Original subtitles

(Transcrito por TurboScribe. Atualize para Ilimitado para remover esta mensagem.) Tonight, on The Curse of Oak Island.

What's that?

It's similar to what we have on Oak Island.

This is from 2000 BC.

Really?

We're starting to find a hidden wall.

Whoa.

This would be an ideal place to deposit treasure.

That sounds great.

Wow.

Oh my gosh.

This is huge.

Amazing.

This is very, very, very significant.

If that was part of the treasure, the rest of it is still in the money pit.

Absolutely.

There is an island in the North Atlantic

where people have been looking for an incredible treasure

for more than 200 years.

So far, they have found a stone slab

with strange symbols carved into it.

Man-made workings that date to medieval times.

And a lead cross whose origin may be connected to the Knights Templar.

To date, six men have died trying to solve the mystery.

And, according to legend,

one more will have to die

before the treasure can be found.

As a new fall day begins on Oak Island...

They do the grinding, we do the finding.

The team is currently repairing a section of unstable ground

in order to begin the final massive dig of the year

where unnaturally high traces of silver

have been detected some 200 feet underground.

As the work proceeds...

Over 2,000 miles to the southeast

on the island of Terceira in the Portuguese Azores.

Welcome to Nossa Senhora de Conceição,

Our Lady of the Conception.

Rick and members of the team,

along with local historian Francisco Nogueira,

arrive at a 15th century church

connected to a sect of the Knights Templar

known as the Order of Christ.

Founded around 1474 by Alvaro de Oman,

this church is the crossroads of a number of great stories

that might tell us what came from the Holy Land

through the Azores towards Oak Island.

And I think it's wonderful, so let's go.

Perfect.

After discovering a number of believed

Portuguese medieval artifacts on Oak Island,

such as a hand cannon and stone shots,

along with structures such as a rock wall on Lot 26

and a stone road in the swamp,

Rick and members of the team have come to research the theory

that the Templars and their descendant organizations

may have stored sacred treasures in the Azores

before taking them to Oak Island

between the 13th and 17th centuries.

It is also their hope to find clues

related to the 14th century silver Portuguese coin

that was reportedly extracted

during a drilling operation in the original money pit

by James Pitt Plato back in 1849.

At first glance, this looks like an ordinary church,

a beautiful but ordinary church.

Oh.

A few years ago, we were underground in Camerano, Italy,

looking at the altar, which had this image here.

The goose paw.

I think you'll agree that it's at least very similar.

Yeah.

The goose paw is a symbol that was created by the Knights Templar,

which they carved at locations of sacred importance

throughout the Middle East and Europe

between the 12th and 14th centuries.

The team saw a similar carving just one week ago

at a nearby church known as the Igreja de São Sebastião.

And in recent years, they've also seen goose paws

carved at former Templar sites in Italy,

as well as in Liverpool, Nova Scotia,

less than 50 miles from Oak Island.

Any treasure that was on this island

would have been in the realm of this church.

Could Corian be correct that this goose paw carving

is a clue that Templar-related treasures

were once safeguarded in the Azores?

If so, might that also suggest

that the goose paw found near Oak Island

is evidence that those treasures

were taken to that area at a later time?

The goose paw, it was an interesting connection

that he made.

What better place, an isolated island

in the middle of the open ocean,

to safeguard a treasure

and then perhaps an attempt to move it even further west?

One thing I'm noticing just looking at this

is we have the goose paw,

but then we also have an elongated cross

using the stem of the H.

It's elongated, just like no one's cross.

Yes, the symbology is endless.

I do believe there is some religious component

to what was done on Oak Island.

There's so much encoded information

associated with Templars and the Knights of Christ

related to significant religious artifacts

that we have found in Europe and Oak Island.

This is incredibly intriguing and interesting

as the whole story of Oak Island is.

It's very, very cool.

It's all fascinating.

We should move to the next location.

That'd be great.

Let's go.

As Rick and the team continue their investigation

in the Azores, back on Oak Island...

Hey, Katja.

Hey, Marty.

I hated to see you not have a digger,

so I am here.

Marty Lagina joins Katja Drayton

several yards south of the Money Pit area

on Lot 18.

I just wanted to go over these spoils.

Oh, the spoils from Dunfield.

Yeah.

I'm ready to dig if you find something.

Let's find it.

Okay.

In 1965, treasure hunter Robert Dunfield

used a 70-ton crane

to dig a 100-foot diameter crater

in the Money Pit area.

Unfortunately, upon reaching a depth of 143 feet,

the ground around the hole collapsed

as seawater rushed in and flooded it.

Mr. Dunfield hastily filled the hole

but left massive piles of spoils off to the side,

which were never searched for possible clues or valuables.

Now, because the team is about to sink a much deeper shaft

in the area encompassed by Dunfield's dig,

Marty is curious to try the team's luck

by metal-detecting those old mounds of spoils.

Ooh, that's different.

This one's really good.

Right in there, and it's small.

That's why it kind of sounded choppy.

Mm-hmm. Okay.

That makes sense.

Try that.

Let's see.

Got it?

It's out.

It's out.

That sounds great.

Ooh.

Ooh, we got it.

It's in your hand.

Oh, my gosh.

Yeah.

Oh, you know what, Katja?

I've seen this before.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

Hang on.

I'm pretty sure I've seen this before.

It's shaped like the fleur-de-lis almost.

Yeah.

You are dead on, because you know what this looks exactly like?

Hmm.

I am positive your dad found something exactly like this,

and he was sure it was a French cat badge.

Why is there a French cat badge in the money pit?

Well, here's the thing.

The short answer is, we're not sure.

But here's the cool thing.

It was found on the complete opposite side of the island.

Oh, my gosh.

Which implies a greater presence than we thought, right?

I mean, why over here and over there?

What is that?

That's got some designs on it.

Yeah, that has.

In 2018, while metal detecting on Lot 21,

located on the western side of the island...

This reminds me of, like, a cat badge,

a military cat badge.

...Gary, Jack, and Peter found an identical artifact fragment.

Is it possible that Marty and Katja have discovered

a directly related clue that was removed from the money pit

more than 60 years ago?

There are several leading theories

that involve the French in a very significant way.

The Knights of Malta, Isaac de Rasly,

which had a settlement just down the coast here in the 1600s,

was apparently here associated with the French

or under French orders.

In 1632, a French military officer named Isaac de Rasly

established a fort in La Havre, Nova Scotia,

just 15 miles south of Oak Island.

Curiously, de Rasly was also a prominent member

of the Templar and Order of Christ-related group

known as the Knights of Malta

and is believed by some researchers

to have possibly visited Oak Island.

That is a great find.

Boy, the Drayton's strike.

We don't know exactly where these Dunfield spoils came from,

but nobody's gone through them.

I would never have guessed this would show up over here.

And so I think this is evidence of human activity

deep underground in the money pit area

and potentially some of the depositors.

This is a great indicator that something's still down there.

Look, honestly, it is so significant.

Thank you.

Of course. I'll find you another.

Great find.

I got a lot of passes today,

but I've probably got a couple of nights' work still.

While work continues in the money pit area...

He's just dying to dig, isn't he?

...Marty joins members of the team on Lot 5

to dig for new clues several yards

from the rounded stone foundation.

Okay, talk to me.

What are we looking at right now?

Well, as we started uncovering this lovely ring of rocks

and got a little further down,

there's something starting to present itself,

and it looks like a nicely stacked area of rocks,

which potentially could be another feature.

Ooh!

Four weeks ago, the team began investigating

what they believed was a 20th-century stone well.

However, after finding an iron hook inside of it

that may date back three centuries or more,

Fiona and Laird began to carefully excavate the feature

and have found evidence that it may not only be older

than they thought but is perhaps not a well at all.

Okay, so what do we want to do?

What's the next step?

Why don't we take off that top layer

where the rocks are on the outside,

scoop up that, and it gives us a start

on a test pit that we can do.

Okay.

I love this excavator archaeology.

You can do some real metal detecting with this baby, can't you?

Now, Fiona and Laird want Marty to dig a trench beside the feature

so that they can carefully expose more of it

and hopefully determine just what it actually is.

It's still too early to say what it is,

but it sure as heck wasn't a 20th-century well.

Fiona, more or closer?

I think you can do another one in here.

I'd go for more.

It's necessary to find out what this is

because it's lot 5, it's close to the activity,

could be maybe associated with a round feature

and is one of the things that probably happened a long time ago.

We need to do more investigation of it.

It hasn't really told its secret yet.

I think that's good, Marty.

That gives us a really nice trench zone.

I think that gives us a really good head start.

Good? Yeah, I think so.

All right, just call when you need, you know, big scoops taken.

Your team is chomping at the bit over there.

Let's see if we turn them loose. Let's get after it.

Thank you.

All right, I'm going to get this thing out of here.

All right.

As the archaeologists continue their investigation on lot 5.

Back on the island of Terceira in the Azores.

Hey, guys.

Francesco, Felix, thank you for welcoming us.

Nice to meet you. Appreciate it.

Rick and other members of the team...

Morning.

...meet with historian Dr. Felix Rodrigues at Grota do Medo,

a site of mysterious megalithic stone features

which are believed to have been built

by someone before the Portuguese settled the Azores in 1439.

For over 15 years,

Professor Rodrigues studied the place we're going today

to date some of the features that are here.

We know that the Portuguese arrived here

officially in the early 1400s.

We will see traces that someone in the Middle Ages was here

and might have used the Azores as a stepping stone

to sail towards North America.

Right, which is basically the halfway point

between the European mainland and North America.

Yeah.

You're always looking to incrementally build the database

brick by brick by brick or stone by stone by stone.

With Felix's work,

we have to have an ability to get from east to west.

Right.

That possibility that there was a group here

prior to the conventionally accepted date

is kind of the thing that I'd like to investigate

while we're out here

because that implies sort of a secret visit.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

This can support that data,

and I believe that is the intent of our trip here.

Yeah.

Gentlemen, I've got some business to take care of back in town,

so I'm going to excuse myself.

Nice to meet you, Professor.

See you, Doug.

See you.

Let's go, let's go.

Okay.

Okay.

I believe that the point of beginning on Oak Island

was in the 1200s.

Let's go find some data points.

Because of the paved area in the swamp.

We'll get our exercise today.

Oh, yeah.

It significantly predates the discovery of the Azores.

It's up there, no?

There is a belief that the Templars,

in the order of Christ, knew of this place.

Is there early habitation here in the Azores?

This is what we seek to find out.

Hey, guys, hold up.

Look.

Yeah.

Look at that.

This is exactly where the Lot 8 boulder is, right?

That space and this and the space.

Oh, it is.

A rock formation similar to the boulder feature on Lot 8,

which is set above a series of evenly spaced stones?

Come on down.

Take a look at this.

Could Rick have found a stone structure

built with the same kind of design?

Just walking by, I just noticed this.

It's kind of similar to a rock that we have on the island.

This wood is full of these marks.

Very interesting.

Does anybody have a photo of the Lot 8 feature?

I think I do.

Here.

I'll show you.

So this is, it's zoomed in.

But it's a giant boulder.

There's a support rock and then a space.

And then a support rock and then a space.

And it looked very deliberate.

It seems to be the same idea.

Yeah.

Incredible.

It's a giant boulder.

So this is, it's zoomed in.

There's a support rock and then a space.

And then a support rock and then a space.

And it looked very deliberate.

It seems to be the same idea.

Yeah.

We don't know why.

At the megalithic complex known as Grotta D'Umato

in the Azores, the Oak Island team

is examining a stone feature that

is similar in design to placed rocks in the boulder

formation on Lot 8.

Felix, what is that?

This is cut marks.

The cut marks are always aligned with a specific sunset

or sunrise.

Astronomical, yeah.

It's an astronomical orientation.

Has an archaeoastronomer looked at this

and been able to date it through the use of alignments?

It's possible.

What are the dates here?

Do you know?

2000 BC.

Really?

Really.

OK, wow.

Very exciting.

And this is a specific orientation

from Iron Age, Bronze Age orientations

that appears in mainland in several places

with the same age.

That is compelling.

What I noticed is the same thing I noticed in Lot 8.

The spacing of the stones that surround the Lot 8 feature

and the spacing of these cuts in this stone were so similar.

We're trying to find real connections

between the Azores and Oak Island.

This structure represents that possible connection.

It's very curious to see that here.

It's quite interesting.

But obviously, this feature is very old.

So was the work here on Oak Island

done by descendants of the original people

who occupied the Azores or something different?

This is not the most important in this place.

Really?

Really.

Then I would ask you to proceed

because I'm very interested.

Let's go up.

More to see.

Turns out that's just the beginning.

Let's go to the basin.

Yeah, let's go to the basin.

We're only partway to the site that he deems to be important.

Of course, we're all excited to go see it.

Gorgeous.

It's stunningly beautiful.

These megalithic structures represent for us

this belief that once this landmass was found,

it was used over centuries as a stepping stone

between the Old World and the New World.

Great spot.

But I'm looking for a timeline, a date,

constructions and clues that connects directly to Oak Island,

something that will perhaps change history

as we have come to know it.

Okay, this is the basin.

Oh, look at that.

This is a symbol of a settlement here.

The people were living in the island

and made some strange basins.

Oh, is that hand-carved?

Yes.

So this is not a functional watering hole.

It's probably ceremonial.

Probably ceremonial.

And inside, some materials, organic material,

is accumulated in the bottom of the basin.

And because of that,

it was possible to date it by carbon dating.

And it was?

At least 1,000 years ago.

Oh, wow. Really?

Yes.

Pretty cool.

So we're talking about the 1100s.

This is the minimum age for that.

Mm-hmm.

What an amazing site.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

It does sort of put this

in the Oak Island dating's wheelhouse, doesn't it?

Yeah.

Comparison here to the Lot 26 well, right?

Yeah.

Small diameter.

Yeah.

More than a few people on the island

have mentioned that Lot 26 well could be ceremonial.

Oh, yeah.

In 2022, the team began investigating

a mysterious stone well

just yards from the believed Portuguese Wall on Lot 26.

So this is the location.

When Dr. Ian Spooner analyzed organic materials

taken from the very bottom of the feature

in order to date it,

the team was stunned by the results.

The date I got on the bottom was 1028 to 1172.

Well, I mean, if this was used in 1100,

it could have been a stopping ground

before going to Oak Island.

Yeah.

I agree with you.

They know travel in the Atlantic.

If they want to go, they know how to do it.

100%.

And that is really so critically important.

The 1100s is 300 years before the current understanding

of when the Azores were discovered.

Everything we have learned to date would indicate

that these islands were known during the zenith

of the power and influence of the Templars.

It fits perfectly into what we believe could be a scenario

under which a treasure would have been brought here

to be safeguarded,

and then perhaps an attempt to move it even further west.

So perhaps there is some association here

with Oak Island.

So it's checking off lots of the boxes

as it pertains to Oak Island.

We're getting closer.

Right.

So to both of you, we thank you for your efforts.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I have a lot of things to see related to Oak Island,

so let's go.

Incredible.

Amazing.

Pretty cool.

The following morning, back on Oak Island.

Hi.

Hello.

This looks quite a bit different.

Marty returns to Lot 5 for an update

on the investigation of the mysterious stone structure.

Well, you've got to check out this progress.

Come and see.

You've got a good angle over here.

Don't mind.

The rocks are really well stacked down below.

They just look a little bit more jumbled on the top.

What we're seeing with the structure of the rocks

and the direction that they're going,

I do feel that this is a wall.

A foundation wall.

Yeah, like a foundation wall.

Just to be clear, yeah.

Yeah, that's what I think.

And it's quite thick as well.

Yeah.

That, to me, looks buried.

It's not natural accumulation.

Oh, on purpose.

Yeah.

Hidden.

Exactly.

It looks pretty substantial to me.

Yeah.

It hit me upside the head with a 2x4,

but this is looking identical to what went on over there.

And the original round feature.

I know.

That's what we were saying.

It does look almost exactly as the original round feature did.

And then we have this rock-filled structure.

I mean, this whole business on Lot 5

started with the ring of modern-placed rocks

surrounding a depression that turned out

to be hiding something.

And that turned into a very, very substantial

archaeological feature.

Well, this is a smaller version of the same thing.

I mean, it's crying out for more exploration.

Even the construct at first initial glance

is very crude and very similar to what

we have over there as well.

Well, but over there, you suspected

at least two occupations.

Oh, definitely.

Definitely.

The later occupation was better built than the earlier.

And this matches the earlier so far.

I wouldn't be surprised if it was the same era.

It's like deja vu.

That's a really good sign, Fiona.

It does look almost exactly as the original round feature

did when we first saw it.

I wouldn't be surprised if it was the same era.

On Lot 5, Fiona Steele has uncovered evidence

suggesting that the stone feature previously thought

to be a 20th century well is a much larger structure

and may be related to the nearby rounded foundation.

That's a strange thing to put a structure

this close to the ocean, especially back then.

No, but I did question the proximity as well.

This would be an ideal place to put something

if you were doing some sort of activity

that involves bringing things in from boats.

Maybe.

Lot 5 is a prime location in the sense

that you could be hidden there.

It's on the back end of the island, closer to the shore,

and it hadn't been settled, so you could easily hide a ship.

It's not that far from the money pit as well.

I think that would be very enticing for anybody

who's going to want to deposit treasure.

Old Man Winter is breathing down our neck right now.

We are running out of time.

Yeah.

You know, we want to know as much as we can.

I agree.

The fact that there could be another third feature

on Lot 5 I think is absolutely amazing,

so no, we're hungry to get active.

Okay.

I know you're already working like, you know,

Go to double dynamo, okay?

We're so excited about this.

That was a pep talk.

We're going to be aggressive.

We're going to really go for it.

All right.

Curiouser and curiouser.

A lot of unknowns here,

so we're going to let you get back to work

before the weather closes in.

Thank you.

All right, let's go for it.

As work continues on Oak Island,

back on the island of Terceira in the Azores.

Usually a discussion like this would happen

in a war room on Oak Island.

Alberto Silva from Porto is a numismatist,

a world-class coin collector.

Rick and members of the team

meet with renowned Portuguese coin expert

Alberto Silva

at the Luiz de Silva Ribeiro Public Library

and Regional Archive.

Alberto has kindly offered his services here

to look at the so-called Poblado coin.

After previous analysis by coin expert Sandy Campbell

suggested that the 14th century silver coin

was extremely rare,

worth thousands of dollars in today's value,

and connected to the Order of Christ,

the team is eager to hear Alberto's perspective.

Alberto, what we have here to show you today

is a coin that was passed down generation to generation

believing it came from the money pit on Oak Island.

And this is that coin.

Whoa.

This coin is in very, very good condition.

This was minted in Lisbon.

We can see an L above the shield.

It is minted between 1369 and 13721.

That right there helps us because so far we believe

that it was minted somewhere between 1367 and 1383.

Okay.

So if it was minted no later than 1371,

that shortens the window, the time in which it was created.

Yes.

We know several different dyes from Ferdinand.

Dating back more than 2,000 years,

a dye is a metal tool

used to stamp a specific design into a coin

during the minting process.

When damaged, coin dyes were often replaced

with new, slightly different stamps

in order to trace the manufacturing of a coin

to a specific date and time.

Are there many surviving examples of those coins?

We have recorded no more than 100.

Wow.

So we think that a large quantity of these coins were minted

because this coin was minted by the Portuguese Ferdinand I

in the period of war.

In the wartime, Ferdinand needed to mint more coins.

King Ferdinand I,

who is reported to be a great supporter of the Order of Christ,

ruled Portugal from 1367 until his death in 1383.

In 1372, attempting to expand his power,

he declared war on the Kingdom of Castile,

which is now part of modern-day Spain.

The effort was unsuccessful

and led to a series of conflicts known as the Fernandine Wars,

which nearly bankrupted the royal treasury,

caused instability across Portugal,

and threatened the strongholds held by the Order of Christ.

We assume that thousands of these coins were minted.

You're telling us that there was a large number of these coins produced

and yet there's only about a hundred known in the world.

Yeah.

Because there's so few of those,

maybe there's a reason that they were minted.