Original subtitles

NARRATOR: Tonight on The Curse of Oak Island...

This is the secret of secrets.

The message being conveyed in code

is that the Ark of the Covenant is on Oak Island.

-You can put X on the spot? -Correct.

JAMIE: Holy cow.

-Wow. -Is it truly silver?

It is silver. About 90%.

-(laughs): Yes. -LAIRD: In 40 years, I can't remember

-a piece of silver I found. -GARY: Is that it?

I see it, mate. Underneath that boulder.

-Look at that. -Oh.

What the heck is that?

NARRATOR: 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.

♪ ♪

JACK: I heard you guys found something.

We found something. That's correct.

Come down here and you can see it.

NARRATOR: As a fresh morning dawns on Oak Island

for brothers Rick and Marty Lagina

-and their team... -Right there.

NARRATOR: ...they are braving the stench and muck

of the triangle-shaped swamp

in order to reveal a man-made feature

that may help them solve a 229-year-old mystery.

That's probably the southern wall,

-and that's the eastern wall. -RICK: We don't know.

The only thing is, Gary hasn't found any fasteners,

and there's evidence of dowels.

JACK: That speaks to being much older.

GARY: What's happening, Billy?

BILLY: We just got a little wood.

NARRATOR: Just a few days ago...

BILLY: Somebody's dug down in the swamp, and there--

we got a bunch of horizontal and vertical boards.

I think we're onto something, mate.

NARRATOR: ...Billy Gerhardt and other members of the team

unearthed a wooden structure

embedded in the southern border of the brackish bog.

Could this have been some sort of

a loading and unloading platform?

NARRATOR: Curiously,

it was found in the same area where, in the 1970s,

the late Fred Nolan reported finding evidence

of a wooden dam--

a dam which Fred believed

offered proof that the swamp was artificially created

in order to hide something of great value.

Take some of this, too.

-Yeah. -NARRATOR: Now,

due to this feature's close proximity

to the potentially 500-year-old stone road, or ship's wharf,

they are hoping to find more clues

that will help them determine its true purpose,

when it was constructed and just who created it.

Pottery.

-Look at that. -Yeah.

Couple more pieces here.

-GARY (laughs): Oh, man. Yeah, that's nice. -RICK: Here.

-Check this one out. -Yeah. Wow.

That's some high-end stuff.

Pottery can tell just as an important story as a coin.

And the more parts you got, the better,

because then the archaeologists will be able

to ID the artifact

and give it a time frame of when people was in this area.

Okay, so I'll take these back and get it C-14 tested.

But we're just gonna try to expose the structure,

the width and breadth of it.

Hey, I'm looking for gold, too.

-There you go. -(chuckles)

BILLY: Gary, there's a piece of wood

that's really deep in the bucket there.

Oh, look.

-You see the edges on it? -Oh, yeah.

GARY: That's a barrel stave. It has to be.

BILLY: Oh, 100%. Yeah, no, that's a barrel stave.

-That was really deep, as well. -It's really deep.

NARRATOR: A barrel stave,

or fragment of a cargo container?

-IAN: So, that's a keg. Lid to a keg? -RICK: Yep.

NARRATOR: In 2020,

while investigating a cobblestone pathway

that was uncovered nearby, just north of the stone road,

the team found pieces of wooden barrels

which, incredibly, were dated

by blacksmithing expert Carmen Legge

to as far back as the 15th century.

Could this barrel stave offer more evidence

that something of great value

may have been brought to Oak Island long ago?

If so, might those valuables

have been hidden in the Money Pit?

Or could they still be here in the swamp

as Fred Nolan believed?

They'd put coins in a barrel.

Yeah, test it on the inside of the stave

and see what wi-- might have been in the barrel, right?

-Yeah. -What might have left a...

-All right, mate, I'll put it to one side. -Okay.

GARY: Good eye, Billy.

NARRATOR: As the investigation

in the swamp continues...

-MARTY: Paul. -COTE: Hey. How's it going, Marty?

-Good, you old war horse, you. -(both laugh)

-Yeah. -You found something.

COTE: Yeah, it seems that way, eh?

NARRATOR: ...in the Money Pit area,

Marty Lagina arrives at the Garden Shaft

for an update on another potentially important discovery

that was recently made by the team.

A lot of mystery to that.

Well, it's kind of strange that, uh, there's only the bottom.

-Yeah. Yeah, you think? -Yeah.

I-I'm just wondering where the other...

-sides and top went. -The sides and the top.

-Yeah. -Yeah, me, too.

SCOTT: Look at that.

-Right there. -MARTY: Wow.

MARTY: Those are big beams.

NARRATOR: Two weeks ago,

after more than a year

of tireless effort and frustrating setbacks,

representatives from Dumas Contracting Limited

finished extending the 18th-century structure,

known as the Garden Shaft

down to a depth of some 100 feet,

where they reached a mysterious wooden tunnel.

A tunnel that has not only been carbon-dated

to as early as the 17th century

but which also runs westward into the so-called Baby Blob.

It is in this region where high-trace evidence

of gold, silver and other metals have been detected

between 80 and 120 feet below ground.

SCOTT: We cannot find

any sign of walls or a ceiling.

NARRATOR: However, upon reaching the tunnel,

the team discovered that it had either collapsed in that area

or had been partially dismantled

sometime in the past.

So, where are you right now? Bring me up to speed.

So, right now, we got one set in.

The guys lowered the landing where it's supposed to be.

-Which is about 102 or so. -Mm-hmm.

We're going to 106.

And from then on, uh, we'll start

-drilling horizontal. -Good.

-We got a plan. -Yeah.

NARRATOR: In the coming days,

Dumas will further extend the Garden Shaft

to a total depth of 106 feet.

This will allow them to conduct

a manual probe-drilling operation

to determine if other sections of the tunnel

leading toward the Baby Blob are still intact,

while also searching for evidence

of the possible treasure that has been detected in the area.

The horizontal drilling will allow us to, hopefully,

find out what that's all about.

Yeah. It'll give you a little bit more information.

-Yes. And may... -Or more questions.

-(chuckles) -Yeah. Probably. Yeah.

All right, I'm-a let you get back to work.

-Yeah. Later, man. -Cheers. Thank you.

NARRATOR: As the excavation of the Garden Shaft continues...

RICK: I will say this.

We have found literally hundreds if not thousands of nails,

but what you have here in front of us,

it's interesting, right, Craig? I mean...

CRAIG: It's unique. Yeah.

NARRATOR: ...Rick Lagina and Craig Tester

are meeting with archaeologist Laird Niven

and archaeometallurgist Emma Culligan

in the Oak Island laboratory.

-It's very strange. I mean... -Mm-hmm.

And to have found it on Lot 5--

in a, what I believe is the rectangular feature--

makes no sense.

-Correct. -So, we're hoping that you

-will make sense of this. -Mm-hmm.

NARRATOR: One week ago, as members of the team

were carefully excavating a rectangular stone foundation

located near the northern region of Lot 5

on the western side of the island...

HELEN: Oh, wow. I think we got something here.

NARRATOR: ...archaeologist Helen Sheldon

found a hand-forged iron nail in one of its walls

near the bottom of the structure.

Because of previous discoveries that have been made

in the upper layers of this foundation,

such as 18th-century pottery and clay pipe stems,

Helen believes that it was deliberately backfilled,

or buried, by someone in the 1780s,

but may have been originally constructed

by someone else much earlier.

Now, it is Rick and Craig's hope

that the metallurgy analysis of this hand-forged spike,

which was conducted by Emma Culligan,

might reveal not only its age

but perhaps also when the original structure

may have been created.

No pressure, Emma.

-No pressure. (chuckles) -(clears throat)

So, what I can tell you is that

-it's definitely hand-wrought... -Mm-hmm.

EMMA: ...um, as can be seen by the grain structure,

-which is, like, that wood-like grain structure. -RICK: Mm-hmm.

NARRATOR: Earlier today, Emma scanned the artifact

with the SkyScan 1273 CT scanner,

a device which emits nondestructive X-ray radiation

to penetrate corrosion and reveal its finer details.

Additionally, she also scanned it

with an X-ray fluorescence spectrometer, or XRF device,

that can identify its metallic composition.

And I did do an XRF on it,

which I think you guys will be really happy about.

Okay.

EMMA: So, there's a high sulfur content,

absolutely no manganese,

which would make it hot brittle.

-Oh, really? -EMMA: Yes.

So, too much sulfur

in the iron can make it brittle, or hard to work with, when hot,

which is not something you want in your irons,

which is why we started adding manganese.

-Mm-hmm. -So it could be 1500s, 1600s,

early 1700s.

Or it could be, like,

-really, really early. -What is really, really early?

Like, 1100s to, like, 1300s.

-RICK: Wow. -LAIRD: Yeah.

RICK: What is really, really early?

Like, 1100s to, like, 1300s.

-Really? -EMMA: Yes.

RICK: Why do you say that?

'Cause the iron is really clean.

There's few impurities, which is what you would

see a lot of in that time range.

NARRATOR: In the Oak Island laboratory,

archaeometallurgist Emma Culligan

has just presented an astonishing report.

Quite remarkable.

NARRATOR: The hand-wrought iron artifact

that was found one week ago

in the rectangular feature on Lot 5

could date to as far back as the 12th century.

So what is it?

I think we've decided it doesn't function as a fastener.

Why-- And why not? Too thin?

Yeah.

And it's not a file.

RICK: No.

So I'm as puzzled as anyone.

-EMMA: Mm-hmm. -RICK: I mean, Lot 5 continues

to surprise and that's for sure.

NARRATOR: In addition to this spike

that was found in the rectangular feature,

the team has made several other ancient discoveries on Lot 5

since they purchased it just one year ago.

These include three Roman coins that have been dated

to between 1,500 and 2,000 years ago,

as well as a 14th-century lead barter token

that was unearthed from another structure closer to the shore

and which may be connected to the lead cross

that the team discovered at Smith's Cove in 2017.

I mean, timelines are important

to solving any sort of mystery like this.

There are a number of finds

from the early to the late 1600s.

And now we find this.

People were here much earlier than had been presumed.

That may impact the search agenda.

That's always the hope.

Hopefully, we'll find something even more interesting.

LAIRD: Agreed, yeah.

Someone will know what that represents.

-Yeah. -Yeah.

-CRAIG: Thank you. -RICK: Okay. Thank you, Emma.

-Thank you, Laird. -LAIRD: All right, see ya later.

NARRATOR: The following morning...

Hey, chaps.

-I brought the expert. -Hey, Gary. Wow.

Those are huge planks.

NARRATOR: ...Rick Lagina returns

to the southern edge of the swamp

with geoscientist Dr. Ian Spooner

in order to have him inspect the mysterious wooden feature

now that more of it has been revealed.

It's really, really deep

compared even to the stone road.

Like, to get those planks down

this low you would have had to dewater

the swamp.

That's the only way I would see how to do it.

Mm.

RICK: There is some sort of structure,

but how did it play into the work around the swamp?

Did it have relevance to the stone road?

What is the relationship between these discoveries?

So at this point we need

to try to collect as much information as possible.

IAN: At this stage,

I-I can't help but think that it's

some part of this road feature.

-Yeah. -It just, like, kind of

aligns, like, there's a post there,

and then there probably were posts that we...

-excavated here. -RICK: Yeah.

They put stakes in everywhere

to shore up this square structure.

-Yeah. -Nicely adze cut

on this face and it's rounded.

RICK: That's shaped.

NARRATOR: An adze is a type of cutting tool

dating back to the days of Ancient Egypt

that was generally replaced

by mechanized saws

beginning in the late 18th century.

And, curiously, the timbers that were recently

recovered from the tunnel beneath the Garden Shaft

also featured cuts that were made by an adze.

Is it possible that the Oak Island team

has uncovered a structure in the swamp

that might be connected to the possible treasure tunnel

in the Money Pit area?

Right now, we should stand down.

And Steve can pin the corners,

-so he can put it on the, uh, grid. -RICK: Mm-hmm.

NARRATOR: Because he believes this structure

could be of historic importance

and perhaps connected to the Oak Island mystery,

Dr. Spooner would like surveyor Steve Guptill

to fully document it before the team

conducts any more excavations around the feature.

RICK: We'll wait for Steve.

-BILLY: Yeah. -I think that's all we can do right now, right?

-Yeah. -I think just leave it.

I say we're done.

Good job, guys.

NARRATOR: Later that afternoon...

RICK: We have...

sat around this war room table

and heard some very interesting theories.

And today, we are going to hear something

that I think will easily

match that metric and, uh,

how it may impact the search, this search year, in particular.

So let me introduce John Edwards to you all.

John, welcome to the war room.

-Thank you, Rick. -Thank you for coming.

Appreciate everyone having me here.

NARRATOR: Rick has invited

researcher John Edwards,

who he has been corresponding with for several months,

to share new information regarding the Oak Island mystery

with Marty and other members of the team.

EDWARDS: I've spent the past 30 years studying

symbols and icons, with emphasis on that kind of

Knights Templar through the Age of Exploration. So...

...something that I think is relevant to Oak Island.

Awesome.

NARRATOR: For several decades, a number of researchers have

presented theories that the medieval order

of Christian monks known as the Knights Templar,

who were persecuted by the Catholic Church

in the early 14th century,

conspired with their believed descendants,

known as the Rosicrucians and the Freemasons,

to hide and protect sacred religious treasures

on Oak Island between the 12th and 18th centuries.

While a number of clues have been found on the island

that support this incredible theory,

such as 12th-century structures,

14th-century religious artifacts,

and the fact that every company that has ever looked

for the treasure has included Freemasons,

it has yet to be proven.

Is it possible that John Edwards has finally

uncovered the irrefutable evidence

that this theory is true?

EDWARDS: You know, one of the things that

I've been doing is looking at the Royal Arch Ode.

NARRATOR: Masonic Odes are poems or hymns

that are sung or recited during secret Masonic ceremonies.

And according to John Edwards' research,

they also contain encoded information that only

high-ranking members of the organization may understand.

So, if we read it, "This shall be the sacred mark

"which shall guide us in the skies,

bearing like a holy ark."

So if you look at that, we have

a reference to a "holy ark."

Now, many people believe that

there are certain Jewish artifacts that the Templars had.

Like the Ark of the Covenant.

Now, "Joy, the secret vault is found

"full the sunbeam falls within,

pointing darkly underground, to the treasure we would win."

And it makes reference to "pointing darkly underground."

To like a vault. Okay?

Now, the question is, where is that vault located?

So we have an early Masonic text

and you see someone being lowered into a vault.

Looks like someone recovering the ark to me.

Hmm.

Now, interestingly,

I've acquired

two ancient books that have

codes and maps and things that I think

would be, uh, relevant to the Oak Island search.

-Mm-hmm. -EDWARDS: One was

The Whole Genuine Works of Flavius Josephus.

The publication date was 1812.

And he was a Jewish historian

from 37 CE to about 100 CE, Common Era.

And then the second book has a publication date of 1763.

It's in French and it translates as Holy Week.

So I believe, possibly,

in the books could be some Masonic ciphering.

I just did this one page here,

which has Masonic abbreviations.

-Okay. -EDWARDS: So...

"SS," which is "sanctum sanctorum"

or "holy of holies."

"ME," "most eminent, most excellent."

And then it was signed

with the number 137.

Now, 137 is significant, because...

And what's really interesting is here,

when we look at this page,

there were symbols sketched.

And that looks like the Ark of the Covenant to me.

ALEX: Right.

EDWARDS: And right here.

-Wow. -It certainly looks like Oak Island.

EDWARDS: Yes, and if it's referencing Oak Island,

what project would that be?

That is quite interesting.

Yeah.

EDWARDS: So if all the clues are correct,

the message being conveyed

in code is that the Ark of the Covenant is here.

EDWARDS: The message being conveyed

is that the Ark of the Covenant is here.

Awesome.

NARRATOR: In the Oak Island war room,

researcher John Edwards has just presented

what he believes to be secret Masonic documents suggesting

that the Ark of the Covenant

might have been hidden on Oak Island by members

of the Knights Templar centuries ago.

But if I'm right, in order to understand...

So...

NARRATOR: The Tree of Life is an ancient Hebrew and Christian symbol

comprised of ten points, known as sephirot,

that represents divine morals and principles

for a spiritual path to God.

It is a symbol that was also revered

by the Knights Templar,

the Rosicrucians

and the Freemasons.

-PETTER: This is Nolan's Cross. -MARTY: Good.

NARRATOR: In 2013,

Norwegian freemason and filmmaker Petter Amundsen

presented Rick, Marty and the team

with his research suggesting

that the six megalithic boulders of Nolan's Cross

were part of a larger, ten-point formation

depicting the Tree of Life.

Is this it here?

-Yeah. This is it. -ALEX: Good.

NARRATOR: And to help prove his theory,

he led Marty and Alex to Lot 28,

in the middle of the island,

where he believed they would find one of the sephirot,

known as Kingdom, buried just below the surface.

-Yeah. Here it comes. Oh. -There we go.

-NARRATOR: In 2017... -Oh, wow.

...Rick Lagina and his nephews Alex and Peter

visited a 14th-century prison in Domme, France,

that held members of the Templar order

after their persecution by the Catholic Church in 1307.

This way.

NARRATOR: There, they were shown

a number of carvings, including one

depicting the Tree of Life

and also another of a sacred cross.

A cross that was an exact match

to the one that Rick and Gary Drayton would find

just weeks later on Oak Island at Smith's Cove.

NARRATOR: Could John Edwards be correct

that by investigating Nolan's Cross and the sephirot,

which together make up the symbol

known as the Tree of Life,

he might be able to find the location

where one of the most sacred religious artifacts

ever known to mankind is buried?

So, when you come back, you can put X on the spot?

Is that what you're saying?

Look, I'd like to find something.

As far as I'm concerned, you got free reign of the island.

-Tom, you all right with that? -Oh, absolutely.

MARTY: Yeah.

It's in the proof that the picture resides, right?

Hopefully, you will come back with an X or Xs,

and from then we can have a discussion

about how to proceed.

You're welcome, but you've got some work to do, so...

off we go.

EDWARDS: Thanks, guys.

NARRATOR: As John Edwards prepares to begin

his field research of the island...

FIONA: We're making progress.

JAMIE: Let's keep going.

FIONA: All right.

NARRATOR: ...on Lot 5,

archaeologists Jamie Kouba and Fiona Steele

are investigating the foundation near the shoreline

where the team discovered

the 14th-century lead barter token one year ago.

Oh, hey.

I got another button.

FIONA: Oh, that's great.

Yeah. This one's much bigger.

Oh, that is quite shiny.

Like, like, gold-plated.

-You sure it's a button? -Oh, I'm sure it's a button,

-'cause we got the loop on the back... -Oh, I see the ring.

-...but maybe it's gold-plated. -Yeah, I can see that now.

I don't think we've seen any of those yet.

I haven't.

If this was military, it would be an officer's button

-if it was gold-plated, so... -Hmm.

NARRATOR: A gold-plated button?

Could Jamie Kouba be correct

that it belonged to a high-ranking military officer?

If so, could it have been an officer

who took part in hiding, or protecting,

something of great value on Oak Island?

Very cool.

Oh, I can't wait to see what that turns out to be.

JAMIE: Right?

♪ ♪

-Holy cow! -What have you got?

Wow!

-FIONA: What have you got? -I'm not entirely sure,

but I think it's a piece of silverware handle.

FIONA: Really?

NARRATOR: Near the shoreline of Lot 5,

on the western side of Oak Island...

-JAMIE: And I think it might actually be silver. -FIONA: Wow!

...archaeologist Jamie Kouba

has just found another potentially valuable clue

in the mysterious foundation that was discovered

below the circular stone feature earlier this year.

Oh, it's gorgeous. Look at the designs on it.

I've never found a single piece of precious metal,

much less a piece this big

of what could potentially be silver.

This is a big deal.

We're here on a treasure hunt,

so we're hoping that maybe we can analyze that,

and that would give us the best possible chance

to get answers on who built this.

-LAIRD: Hello. -JACK: Whoa. -JAMIE: Hello.

So, what do you have?

So, I don't really know where to start,

so I'm just gonna show you the first one that I found today,

-And we'll work our way through those. -LAIRD: Oh.

LAIRD: All righty.

-It's a button. -That looked like gold.

It's a very cool button.

LAIRD: That's cool, I can almost imagine a design

-on the front, too. -JAMIE: It's hard to tell.

-JACK: What else did you find? -You're gonna flip. It's so cool.

Oh!

-That's silver, isn't it? -CRAIG: Wow.

I'm-I'm pretty sure it's silver.

FIONA: It's quite decorative, though, at the top.

LAIRD: Yeah. Hand-decorated.

It's so ornate. Yeah.

That's really cool.

JACK: This is not just your average domestic building.

And they were using soil

-from deep in the Money Pit. -(laughs)

-And there's that kind of treasure, as well. -JACK: Yeah.

-So, what were they doing here? -Yeah.

It reminds me of, like, a crude mortar or cement.

NARRATOR: Nearly one month ago,

Jamie uncovered a man-made

cement-like substance in this feature

that has also been found around the mysterious tunnel

below the Garden Shaft.

This has made the team wonder if this feature on Lot 5

was connected to an operation to hide

something of great value deep in the Money Pit area.

I mean, finding is the first step.

-JAMIE: Mm-hmm. -Take 'em to Emma and trying to get a date

-on 'em is step number two. -LAIRD: Yeah. Exactly.

All right.

-LAIRD: It's exciting, really. -Yeah.

-We'll find more stuff for you. -CRAIG: Okay.

NARRATOR: While the investigations of the stone features

continue on Lot 5...

...later that afternoon...

GARY: Let's get diggy with it, Billy.

-BILLY: Yep. -...in the southeast corner of the swamp,

now that Steve Guptill has completed a survey

of the mysterious wooden structure that sits

next to the stone road,

Jack Begley, along with Gary Drayton and Billy Gerhardt,

continue investigating the feature for clues

and potential valuables.

♪ ♪

We got a hit, Jack.

Great to hear, Gary. I'm on my way.

A little scrappy one.

(metal detector beeping)

Should be right underneath there.

-All right, mate. And I'll see if you've moved it. -Sure.

Come out, my little beauty.

What have we got here?

I think it's some kind of digging tool.

Not like any sort of modern digging tool I've seen.

That's old.

GARY: It's-it's almost like a trowel.

I think it's unique, mate,

because of where it came from, as well,

in between that wooden feature,

we have no idea what it is at the moment,

and the stone road.

It could be even older.

GARY: Maybe this piece of iron could be part of an old tool

left over from building the stone roadway

or even this wood structure.

And hopefully, we can put a date on it.

(beeps)

GARY: Yeah, we got a signal here, Jack.

It seems to be right in front

of this big boulder here.

Just there, somewhere.

See if I moved it.

Let me see if I can pinpoint it for you.

The old stick in the mud, here.

It's actually still there.

It's under there.

-All right. -It's got a good signal.

GARY: Is that it? I see it, mate.

-Look at that. -(Jack gasps)

GARY: What the heck is that?

-GARY: Look at that! -(Jack gasps)

-That's a big spike. -Yeah.

Look, it's still got wood on it.

NARRATOR: At the southeastern border of the Oak Island swamp,

Gary Drayton, Jack Begley

and Billy Gerhardt have just made

a potentially critical discovery

in the mysterious wooden structure that was

recently uncovered next to the stone road.

It looks hand-forged,

wrought iron,

and it's still got wood on it, so you know it was a fastener.

-Yeah. -Look at the size of that.

-Yeah. -Wow.

GARY: That's gonna come back old, mate.

JACK: Possibly, yeah. I think so, too.

This is gorgeous, as well. We've never found one like this.

NARRATOR: A hand-forged, iron spike?

Could Gary Drayton be correct

that it is different from other spikes

that the team has found in this area

and might be a much older artifact?

All right, I'm gonna make my way back down there.

Okay, mate. I'm gonna put a bag over the wood

-and put it to one side. -NARRATOR: If so,

could it be a key clue

that will help the team determine just when

this feature was constructed?

RICK: The question for us to answer is

why were these constructs made?

-Perhaps they were intended to be hidden. -Oh.

And there is every hope that we will,

at some point, discover the reason why they were built.

JACK: Hey, Billy. Look at this.

It looks like it's axe-chopped.

There's some type of

a piece of iron that's stuck into it.

And then this is straight-cut along the top,

not circular saw.

JACK: From all the artifacts that we have found

and getting a better look at this wood,

I think it might connect with

the stone pathway and the stone road.

It's been a heck of a day, guys.

JACK: Great job today.

NARRATOR: The following morning...

CRAIG: Three of us were called out to Lot 5,

and Jamie came up with these nice artifacts.

NARRATOR: ...at the Oak Island laboratory,

Rick Lagina, Craig Tester and Jack Begley

meet with archaeologist Laird Niven

and archaeometallurgist Emma Culligan to receive

Emma's scientific analysis of the gold-plated button

and the possible silver artifact

that were unearthed one day ago

in the large stone foundation on Lot 5.

That is somewhat self-explanatory, right?

-Yes, it's a button. -The key question is

composition. What is it?

EMMA: It is a copper alloy with about 3% gold

on the surface, so it is gilded.

NARRATOR: Gilding, which dates back to the times of ancient Egypt,

is a decorative technique

by which thin layers of gold

are applied to the surface of an item.

What's really revealing of that age and providence

in the metallurgical aspect is the phosphorus.

You got about 5%.

But that kind of button composition you won't see in

your regular old casual clothes.

I'd say it's more like naval military.

It had to have been, like, an officer's button then, right?

Yes. Officer or a gentleman.

EMMA: Ayuh, I can say that it's most likely

English, 18th century, naval military.

RICK: This naval button, does it have something to say

about the activities on Lot 5?

Might it have been British

who came searching for something?

But if you're doing original work,

you want to police your area.

I just hope we continue to make finds of artifacts

that will hopefully fill in the gaps

in this story on Lot 5.

You know, this one appears to be silver,

but the question is, is it truly silver?

Yes, it is silver.

Yes.

EMMA: Um, at about 90%.

LAIRD: In 40 years,

I can't remember a piece of silver I've found.

If you remember the treasure trove license, right?

The treasure trove license would define that as treasure.

JACK: It is treasure.

RICK: The treasure trove license

would define that as treasure.

JACK: It is treasure.

Yeah.

It's precious metal. That's as far as

-we can go right now. -LAIRD: Yes.

NARRATOR: In the Oak Island laboratory,

archaeometallurgist Emma Culligan

has just confirmed that

the metal artifact found one day ago

in the mysterious stone foundation on Lot 5

is composed almost entirely of pure silver.

So, what is it?

If we look at it functionally,

we both believe, this is its original form.

-Oh. -EMMA: Yeah.

And here you can see the slits

on these sides, on the edges.

There's some artistry there.

LAIRD: Yeah, I agree with that.

So, it could be

almost like the end of a tassel, decoratively.

-Oh, wow. -A knife hilt,

you know, something like that.

It's one of the cooler artifacts we've found.

RICK: The initial excitement,

which you've expressed, is it's silver.

And why wouldn't we be excited about that?

But to go further, I think we need

-more information. -Yeah.

RICK: The idea of

there must be silver from the Concepción.

If it were a metallurgical match to

silver from the Concepción,

and it matches that? Bingo.

Then we would be onto something.

Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely.

NARRATOR: Since the beginning of this year,

the team has found a number of metal artifacts

in the large foundation on Lot 5 that,

according to Emma's metallurgical analysis,

may be connected to Sir William Phips,

the English naval officer and privateer

who, in 1687,

salvaged more than 30 tons of silver and gold

from the Spanish wreck known as the Concepción.

We know that Phips found silver on the Concepción

and I believe some of the treasure from

the Concepción was secreted to Oak Island.

NARRATOR: In 2021, 32nd degree Freemason Scott Clarke

informed the team that Phips worked closely

with a high-ranking Freemason from Nova Scotia

named Captain Andrew Belcher

during his second salvage operation of the Concepción.

And he believes that much of the treasure

they recovered was hidden on Oak Island.

Laird, you've spent a lifetime

-and you've not found it. -I know, I know.

So, that-that certainly is quite interesting.

I can't remember a piece of silver I've found.

NARRATOR: Is it possible, as Rick Lagina has speculated,

that the silver artifact could offer more evidence

that Scott Clarke's theory may be true?

If so, might that explain why the team

has found the same man-made concrete-like material

in both the feature on Lot 5,

and around the tunnel below the Garden Shaft?

And finally, could these discoveries

also support John Edwards' theory

that members of Freemasonry

were part of a generational conspiracy

to hide and protect treasure vaults on Oak Island

that were originally established by

the Knights Templar?

RICK: I think this find is invigorating,

there's no question about it.

What it does say, emphatically,

is that the Lot 5 feature is important.

I don't think one can dismiss the fact

that this find and the concrete from Lot 5

strongly hint at a connection to Phips,

but also, it speaks to a connection to the Money Pit.

I think it only reinforces

that we might be on to something.

JACK: We know we have the Money pit material,

that was used in that foundation.

They could have kept, you know, some treasure

right on site, before they moved it.

I can't wait to see what other friends pop up as we dig up

-the rest of the feature. -There you go.

And so, I think we've got

-a lot to do. -Yeah.

And, uh, I, for one, am gonna start.

-CRAIG: Yep. Me, too. -All right?

RICK: Thank you both.

-JACK: Great job. -LAIRD: Oh, yeah.

NARRATOR: For Rick, Marty, Craig and their team,

a week that began with the hope for important discoveries

has been rewarded with not only exciting new clues

but also actual valuables that have

advanced their efforts to solve the Oak Island mystery.

And now, as they continue

digging in the Garden Shaft,

and investigating the believed ancient landmarks

on the island's surface will it lead to

a profound and history-changing breakthrough?

Perhaps it all depends

on whether or not the curse of Oak Island

can finally be broken.

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Next time on The Curse of Oak Island...

The way to unlock Nolan's Cross

is built into the cross itself.

If the Ark is here,

it would be found using Nolan's Cross.

Let's dig there.

-GARY: Ooh, look at that. -BILLY: There's a boulder.

Maybe this boulder is marking the spot.

RICK: This is the copper artifact

found on Lot 8.

This could be identified as Viking.

ROGER: The water started coming in faster and faster.

RICK: We may have hit a flood tunnel.

(men shouting)