.

Tonight, discoveries worth a fortune,

from an ancient haul in the deep...

- This is one of the most significant

underwater finds in history.

Items recovered are sold for $32,000,000.

- [Danny] To an unexpected gold mine.

- She starts thumbing through the cards.

She can tell they're very old,

but one name stands out.

- [Danny] To a lost work of art hiding

where no one is looking.

- He notices something on the reverse side of the canvas.

It's another painting.

- Based on the style, inscription,

and subject, experts conclude that it is an authentic

previously unknown painting by Picasso.

- Join us now, because nothing stays hidden forever.

[dramatic music]

- In 2004, a Midwestern scrap metal dealer

is at his local flea market,

hoping to find some undervalued materials

to flip and make a few bucks.

- In one stall, he finds a three inch tall

ornamented oval piece that has a clock embedded

on it and it sits on a small stand.

- He can tell that the item's made of real gold,

so he estimates the weight and decides to take a gamble.

He pays 13,000 for it.

That's a lot of money for him,

but he decides to take the chance,

maybe he could sell it and make a few hundred bucks profit.

- [Danny] Back home, the man weighs the egg shape find

and realizes he's overestimated the amount of gold.

Unwilling to take the loss,

he puts it in his kitchen cupboard

and it sits there for nearly a decade.

- In 2012, he's cleaning out his kitchen

and comes across the gold ornament.

He thinks, okay, it's time to get rid

of this thing once and for all.

- So he decides to do a little research

and he enters the word egg into a search engine

along with a name that he found

on the clock inside the ornament, Vacheron Constantin.

When the results come back, he can't believe his eyes.

- One of the first results that he gets

is an article in Britain's "Daily Telegraph" that questions

"Is this £20,000,000 nest egg on your mantelpiece?"

- [Don] It seems crazy, but when he looks at this old,

black and white photograph of this lost golden egg,

it seems like a dead ringer

for what's in his kitchen cabinet.

- [Danny] The resemblance is uncanny,

but could his flea market find

really be a rare Faberge Egg?

- Faberge is one of the finest makers

of jewelry in the world,

but what they're most famous for is a series of jeweled eggs

that were made in the late 1800s and early 1900s

for members of the Russian Imperial family.

- Each one was a unique, beautiful work of art

that took Faberge's jewelers over a year to make.

Only 69 of them were ever made.

The most famous were a group of 50 known

as the Imperial Easter Eggs that were made

for the Russian czars to be given as Easter gifts

to their mothers and wives.

- These things sell for millions of dollars.

They're certainly not the kinda thing

you'd expect to find at a flea market.

Most of them have been accounted for,

but there are eight of them that are missing,

and that makes them even more valuable.

- [Danny] Eager to find out if this is in fact one

of the missing Imperial Easter Eggs,

the scrap metal dealer flies to London

to meet with expert, Kieran McCarthy.

- As soon as this American pulls out his artifact,

McCarthy's jaw hits the floor.

This is an actual lost Imperial Easter Egg

from Czar Alexander III.

- A good Easter egg should contain a surprise,

and this one does just that.

If you press the diamond,

up appears a Vacheron Constantin watch.

This is the only one of the missing eggs ever

to have been found.

- [Danny] So how could such a priceless treasure end up

at a Midwestern flea market?

- [Martin] Initially, the egg belonged to the Romanov dynasty

before it was overthrown

by the communists in the October 1917 Revolution.

[people shouting] [explosion booming]

- Most experts believe that the egg

was stolen sometime after the revolution

and fell into the hands of some Western collector.

But after that, the story gets really cloudy.

- [Danny] Then almost 50 years later,

in 2011, the egg resurfaces.

- A Faberge researcher found a photo of the egg,

which in 1964, in New York, was sold

at an auction for the Rena Clark estate.

It went for $2,450.

Not much is known about Clark

and there's no information on whoever bought the egg.

- We do know that the egg was only described

as "Gold watch in egg formed case."

It's likely the person who bought this had no idea

about the artifact's actual value.

So when that person passed away,

it went into a donation pile.

- [Danny] From there, the egg slips through unknown hands

until it turns up at that flea market.

When it's finally put up for sale in 2014,

it's bought by a private dealer.

- [Don] While we don't know the exact amount

our scrap metal dealer got for his egg,

insiders believe that this $13,000 flea market find

could have sold for as much as $33,000,000.

Which would make it the most expensive Faberge egg ever sold.

[intense music]

- Finding a Faberge egg worth millions

at a flea market is pretty amazing,

but what if you found something even more valuable

right in your own backyard?

[tense music]

- In 2021 in Ratnapura, Sri Lanka,

a local homeowner by the name of Mr. Gamage

wants a well dug in his yard,

so he hires a local crew and they go at it.

As they're digging, they hit something hard,

[metal clangs]

causing their work to come to a halt.

[intense music]

- The worker says, "We've found something,"

and he's in shock,

and Mr. Gamage's mind starts to race.

He's worried that it could be something really bad.

- So, he looks down and he sees what appears to be ,

like, a rock stuck in this hole and he's relieved,

but then he takes a closer look

and he gets the shock of his life.

- [Danny] This is not just any old rock.

It's a massive sapphire.

- Sapphires are precious gemstones

that come in a variety of colors, most famously blue.

You'll often see them in pieces

of jewelry like pendants or rings,

but this sapphire, you're not gonna find on anyone's finger.

- [Hugo] This sapphire is a cluster of stones

that measures over four feet long and two feet wide,

and it weighs over half a ton,

which is around 2.5 million carats.

It's the biggest cluster sapphire ever found by a lot.

- [Danny] The workers pull the huge gem from the ground.

Then Mr. Gamage reports the find to the government

and sends it to specialists for cleaning.

- [Nicola] Gemologists discover that

not only is the sapphire large,

it's also a very, very high quality stone.

- [John] They dub it the Serendipity Sapphire,

and they estimate that it was formed

some 400,000,000 years ago.

- [Danny] Even more shocking than its age

is how valuable it is.

- The Serendipity Sapphire is worth around $100,000,000.

[intense music]

Industry experts believe that it's likely

to be sold to a private investor or a museum somewhere.

- For now, Mr. Gamage is weighing his options.

It's crazy to think

that if the workers had started their dig

just a few feet away,

that sapphire might never have been found.

- We all know childhood toys can hold priceless memories,

but what if one found in a Pennsylvania Goodwill store

was actually worth a small fortune?

[tense music]

- In 2024, a group of workers

at the DuBois, Pennsylvania branch of Goodwill

is going about their day like any other,

rummaging through used donations,

sorting them to fix up and resell.

- In one of the bags, they find this box

that has some inexpensive costume jewelry and one LEGO.

Now, I don't mean the typical toy donations

that Goodwill would normally get where you get a set of LEGOs,

or just a bunch of multicolored bricks,

but it's this small, golden mask.

- They upload a photo of the mask

to their online auction site

with a starting price of $14.95.

- [Danny] Almost instantly, collectors swarm the site,

driving the price from pocket change

to thousands of dollars.

- The people at Goodwill realize this is no ordinary LEGO piece.

They've got something really special on their hands,

so they immediately take down the listing

and put the piece in a safe.

- After a little research, the people at Goodwill realize

it's called the Kanohi Hau Mask

from the 2001 Bionicle Collection.

This is the holy grail of LEGO pieces.

- [Don] The mask is made of 14 carat gold,

but its real value comes from its rarity.

You see, LEGO only made 30 of these masks ever.

In 2001, they gave five to people who worked at the company

and the other 25 were given away in a promotion.

- If you're a LEGO or a toy collector,

you've gotta have this mask,

and now that Goodwill is aware of just what they possess,

they can start pricing it more appropriately.

- [Danny] When Goodwill puts the golden mask

back up for auction in February 2024,

it sparks an even bigger frenzy.

- Previously, the highest price ever paid

for a single LEGO was $15,000

for a solid gold brick in 2020.

But for this nine ounce, one-inch-tall, golden mask,

Goodwill ends up receiving 48 bids,

and the winning bid, $18,101.

It becomes the heavyweight champ of the toy brand.

- [Don] One of the great things about this find

is that the money goes straight back to Goodwill,

so they can continue to provide jobs

and training opportunities.

So, a collector acquires the toy of their dreams,

Goodwill continues doing more good work in the community.

Everybody wins.

- Finding a rare LEGO at a thrift store is unusual,

but this next childhood treasure

is hidden somewhere even more surprising.

[tense music]

- In 1992 in Westernport, Maryland,

Ellen Kelly finally gets her hands on a family heirloom.

Growing up, she always loved her Aunt Nora's piano,

but Aunt Nora, who had built a bit of a reputation

for being grouchy, never let any of the kids

in the family play the instrument.

- [Danny] Years later, after her aunt passes away,

Ellen learns the piano is up for sale

and snatches it up for just $25.

- She tries to play it,

and she realizes it's not really sounding right.

One of the foot pedals is stuck,

and I guess some of the hammers aren't striking

the chords right, or something doesn't seem well tuned.

- [Sami] She calls a friend to come over

and take a look at the piano

and when they open up the top of it,

they don't find a broken rod or a spring.

Instead, they find something very unexpected inside.

- [Danny] It's a secret stash of 112 vintage baseball cards.

[pensive music]

- Ellen herself is not necessarily

a big baseball aficionado,

but she starts thumbing through the cards.

She can tell they're very old, but one name stands out.

It's a card of a Boston Red Sox player,

Babe Ruth.

That's right, the Great Bambino.

- Everyone knows Ruth as a fabled Yankee.

He was traded from the Red Sox

to the Yankees after the 1919 season.

He's one of the top, if not the top legends

to ever play the game.

- Babe Ruth, .342 lifetime batting average,

714 home runs, 500 foot bombs.

He was pitching shutouts in the World Series.

Babe Ruth did it all.

- [Kavitha] At first, Ellen's not quite sure of the value

of this card collection,

so she keeps them stashed away,

but a find like this can't be kept quiet for too long.

- [Danny] Especially since it happens

to include Babe Ruth's rookie card.

- Word gets out amongst collectors

that this woman from Maryland has

the Sporting News 1916 Babe Ruth Rookie Card,

and this creates a lot of excitement for card collectors.

Immediately, one collector reaches out and offers $40,000.

- Ellen might not be an expert,

but she does know that a Babe Ruth card is a big deal,

so she realizes that she can probably

get more money for this card,

so she doesn't sell right away.

- She keeps the card for about a decade

and eventually she has all of the cards appraised.

She absolutely made the right call not selling

because the Babe Ruth card alone is valued

at about 60 to $75,000.

- [Danny] In 2019, Ellen decides it's finally time

to put the whole lot up for sale.

- [Sami] The other cards in the stack end up fetching

about $4,400, which is to be expected.

But when it's time to bid on the Bambino's card,

Ellen is shocked.

- [Adam] Well, as it turns out, the appraiser was a bit off.

Ultimately, the card doesn't sell for $75,000.

It sells for nearly double at $130,000.

- [Sami] So, Ellen turns a $25 piano purchase

into a $130,000 profit.

If you're a sports fan or a music lover,

you know that Ellen played that just right.

- [Danny] When fishermen set sail,

they always hope for a good catch.

But in 1998, one crew hauls in something

beyond their wildest dreams.

[tense music] [seagulls squawking]

- Off the coast of Indonesia,

a small group of divers are looking for sea cucumbers.

These are a local delicacy

that can bring a high price in the local markets,

so they pick a spot

and decide to dive in and try their luck.

[water splashing]

- They descend to about 50 feet.

They're fighting strong currents

and navigating jagged rocks,

and then suddenly they see something unusual.

It's rising eerily out of the sea floor.

- At first, it's hard to make out what he's dealing with

because it's covered with barnacles,

but he sees that this is actually stacks

of bowls and cups.

- The divers figure they can do just as well selling cups

and bowls as they can sea cucumbers,

so they pry a few out and they head to the surface.

- [Hugo] Word quickly spreads, and before the sea cucumber team

can even find a buyer,

rival fishermen head out

to loot the treasure for themselves.

- [Danny] And it's not just looters moving in.

Indonesian authorities are also curious.

- [Andrew] The government hires a German salvage company

to determine what exactly they're dealing with.

As this company dives down,

they immediately realize they're not just dealing with

a pile of ceramics on the sea floor.

This is, in fact, a shipwreck.

[dramatic music]

And it's a shipwreck of a nearly 60 foot long vessel.

- [Hugo] They decide to have the wood carbon dated

and they find that this boat has been sitting

at the bottom of the ocean since the ninth century.

It's over 1,200 years old.

- [Andrew] The bow and stern of the ship

have a rake-like design to them,

and this is not common in Southeast Asia,

but it is common in several Middle Eastern countries.

So what we're dealing with is not an Asian ship,

it's an Arab ship.

- [Danny] This is the first Arab ship

ever discovered in these waters,

and its cargo reveals why it sailed so far east.

- Inside, they find the most extensive collection

of gold and ceramics ever found

from a Chinese golden age, the Tang Dynasty.

- [Andrew] Notable finds include gold bowls,

and the biggest Tang Dynasty gold cup ever found.

- Archeologists realize that these ceramics

aren't meant for just one city or just one port.

They were meant to be sold across Asia and the Middle East.

- [Danny] It's a haul that proves just as valuable today

as it was over 1,000 years ago.

- In 2005, most of the items recovered

from the wreck are sold

to the Singaporean government for around $32,000,000.

This is a huge payout for one of

the most significant underwater finds in history,

all because of a local taste for sea cucumbers.

- [Danny] Over 9,000 miles away,

an even older prize is discovered

on one man's daily walk.

[tense music]

- In the spring of 1987, Stan Sacrison is out walking

around on his neighbor's ranch in Buffalo, South Dakota.

- [Andrew] As he's walking around,

he sees a strange outcropping on a bluff,

and as he gets closer,

it looks like bone fragments

are sticking out of the ground.

- Now, Stan thinks that this could be a dinosaur fossil,

so he starts to dig it out.

Over the coming weeks, he uncovers more of this object

and he starts to realize

this could be a very important find.

- [Danny] To help figure out what he's uncovered,

Stan calls in an expert.

- [Sami] The paleontologist comes to look at Stan's finding

and he tells him that it's, quote, "Only a triceratops."

He goes, "Thanks for bringing it up,

but there are plenty of these around,"

not really interested in the find.

So, Stan decides to just cover up the finding

with a tarp and a bunch of dirt.

- [Danny] Five years later, in January 1992,

another paleontologist, Peter Larson,

from the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research,

hears about the find and reaches out to Stan.

- Stan brings Larson to the site,

and when he looks at the fossil,

he can't believe what he sees.

- This is not a triceratops, it's the king of the dinosaurs:

[dinosaur roaring]

a Tyrannosaurus rex.

- Larson and his team return to the site

later that year in April for a full excavation.

And what they do is they follow the vertebrae

along this ancient stream bed

and they start to uncover bone after bone.

- Most exciting is the discovery

of a nearly complete and extremely well-preserved skull.

They even find almost all

of the Tyrannosaurus' 52 massive teeth.

- After weeks of digging,

they manage to retrieve around 65% of the dinosaur fossil,

which makes this find the largest

and most complete T. rex dinosaur skeleton to date.

- They name it Stan, after the man

who first found it protruding from the side of a hill.

- [Danny] Finding Stan was just the beginning.

Putting him back together takes decades of work.

- Altogether, workers spend close

to 30,000 hours extracting, cleaning,

and assembling the fossils before they go on display.

- [Danny] Once it's put together,

the T. rex becomes a real money maker

for the Black Hills Institute.

- The institute makes nearly 100 casts of Stan's skeleton

and even more of just his skull.

These reproductions are sold to collectors

and museums around the world.

- [Danny] Then in October of 2020,

the entire original skeleton goes up for auction.

- Experts expect it will bring in

between 6 and $8 million, but when the bidding starts,

it quickly blows past those estimates.

- [Andrew] When the final gavel comes down,

it is the Abu Dhabi Museum of Natural History

who has won Stan for a

astonishing price of $31.8 million.

- At the time, it's the highest price ever paid

for a dinosaur skeleton,

beating the previous record by over $20 million.

- [Danny] Most construction jobs turn up nothing more

than rock and dirt.

But in 1985, one team in Poland strikes something

that stops them in their tracks.

[tense music]

- On June 6th, 1985, in the town of Sroda Slaska,

crews are excavating for a new telephone exchange building.

As they're digging, they hit something hard,

[metal clangs]

and that causes all work to come to a halt.

- The workers gather around

and what it looks like they found is a big clay pot.

Now, this needs to be removed for work to resume,

so they begin digging.

- [Danny] As they pry the object from the ground,

the inside of the vessel reveals something shocking.

- Gold and silver coins spill out of this container.

A lot of 'em.

This is obviously an important find,

so the team in charge calls in the authorities.

- The Polish government sends a security team to ensure

that no one tampers with, or worse, steals the hoard.

They transport the coins under high security

to the archeological museum in nearby Wroclaw.

- As the museum's curators sort through the find,

they identify some coins

that have distinct markings on them,

a crown on one side and a lion on the other.

Written in Latin on the coins

are the words "dei gratia rex boemie," which means,

"By the grace of God, the King of Bohemia."

- [Hakeem] These are a type of currency known as Prague grosz.

They were first minted around the year 1300,

and they stayed in use until around the mid 1500s.

The team dates these particular coins

back to the mid 14th century,

which means they were some of the first grosz ever made.

[dramatic music]

- [Danny] Nearby, another construction team

uncovers even more ancient relics.

- There, they find multiple clay jars

with 4,000 coins, gold jewelry, and pendants.

Amongst the treasure,

researchers also find a gold wedding crown.

The only one of its kind ever found from this period.

- After years of research, historians conclude

that this treasure comes from King Charles IV of Bohemia,

who eventually ascended

to become the Holy Roman emperor in 1355.

The title has a complicated history,

but it dates back to the time of Charlemagne.

The emperor ruled a huge swath of territory

in central and western Europe,

including this region which is now part of Poland.

- [Danny] When experts trace

how this royal treasure ended up here,

they uncover a troubling chapter

in Charles the IV's reign.

[tense music]

- [Hakeem] Charles spent a lot of money in his day.

He built a lot of castles, he built a university,

and he bought a lot of art.

He also had trouble collecting taxes from his subjects,

so at times, Charles was broke.

- Researchers believe that the emperor took out a loan

from a banker in Sroda Slaska named Muscho,

using his jewels and his crowns as collateral.

- [Andrew] Tragically, during Charles's reign,

the Black Plague hits this area hard.

So, some experts believe that Muscho died from the plague.

- [Danny] Before his death,

it's believed Muscho hides the hoard.

- If Muscho hid the treasure,

Charles didn't know where to find it,

and the Sroda hoard became one

of the greatest archeological fines of the 20th century.

- Estimates of the value of the treasure today

are as high as 120 million.

These days, pieces of the collection are viewed

at museums across Poland,

and of course, one of those museums is right

in the heart of the town where they found it, Sroda Slaska.

- Next, another underground treasure trove

helps put a city on the map.

[tense music]

- In July of 1886, a widow hires a handyman

by the name of George Harrison

to help her build a house on her small farm

in Central South Africa.

So one day, Harrison goes out

to collect stones for construction,

and as he's rummaging around,

he notices one stone that looks

a bit different than the others.

- Looked like it was made of lots of little pebbles

that were glued together with something like sand.

Curious, he takes the stone

and just smashed it apart to see what was inside.

- [Danny] As the stone cracks open,

it shimmers in the sunlight.

Harrison suspects he's found something special,

but he takes the rock to his best friend

for a second opinion.

- The friend happens to be a former miner,

and so all it takes is one look at Harrison's find

and he knows exactly what he's looking at.

That shimmering dust is gold.

- [Hakeem] Harrison figures, if there's one rock with gold,

there's probably many more.

So, he contacts the widow who owns the land

in order to get mining rights and she grants them.

He then contacts the government and stakes a claim.

[tools clanging]

- [Danny] News of the gold strike spreads quickly,

and prospectors flood the area.

- You have to remember, this is the 1800s,

so during this era in history,

it seems that everybody is gold crazy.

1849, you have the very famous California Gold Rush

where the state explodes in population

from 1,000 non-natives to about 100,000

in a short period of time.

In the 1850s, gold is found in Victoria, Australia.

In the 1870s, you have gold found in Venezuela.

So, basically at that time, if somebody yelled gold,

people were just going to come rushing over in droves.

- Harrison's find transforms

this tiny, sparse, rural community.

Thousands of people flock in in the first month alone,

and as more prospectors come,

they find more gold, which they set up more camps,

which attracts more prospectors,

eventually stretching to a line 40 miles long.

- [Sami] Harrison's gold strike

literally puts the area on the map,

and within a few months,

this booming town receives a name, Johannesburg.

Within 10 years,

it becomes the largest city in South Africa.

It becomes this vibrant financial hub of the nation,

and today it boasts a population of around 5,000,000 people.

- [Danny] The area Harrison discovered

becomes known as the Witwatersrand Goldfield

and it's still the richest deposit

of gold in the world.

- [Paul] To date, over two billion ounces of gold

have been pulled out of the Witwatersrand region,

which at today's prices, is worth

around $5 trillion.

[intense music]

And most experts estimate that there's at least

another billion ounces left to mine in the region.

- [Danny] The famous quarry has made fortunes

for countless miners, but not for the man who found it.

- Reports say he sells this claim for like 10 pounds,

which is around $2,000 in today's money,

and then he disappears never to be heard from again.

- [Sami] Today, George Harrison is commemorated

by a Johannesburg city park on the spot

of his original mining claim.

In tribute to the man who helped

to create an incredible city and many, many, many fortunes.

- What begins as some routine maintenance

on a piece of art uncovers a secret hidden for decades.

[tense music]

- It's the turn of the century, the year 2000,

and billionaire Bill Koch

has an unbelievable fine art collection.

One of the jewels is an icon

of Picasso's Blue Period called "La Gommeuse."

Some people call it "The Nightclub Singer."

It's actually that of a cabaret dancer.

- Bill bought the painting in 1984 for a hefty $3,000,000,

and now he wants to do a little cleaning

and conservation work on the piece to preserve it.

Except when the conservationist opens up the lining

on the inside of the frame,

he notices something on the reverse side of the canvas.

[paper ripping]

It's another painting.

- So, the image is, well, it's weird.

It depicts a naked man wearing a turban

and he looks like he's stretching

and peeing on the landscape.

Unfortunately, the piece isn't signed,

so the conservator doesn't know what to make at this.

So, and he calls in some experts

to try and figure out the history of this piece.

- On the painting are written the words

in Spanish, "Recuerdo a Mañach en el día de su santo,"

and essentially translates to,

"I remember Mañach on his Saint's Day."

- To us, this might sound cryptic, but to the experts,

it's astonishing because they know exactly who it refers to.

Perry Mañach was Pablo Picasso's friend,

business manager, and dealer.

- [Danny] Could this hidden painting be another Picasso?

- [John] The painting is studied,

and based on the style, inscription, and subject,

experts conclude that it is an authentic,

previously unknown painting by Picasso.

[dramatic music]

No matter how or why this double painting

came into existence, this is a very rare find.

- [Adam] They say it was painted in roughly 1901,

but they can't figure out

why Picasso would do such a bizarre painting to begin with.

The speculation is simply this:

Picasso was a young artist,

roughly 19 at the time when he painted it,

and people believe he may have painted

that painting for Mañach,

but then because canvases were so expensive,

Picasso asked for the canvas back,

such that he could paint the famous "La Gommeuse."

- [Danny] The mysterious origins

of this double painting only boost its value.

- [John] In 2015, Bill puts it up for auction.

This $3 million painting now sells

for $67.5 million.

At the time, it's the highest price that's ever been paid

for a Picasso painted during his Blue Period.

- Sure, it's a valuable piece of art,

but more importantly,

it provides a valuable insight into the mind

of Pablo Picasso before he became a household name.

- Finding a hidden Picasso can make you some serious dough.

But in Ireland, one man's discovery proves

that sometimes the richest finds

come straight from the soil.

[tense music]

- [Adam] It's 2016 in County Meath,

close to the east coast of Ireland,

and a man named Jack Conway is pulling turf.

People call him a turf cutter.

What that means is essentially digging into the peat,

cutting it into sections,

and then it's going to be dried and burned

for fuel during the winter months.

- Conway is going about his job

when he discovers something unexpected.

12 feet underground, he discovers 22 pounds

of butter.

[intense music]

That's equivalent to the weight of 88 sticks of butter.

But this isn't the type of butter

that you find in your grocery store.

This butter turns out to be 2,000 years old.

- [Danny] Locals call it bog butter,

but why was it buried deep underground?

- It's speculated that ancient peoples

would utilize a bog as almost nature's refrigerator.

Its cold, spongy soil, its low oxygen levels,

its natural acidity makes a bog

act like a natural preservative,

ensuring that this butter maintains

its longevity long after its expiration date.

- [Adam] Now, it's important to note in the ancient world,

this bog butter is a sign of luxury.

That's something of value.

Essentially, this is nothing less than a buried treasure.

In the 21st century, we consider luxury items

to be expensive watches, fancy cars.

But 2,000 years ago,

anything related to cows

was considered very highly prized.

So, having that much butter is really wealth

for whoever possessed it.

- [Danny] Some historians believe

that the butter had an even higher purpose.

- Thousands of years ago,

people believed that by giving a valuable

or expensive offering to the gods,

it would provide protection for their land,

for their animals.

So naturally, butter being so expensive

would be an immensely valuable sacrifice to the gods.

- [Danny] Bog butter may be the caviar of its day,

but does it pass the taste test of time?

- After 2,000 years of aging in the ground,

the Conway butter ball apparently smells sort

of like a very strong cheese.

And while the Conway bog butter

is technically still edible,

I will assure you there are things

that even I won't eat.

[butter sizzling]

- When a woman begins a simple garden renovation,

she digs up something far beyond her imagination.

[tense music]

- In 1939, Edith Pretty owns

a large estate in Suffolk, England.

Its name is Sutton Hoo,

and she's looking to make some improvements to the property.

There's a weird feature on her land,

like 18 very large earthen mounds.

They've always been a bit of a mystery,

but now that her husband has passed away

and she's looking to renovate,

she decides that's where she's gonna start.

- [Danny] Edith hires a crew to get rid of the mounds.

- Soon, one of the workers finds a piece of metal.

The team thinks it's a rivet,

which is used as a fastener to hold things together,

but this one seems particularly old.

They keep digging and finding more of these things.

Once they dig deeper into the mound,

they also start to notice strange ridges in the ground.

It's almost as if something has been pushed

into the earth and left an impression.

- [Danny] As more dirt is cleared away,

the crew realizes their find

is much bigger than they ever expected.

- They take a step back and they can't believe their eyes.

They've found a boat.

Nnot a complete boat,

because all the wood has been disintegrated,

but the impression in the sand left

by the boat's beams is completely visible.

Those rivets are like dots in the ground,

and when you connect the dots,

you can clearly see the outline of a boat.

- Edith Pretty contacts a local museum.

Authorities quickly move in

and they turn over the project to archeologists from Cambridge.

- [John] The experts think that it might be a Viking long boat

because the Vikings are known to bury their vessels.

But what it's doing in here is anyone's guess.

- [Danny] A buried boat is only half the mystery.

It's what's inside that's the real surprise.

- They dig to what would've been the middle of the ship,

and as they start carefully excavating that section,

they unearth an absolute treasure trove of goods.

- [John] They find jewelry, silver bowls,

drinking horns, iron swords, and spears,

and an incredible warrior's helmet.

In all, they uncover 263 artifacts.

- [Danny] There's also something special

in the way these treasures have been placed.

- The artifacts are carefully arranged,

and in the middle of the treasures

is a space roughly the size of a human body.

It turns out this ship full of riches is actually a tomb.

[dramatic music]

- [Danny] Due to the acidic soil,

no human remains are ever found.

- [Don] There's no way of knowing

who was buried in the Sutton Hoo grave.

But given the amount of wealth found on the ship,

well, experts believe this must have been

a very important person, perhaps even royalty.

- [Scott] The archeologists are able to identify

most of the artifacts they find,

but one thing they realize,

this isn't a Viking era ship they thought it was.

[soldiers shouting] [weapons clanging]

The ship belongs to a different group

called the Anglo-Saxons,

a Germanic group that both inhabited

and eventually ruled England

between the 5th and 11th centuries.

- [Danny] Today, the artifacts are on display

at the British Museum,

but the mystery of why the ship

was buried on Edith's property lives on.

- The Sutton Hoo artifacts make up one

of the most extensive collections

of Anglo-Saxon artifacts ever found.

Experts agree that the monetary value

of this find is well into the millions,

but there's no putting a price tag

on a discovery of this nature.

- From hidden gems to forgotten riches,

the world is full of fortunes just waiting to be found.

I'm Danny Trejo.

Thanks for watching Mysteries Unearthed.