All language subtitles for Historys.Greatest.Mysteries.S06E14.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH[EZTVx.to]

Tonight, the most mysterious of the Dead
Sea Scrolls. Unlike the other scrolls,

this is made of copper, and it's written
as a list of what seem to be buried

treasures. Scholars and treasure hunters
alike have to interpret the clues that

are embedded in the Copper Scroll.

If true, the clues listed on the Copper
Scroll could lead to a vast fortune.

More than 160 tons of gold, silver, and
bronze could still be hidden to this

day. We're talking more than a billion
dollars in today's money, if you know

where to look.

Now, we'll explore the top theories
surrounding this alleged and mysterious

fortune. The gold and silver was hidden
to keep it safe from Roman invaders.

Maybe somebody already looted all of
those hiding places. Or maybe...

Tons of treasure are still hiding in
Israel today.

Does the Copper Scroll treasure exist?

And if so, where could it be?

In 1947...

A 16 -year -old Bedouin boy named
Mohammed Adib is tending his goats in

mountains above the Dead Sea.

He's in the Qumran Valley, which is near
the Dead Sea in Israel, and his goats

wander into a cave. Now, of course, he
wants to get the goats out of the cave,

and so he just picks up some pebbles,
throws the pebbles into the cave to sort

of scare the goats out, except what he
hears is a crash.

Mohammed Adib.

goes into the cave to investigate, and
he finds out that his rock has shattered

an old pottery jar.

And inside that pottery jar is a leather
scroll with some Hebrew writing on it.

He notices that nearby there are many
other pottery jars that are undamaged

haven't ever been opened.

Inside those jars, there are many
scrolls in ancient Hebrew writing that

date to about the 3rd century BCE to the
1st century CE.

Between the late 1940s and the late
1950s, scholars and inhabitants of the

found various things in at least 11
caves around or close to the Qumran

settlement. They found jars, they found
scrolls, and out of those scrolls, over

900 scrolls, over 200 of them were
biblical scrolls.

Scholars attribute these works to the
Essenes, who are a very isolated sort of

separatist mystical band of Jews who had
left Jerusalem in the 2nd century BCE,

and they lived in this area of Qumran.
They really flourished there.

It actually takes a couple of years
before people realize what it is that

Bedouin has discovered. What he finds
becomes one of the most important

archaeological discoveries of the 20th
century, the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Within the Dead Sea Scrolls, one will
find the most ancient versions of almost

every single biblical book in the Hebrew
Bible, the Old Testament.

The scrolls are primarily made of animal
skin, parchments, and papyrus.

All of them but one.

In March 1952, on a shelf carved into a
cave wall, archaeologists find

something different.

A scroll made of copper.

This is a completely unique find.

We have over 900 scrolls, but only one
is made of this precious material.

There's only one copper scroll.

Most experts agree that the copper
scroll is significant by the very

that it's made of.

Copper is durable and it is expensive,
and therefore what was contained in it

was intended to last.

I mean, think about what you have to do.
This is not writing on a piece of paper

or a piece of parchment. This is
literally like stamping something,

something into copper. So you do this
for something that is particularly

special.

It's also newer than the other scrolls.
This one dates to about 50 to 100 CE.

Most of the Dead Sea Scrolls are
literary work.

What makes the copper scroll so unique
is that it's really a list of locations

and possible treasures. If you put
together the list of valuables it

it would be somewhere in the range of
potentially 160 tons of gold.

It is not a story.

It is not a once upon a time here is a
treasure.

This is a very dry, in some ways boring,
description of 64 treasure

locations.

So some scholars note that the
bookkeeping style and tone actually is

reminiscent of temple inventories that
one would find elsewhere in the

Mediterranean. And so the idea here is
that this might be an authentic record

real treasures that were once possessed
by some institution.

We're not talking a couple million
dollars. We're talking about a billion

dollars with a B. We're talking a lot of
money in gold, in silver, in jewels.

So this is a lot of treasure.

There's really only one organization or
entity in ancient Judea that would have

been able to amass that kind of wealth,
and that would have been the second

Jerusalem temple.

There was a first temple in Jerusalem
that stood between the 10th and the 6th

centuries BCE that was built by the
biblical king Solomon.

Unfortunately, the temple is destroyed
and all the wealth in it is actually

carried off as plunder by the
Babylonians.

The second temple of Jerusalem is built
in about the year 516 BCE.

And it lasts until the Roman conquest of
Judea in 63 BCE

by Pompey the Great.

So we know that that second temple would
have been standing on the Temple Mount

when the Romans arrived in Judea.

The ancient land of Judea encompassed
modern -day Israel, Palestine, and the

West Bank.

Roman occupation of Judea was met with
resistance among some factions within

Jewish community.

Life under the Romans became
unsustainable. It was impossible to

amount of taxation, the amount of
overreach on their political governance,

also their imposition of their own
culture and religion.

Jews were not having it. For about a
century, Jews had tried on smaller

to liberate their land.

What ultimately happens is that there's
just such a massive discontent in this

period, that in the year 66, it breaks
out into open war. It's the first Jewish

-Roman war, as scholars know it.

The rebellion lasted about four years,
but it ended when the Romans came in,

squashed the rebellion, and destroyed
the temple in Jerusalem. This was 70 CE.

It's during this time, we think, that...

the Jewish people would start to gather
together their valuables. They would

want to have them and protect them, try
to make sure that the Romans didn't

seize them, and maybe bury them in
different places in order to hide them

Roman eyes.

And it's also probably around this time,
maybe 68 or 70, when the temple is

destroyed, that the Copper Scroll would
have been written.

Everything inventoried and then buried.

Most scholars today think that the
Copper Scroll is describing actual

that existed and were amassed sometime
in antiquity. This would be gold,

bronze that apparently was hidden,
according to the scroll, in something

locations. To find these locations,
scholars and treasure hunters alike...

must first interpret the copper scroll's
clues.

The English archaeologist John Allegro
was actually studying ancient Hebrew at

Oxford University in 1953 when he was
invited to join the team of scholars in

Jerusalem who were working on the Dead
Sea Scrolls. The original team couldn't

figure out what to do with this scroll
because unrolling the copper might mean

that it would crumble.

In 1955, they devised this really
ingenious method to get the scroll open.

They actually invent this small saw that
can cut the scroll into 23 strips,

each of which is curved like a half
cylinder almost.

Allegro is the first scholar who sees
the copper scroll opened, and he begins

transcribing and trying to translate it
immediately.

What he discovers is that this is a list
of valuables.

treasures, and the specific locations
where they're buried.

In 1959,

John Allegro begins searching for that
treasure.

One line of the copper scroll that stood
out to Allegro that served as a

starting place for him was the following
line. Under the monument of Absalom, on

the western side, buried at 12 cubits,
80 talents.

A talent is an ancient unit of
measurement.

In this context, Hebrew talent was about
75 pounds.

So we're looking here at about
approximately 6 ,000 pounds of treasure.

Allegra thinks he knows exactly where
this place is.

He's looking at a particular site that
is northeast of the old city of

in what we know as the Kidron Fountain.

There is... In this valley, between the
Mount of Olives and the Temple Mount, a

very large tomb, which is known as
Absalom's Pillar, and it dates from the

into the second century of the Common
Era.

To read the line under the monument of
Absalom reminds Allegro of a story.

of a young girl who had gone on
essentially a field trip with her school

Kidron Valley in 1900.

She wandered off from her group, and she
went to Absalom's pillar and wandered

around those tombs. When she returned to
her teacher, she had in her pocket some

gold coins.

Allegro didn't make very much of the
story when he first heard it, but now he

thinks, oh, what if?

There's some connection between where
the little girl finds the gold coins and

the treasure of the copper scroll.

So Allegro narrows down his search to
the area around the Absalom Pillar site

and the tomb of B 'nai Hazir.

The time frame is right.

Temple priests are buried here. And of
course, there's that old story about a

girl finding gold coins there.

Allegro begins digging in front of
Absalom's pillar, going down to the

12 cubits, which would be about 18 feet
down.

He doesn't find any.

And then he digs in front of the tomb of
Bnei Hazir, and what does he find?

Nothing. And does this stop him? No.

John Allegro, the scholar who first
deciphered the Copper Scroll, fails to

treasure among the ancient tombs in the
Kidron Valley outside Jerusalem.

Allegro is not thrown by this. He hasn't
been successful so far.

He's dug and he's dug. So in the end,
rather than giving up, he says, I'm just

going to follow a different clue.

One of the lines that Allegro reads is,
in the fortress in the Valley of Acre.

Okay, fortress, that's a big place.

Problem is, you know, where's the Valley
of Achor?

Allegro thinks the Valley of Achor is
three miles west of Qumran, where the

Sea Scrolls were found.

He bases his theory on a line in the
scroll.

The Copper Scroll refers to the fortress
that is in the Valley of Ahur. And high

above the Hyrcania Valley, there is a
magnificent fortress.

It's a palace that was used actually by
one of the Bible's most infamous kings,

Herod. So that's where John Allegro
decides he's going to take his search

In 1960, John Allegro organizes an
expedition to explore this area of the

Harkinia Valley.

This fortress probably dates to about
the 2nd century BCE to about the 1st

century CE, but it had never been
professionally archaeologically

or excavated.

The Copper Scroll gives Allegro some
very specific clues.

Specifically, it says the treasure can
be found in the fortress, which is in

Valley of Ahur, 40 cubits.

under the steps entering to the east,
which is about 60 feet.

And what's supposed to be buried there,
the scroll says, the treasure is a money

chest and its contents of a weight of 17
talents.

That would be more than 1 ,200 pounds of
treasure.

People may ask, you know, why does the
girl keep doing this? Well, think about

what the end is. This isn't to find a
few coins. This is to find 1 ,200 pounds

of gold and silver.

That's a lot of money.

Following the copper scroll clues,
Allegro tries to find the eastern wall

this fortress, about 60 feet from its
steps.

When he can't pinpoint that exact
location, he begins to explore two

the northern foot of the cliff below the
fortress.

Once again, Allegro digs and digs and
digs. He gets right down there. He gets

right in there. He goes as far as he
possibly can and...

Nothing.

Rising political tensions and
instability in the Middle East make

exploration in Qumran and other West
Bank sites difficult. There is no

large -scale archaeological dig near
Herod's Fortress for over two decades.

When another American joins the hunt.

In 1988, an American airline pilot and
avid adventurer, Robert Morgan, is

inspired by the account of how John
Allegro had discovered two tunnels

underneath the Hyrcania Fortress.

He arranges to have a meeting with
Allegro.

Unfortunately, the day of the meeting,
February 17th, 1988, is also the day

Allegro suffers a massive heart attack
and dies.

And yet Robert Morgan decides, I want to
continue and do this excavation on my

own. The problem is John Allegro had all
the licenses and the permits.

So Robert Morgan is going to have to try
it with no permits, with no

permissions, basically, to excavate. And
so he decides to do it illicitly.

Morgan is able to enlist a friend and a
couple of other Bedouin workers that

they pay to do this, and this is a
dangerous thing to do illegally.

So they're not telling anybody about it.
They park their cars miles away, and

they only dig at night when they're less
likely to be discovered or spotted.

And it continues this way for, like, a
decade.

The team has made scant progress.

And his friend points out that he will
not continue unless the team goes legit.

So that's when they reach out to Hebrew
University graduate student and scholar

Oren Gutfeld.

So Oren Gutfeld was able to legitimize
these digs. He was first of all able to

get the Israeli Antiquities Authority to
provide a permit for Hecania to be

excavated. And so this is great for
Robert Morgan because now he's got the

connections. that he needs to this great
research institution with the resources

that it has. So it's not just the
credibility, it's the stuff.

You know, archaeology is not a cheap
thing to do. It requires tools, it

people, and he's able to do this with
Oren Gutfield.

Oren and Morgan were able to...

Formally, and officially excavate
Hyrcania, they discovered some very

interesting tunnels that went underneath
the site, and they were able to

completely excavate those tunnels. The
eastern tunnel reaches a depth of 262

feet. The western tunnel reaches a depth
of 394 feet.

But after they've gone through the
entire tunnel, they haven't found any

significant finds, let alone a massive
stash of treasure.

Yet another quest for the treasures has
come up empty. But that doesn't stop the

quest to decipher the Copper Scroll
secret.

In the late 1980s, more than 30 years
since the discovery of the mysterious

Copper Scroll, the search for its hidden
treasure is starting to seem fruitless.

Allegro is dead.

Gutfeld and Morgan have come up empty.

But one man doggedly continues his
quest.

His name is Vendel Jones.

Jones is a real character.

He's a Baptist minister turned amateur
archaeologist. He's loud, he's

opinionated, and he's completely
obsessed with the copper scroll.

In 1967, Jones moves to Jerusalem and he
becomes part of the team that's

excavating the site of Qumran.

This is the place where the Dead Sea
Scroll, including the Copper Scroll,

discovered.

If there is a cave in there, we're going
to find it.

Even though he's out there and he's
digging and digging and he's looking, he

finds nothing.

His methods and even qualifications are
criticized by other scholars. And when

search after search comes up empty, his
critics feel very validated.

Jones is undeterred. He continues
digging.

And in 1988, he discovers a juglet of
oil in Qumran, just like the one

in the Copper Scroll.

The oil, supposedly used to anoint kings
and priests in ancient Israel.

makes international news.

Though some Israeli archaeologists are
skeptical, this Texas scholar feels that

with the discovery of the juglet, his
team is closer than ever to a major

archaeological find.

As the world's interest in the Copper
Scroll is rekindled, Jones is now bound

and determined to find more items from
the Second Temple.

And so, when he finds this little jug,
you know, This captivates me because

like, no, this is real. There's stuff
here. So what else is there?

In 1992, he discovers a massive
underground sash of temple incense,

matching something described in the
Copper Scroll.

But after that, for Bendel Jones, the
trail seems to go cold.

By now, there's a new player on the
scene.

A professor of Jewish studies from
Connecticut who's convinced there's even

copper scroll treasure just waiting to
be found. His name is Richard Freund.

Freund starts looking in a very
different location, a more mysterious

It's actually 25 miles south of Qumran.

Richard Freund sees parallels between
this particular copper scroll clue and a

location known as the Cave of Letters.
It's located high up on a cliffside 25

miles south of Qumran on the western
bank of the Dead Sea.

This cave is about...

50 feet off the ground. You can't just
walk into the cave. You've got to climb

to get up to the openings of this cave.
And I say openings because it's two

openings that don't merge into one until
about 50 feet into the cave.

The Cave of Letters has already yielded
all sorts of ancient relics.

There's a basket of bronze vessels and
incense shovels that have pagan images

inscribed on them.

such as the sea goddess Thetis, who is
the mother of Achilles.

These are presumed to be Roman
artifacts.

But in fact, there are Jewish relics
that are also excavated from the Cave of

Letters.

There are objects from daily use.
There's a kind of a woman's toiletry set

that's in there. There are human bones.
There's a skull.

And the most intriguing for scholars
actually is a large cache of letters.

the largest cache of letters and
correspondence that we actually have

period.

The findings also include letters by
Shimon Bar Kokhba, who is the leader of

Jewish rebellion against the Romans in
the year 132.

Freund thinks this site could be really
promising.

He's able to lead a group of
archaeologists to explore the Cave of

the year 2000.

Some of the technology that he brings is
ground -penetrating radar. He's able to

explore the cave in depth.

He uses another cutting -edge technology
called electrical recessivity

tomography. This process measures how
well the ground conducts electricity

bedrock, clay, and rubber, all showing
up in different colors.

Freund begins overlaying the radar
images.

with the electrical scans and starts to
get really excited because he realizes

that there's probably a lower layer to
the cave that dates back to the temple

era.

One of the most intriguing things that
they find is this cache of silver and

copper coins.

They are coins that were minted by these
Jewish rebels.

The problem with the Roman coins at the
time is that they bore the image of the

emperor on them. And according to Jewish
laws, you can't have any images of a

living thing on a coin. So they make
their own coins that are aniconic. And

of these coins actually has an
inscription. And the inscription says,

freedom of Jerusalem.

Freund looks at this coin as evidence.

that the Cave of Letters may have well
been a Jewish hideout during the time

surrounding the destruction of the
Second Temple.

He also comes to believe that all of
those bronze artifacts that were

in 1960 were not really Roman objects at
all, but were in fact Jewish ritual

objects that were rescued right before
the Temple was destroyed.

Some scholars argue that the pagan
imagery disproves the theory that these

came from the Second Temple.

Freund strongly disagrees with this. He
believes that if the Jewish rebels had

the opportunity to have Roman bronze,
they would use that material in other

ways. They would have melted it down for
another purpose.

He argues that because these objects are
deliberately hidden away, that they are

in fact the temple treasure that's
identified in the Copper Scroll.

Since the Copper Scroll was discovered
in 1952, scholars, biblical experts,

professional archaeologists, and amateur
sleuths have all sought the hidden

riches listed on the Copper Scroll.

Among those joining the treasure hunt is
a retired fire marshal and arson

investigator from Oklahoma.

Jim Barfield.

becomes involved in the Copper Scroll
treasure hunt, but in a very roundabout

way.

Tim Barfield, as a hobby, has a
particular obsession with biblical

And he spends all his time during breaks
at the fire station just kind of going

over these texts again and again, trying
to learn them and learn more about

them. His church actually helped him
make a trip.

to the Holy Land to study biblical
antiquities and biblical texts.

While the Dead Sea Scrolls represent
biblical texts,

the Copper Scroll does not.

So at first, Barfield takes very little
interest in the Copper Scroll.

Barfield considers the Copper Scroll a
treasure map of some sort. He has no

archaeological experience.

So he's not the kind of person who
thinks he has the expertise or even will

go out and look for the different
treasures.

But this attitude changes when he meets
Vandal Jones.

In 2006, mutual friends in Israel
arranged for a meeting between Jones and

Barfield. Barfield wants to pick his
brain about the Dead Sea sect that wrote

the scrolls and also to learn more about
the leadership of Qumran.

But all Vandal Jones really wants to
talk about is the copper scroll

Between the oil and the incense that he
uncovered, and also the discovery that

was made in the Cave of Letters in 2000,
Jones is convinced that the inventory

given in the Copper Scroll is accurate,
and therefore he believes that the

temple treasure is still out there
waiting to be found.

This is what really piques Barfield's
interest.

Barfield is now very interested in the
Copper Scroll.

He finds a brand new respect for what he
calls that incredible metal document.

Not long after that meeting, Barfield
begins analyzing an English translation

the Copper Scroll, and he begins
embarking on a new quest to unearth all

gold and silver in this particular
document.

What Barfield does as a technique is a
little bit different.

He takes geographical maps.

And he reads that alongside the
inventory from the copper scroll. And

allows him to sort of match geographical
features.

And he comes across this line at the
double entry pool with the entrance at

north edge of the community.

That line draws Barfield back, not to a
location, but to an idea. The idea being

where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in
the first place.

Barfield goes back to the ancient
settlement of Qumran because the line in

Copper Scroll mentions something about
pools, and he knows that at the

excavations at Qumran, they've
discovered large ritual pools.

These pools are known as mikvot. They
are...

immersion pools that have their
dimensions set out in the Hebrew

they're used for purification. And
actually, the Essenes, we know, went

used these mikvot daily as part of their
ritual processes of purification.

The Qumran site is the settlement
closest to the caves where the Dead Sea

Scrolls were found. It's located on a
plateau about a mile northwest of the

shore of the Dead Sea, off the western
shore, about six miles south of the city

of Jericho.

Most scholars believe that the residents
of Qumran were the Essenes

or some Jewish sectarian group
responsible for the collection.

if not the creation of the Dead Sea
Scrolls. Qumran also has links to the

priest, the Zadok family, and therefore
also in some way to the Jerusalem

Temple, where some of these treasures
might well have originated.

And then you have Qumran's ritual baths,
which theoretically might be places

mentioned in the Copper Scroll. It seems
like a great place to look.

So beyond the mention of the double
entry pool, the Copper Scroll also

six cubits toward the white immersion of
ovulation rising from the soil, going

down into the left, high above the
seafloor.

Barfield believed that this reference to
the white immersion actually refers

to the layer of white plaster that lines
one of these pools.

You can actually still see the traces of
that plaster today at that pool if you

look at it.

What else could this be but the place
that the Copper School is describing?

Copper School says, dig three cubits for
40 silver talents.

And so you think, okay, three cubits,
four and a half, 40 talents of silver.

It's over a million dollars at today's
silver prices.

That's a lot of money.

Barfield eventually secures excavation
permits from the Israel Antiquities

Authority. And in 2009, he begins
digging.

But there's a problem.

According to Barfield, the Israeli
authorities allow him to dig, but not

enough for what he's trying to find.

Barfield pushes back, saying he has to
dig deeper, but he's not allowed to.

Barfield is convinced that over 2 ,000
years with the shifting of soil and the

movement of natural material, he's still
convinced it's there.

Things take a real turn for the worse
after this.

He's running into conflict with his
excavators.

Fewer and fewer people show up for the
dig until one day nobody shows up at

He tries and tries to get through to the
Israeli antiquities authority. They

won't even return his call.

Without the resources and the workers to
staff his excavation, the project

simply ceases.

Even though Barfield's critics in the
Antiquities Authority believe that he's

simply doing sensationalist archaeology,
he believes that if he had been allowed

to dig deeper, he would have found the
treasure.

Some experts contend the puzzling clues
in the Copper Scroll were only meant to

be deciphered by those with insider
knowledge.

If you have that much treasure, you
probably want to keep it roughly a

And so that could be a reason why modern
treasure hunters are having such a

difficult time interpreting this
document 2 ,000 years later.

About the time of the Copper Scroll, we
know that there was rebellion among the

ranks in Judea.

Jews were rising up to revolt against
Rome in such a way that it led to

violence. In 66 CE, several Jewish
factions managed to temporarily

overwhelm the Roman soldiers in the
city. The Romans, unfortunately, came

hard. They really sweep into the city
with an incredible amount of firepower.

A massive Roman army, four legions,
perhaps 60 ,000 soldiers surround the

and begin a brutal month -long siege.

The soldiers finally breach the wall.
They overwhelm the rebels inside and

set fire to the temple.

The resistance is crushed.

Blavius Josephus, the first century
Jewish historian, tells us.

that hundreds of thousands of Jews in
the city were killed or enslaved.

If the temple treasure wasn't moved to a
secret hiding place outside Jerusalem

before this invasion, what else might
have happened to it?

After the Romans destroyed the temple,
they would have gone to great lengths to

find any treasure that they could take
with them. The Roman policy of torturing

citizens is well known to extract
information.

about things they want to know, like
where is the temple treasure?

As Josephus writes, according to Roman
policy, they extracted every last bit of

wealth. That included sometimes
punishing or torturing individuals.

Roman society was incredibly brutal, and
this is a military occupation that

we're talking about. This is a war.

All they need to do is find the people
who know something about where this

treasure is hidden, imprison them,
interrogate them, torture them, and have

give up all the answers.

Perhaps the Romans found the location of
various copper scroll treasures through

such methods.

Those supporting the idea that the
copper scroll treasure was looted look

what happened in Rome after the sacking
of Jerusalem.

Upon their return to Rome, the legion
commander Titus participated in what's

known as the triumph, where he and his
soldiers would have paraded through the

streets the spoils of their recent
victories.

Part of the procession was a gorgeous
golden menorah.

The sacred candlestick that came from
the temple, this triumphant parade of

everything that was meaningful and
secret was not meant to be seen by

other than the priest.

They carried out the sacred object in
this whole kind of desecration, really,

and theft of the most sacred objects
from the Jerusalem temple.

The legion commander, Titus, who
eventually becomes emperor,

goes back to Rome and there's a
triumphal arch that's erected in memory

destruction of Jerusalem. It was such a
big event for them.

They depicted on the inner side of this
arch the actual parading of the

implements from the Jewish temple. We
have images of the menorah, the temple

showbread, the silver trumpets. They're
all depicted on this arch that still

stands in Rome today.

But the question is, did the Romans get
all of it?

Or could it be that some of it is still
buried somewhere and the copper scroll

is the only thing that we have left that
will give us clues as to where to find

it? It seems possible, maybe even
probable, that the Romans may have

temple. But taking it back and marching
in the streets of Rome, that creates a

huge issue if we're talking about tons
of silver, gold, and other precious

metals.

In fact, Josephus writes that many
wealthy people in Jerusalem, unable to

the treasure out of the city, simply
bury it beneath their home.

And when these Roman soldiers do breach
the wall, they begin forcing people to

dig up any gold, silver, expensive
furniture they have buried.

Some believe that centuries later,
hidden temple treasure eventually ended

stashed under one of Rome's most iconic
holy sites.

We know that the wealth of the Vatican
has been called incalculable. There are

vast networks of tunnels underneath that
hold artifacts that are not even on

display. The Israel Antiquities
Authority in 2004 were able to get

from the Vatican to explore underneath,
and they found nothing. So despite

finding nothing, there are some who
still believe there may be treasures

locked away in a room in the Vatican.

Ever since the Copper Scroll was
discovered in 1952, scholars have argued

the alleged hidden fortune, questioning
whether it was fact or fiction.

Though many experts now agree that the
Copper Scroll is a real historical

of a real historical set of artifacts,
there are many people who think it might

simply be focal.

A former director of the Jordanian
Department of Antiquity says, what we

the Copper Scrolls is a collection of
traditions about ancient treasure.

Note the word traditions here.

The article also takes issue with the
sheer size of the Copper Scroll

It notes that if you look at all the
gold, silver, and bronze there, you

have 200 tons of metal.

That's an extraordinary amount of
treasure to disappear without a trace,

the treasure is more myth than reality.

Many prominent scholars have concluded
that the Copper Scroll treasures don't

exist. They insist instead that this is
drawn from a rich treasury of folklore,

going back to the earliest treasure
associated with the first temple of

Jerusalem.

With the fall of that first temple of
Jerusalem, naturally there is a memory,

memory of what has been lost.

And this sometimes translates into
legend and folklore.

One such legendary account was recorded
by the historian Flavius Josephus.

He tells a story from the time of
Pontius Pilate, the man who executed

who was governor of Judea between 26 and
37 CE.

In one of the revolts, here's a man that
comes on the scene and says, hey, I

know where there's treasure hidden.

Everyone come with me.

Let's go look for this treasure.

People, of course, like, treasure?

Sure. I'll go follow you. I'll look for
this treasure.

They don't find this treasure. All of a
sudden he goes, oh, this man has just

fooled them. This is a hoax.

For those people who say this is all
some kind of mythology, right, like a

treasure map,

There is a really good answer. That is,
why would anybody write down a simple

story, a fiction, on a piece of precious
metal? Copper is expensive. It's hard

to come by. And the amount of manpower,
right, and the amount of money

that it would have taken to put together
the Copper Scroll seems to suggest that

what they are writing about... is real
it's not just in someone's imagination

what we do know is that it survived the
elements and the ravages of time to set

in motion a new spirit of discovery and
any number of peoples who still want to

go find the treasures of the copper
scroll while

scholars seek to understand more about
the copper scroll and its list of

archaeologists continue to search for
more historical treasures.

In 2017, the Israeli Antiquities
Authority launched Operation Scroll,

an effort to explore every cave in the
Dead Sea region.

Perhaps inside one of these caves,
they'll discover the key to

clues in the Copper Scroll and will
finally find where its vast treasures

buried.

I'm Lawrence Fishburne. Thank you for
watching.

History's greatest mysteries.