Astonishing Roman Artifacts Unearthed | The Curse of Oak Island

As a new week begins in the search to find treasure on Oak Island, Rick and Marty Lagina, along with Marty's son Alex, Craig Tester, and Dave Blankenship have traveled 50 miles northeast of Oak Island to St. Mary's University in Halifax. Here we are. After you, you have the goodies. You get the goods. Here's what you've been waiting for, gentlemen. Let's see it. They are eager to determine if an object resembling an ancient Roman sword, which was reportedly found in the waters just off the coast of Oak Island, is real. Holy crap. Whoa. What the hell is this? It's a sword, a Roman sword. That is phenomenal. Today, the team has arranged to meet with Professor Miles McCallum, an expert on Roman archaeology. Hi, Miles. They are hoping he can determine if the sword they've acquired could be an important piece of evidence, one which connects the Oak Island mystery to the ancient Roman Empire. In the lab, we're going to have to ask you guys to put on some safety glasses and some lab coats here. I'll hold that for you. Oh, that's it. Nice. Oh, look at that. Bronze sword. Although it may seem unlikely that a Roman sword, dating from the reign of the Emperor Commodus in the second century AD, could find itself in the waters off Nova Scotia, there are many Oak Island theorists who believe it is more than possible. In recent decades, several ancient coins, identified as being Carthaginian in origin, were found in the coastal regions just north of Oak Island. The Carthaginians were a seafaring people who dominated the trade routes of the Mediterranean during the period from 600 to 200 BC. It has long been speculated that their knowledge of navigation, along with their shipbuilding and sailing prowess, would have made it possible for them to successfully navigate the rugged waters of the North Atlantic. If it plays out that it is an 1,800-year-old Roman sword, that's significant. Does it provide a certain historical context? If it is real, yes, it does. As far as, you know, iconographically, if it is obviously a representation of the demigod Hercules, who's a really important figure among the Romans religiously. As far as, you know, how it's made, that's a bit odd. Normally, you'd expect this to be a single cast piece. Is this one not done in one piece, then? With respect to this, I mean, looking at it, if we look down the side here, you can see where there's a line that goes right up through there. This suggests to me that it's a bivalve mold instead of a single lost wax mold. So something, again, like this, this was never a functional sword. It's simply a work of art. In the year 70 AD, future Roman Emperor Titus led the siege that conquered Jerusalem. In the process, his armies burned and destroyed the so-called Second Temple, where the original Temple of King Solomon once stood. When 12 years later, the Arch of Titus was erected in Rome to celebrate the victory, it depicted a large golden menorah, one of the sacred objects taken from the temple, which, like the Ark of the Covenant and the Holy Grail, many researchers believe were later buried on Oak Island. Is it possible that the Romans, like the Carthaginians before them, could have traveled to Nova Scotia nearly 2,000 years ago? And if so, would a Roman sword found in the waters off Oak Island provide the proof? Give us a percent. Percent chance that this is something Roman. I'm not really in a position to tell you at this point. Just looking at it as we have it here, I'm highly skeptical, just based on the construction technique, that it's actually ancient, too. Who would fake that? I don't know. It could even be a fake that's not a modern fake, right? It could be a fake from the 19th or 18th century. From an Oak Island standpoint, it would probably be more significant if it was a 1700s copy of a Roman. It could be something. It could actually be an antiquity that was in the possession of somebody who came over long after that, right, and had lost it. And so that's probably, if this is something that's old, that's a much more likely explanation. Why does somebody go to the effort to duplicate or fake something that almost no one in the world has seen? I mean, I haven't ruled it out yet. It still could have significance to what we're doing here. It's an intriguing object. Sounds great. Thank you very much. No problem. Very informative. Thanks for coming. Yeah, same. Perfect. Jack. Laird, Helen. How are you? Emma. I'm Sandy. So we'll set up here. Alex Lagina, Jack Begley, and archaeometallurgist Emma Culligan welcome numismatist Sandy Campbell to the Oak Island Interpretive Center. Sandy has come to examine the cut copper coin that was found one week ago by Rick Lagina and Gary Drayton on Lot 5, a coin which X-ray fluorescence scanning has indicated may predate the 16th century. OK, so the thing that we'd like to show you is a find on Lot 5, which we've recently gained access to. So this is kind of a new area on the island for us. We only recently got access to the lot, so we haven't been over it with a metal detector ourselves. And that's what Rick and Gary were doing when they found this. It's very interesting. We're not totally sure what it is, but we have some ideas. Well, let's have a look. I'll go grab the coin. Great. Perfect. Here you go. Thank you, Emma. I'll hand it to you in the back. All right. Let's have a look. Part of a coin, hopefully. Let's have a look. So you've done an XRF and a CT? Yeah, we have. Emma, are you able to pull that up for us by any chance? Sure I can. Thank you. It's just loading right now. Well, that loads. Here's a picture. Let's flip it to the other. It looks like there's some sort of characters or something inscribed on it. Yeah. What about XRF? Yes. So I do have an XRF result. And it shows high content in copper, lead, and tin, but also about 0.51% arsenic. Yeah. And it also has 1.05% silver in it as well. Which, yeah, I mean, you can get silver naturally occurring with copper, obviously. You know, if it has arsenic, this is pre-1500, for sure. You know, if we weigh this, let's weigh it. This is going to tell us something, OK? This coin looks like there's probably a third of it left. This is probably somewhere in the gram range, but let's. So it weighs exactly a gram, which is sort of unusual that it would be bang on a gram. But, you know, it's not unusual to see coins cut up and used as money in a partial payment. Again, you know, you get a coin that's this big. And, you know, the deal of the day required a third of that copper. So you're just snipping off a third of the coin, right? Right. And that's really how barter worked then. Let's see here. I think this is probably, I'm guessing it's either Roman, it could even be Byzantine. But I'm thinking it's Roman. Roman. No way. Based on what I'm seeing on the coin, I mean, I see Roman-style characters. The style is definitely from 300 BC to 500, 600 AD. No way. A Roman coin, possibly dating back over 2,000 years? But if so, who could have brought it to Oak Island? All right, so I'm going to have to call Rick. I want to see Rick's reaction. Yeah, this is unbelievable. Hey, Rick. Hey, Alex, how are you? Good. Hey, you and Gary might want to come down to the lab. We've got some pretty interesting information here for you. We'll be down ASAP. OK, see you soon. All right, see you. Bye. This is just an incredible moment because, you know, we have a Roman coin on Oak Island. And here we sit, trying to draw conclusions. And it's, like, wide open at this point. You know, who brought it here? How did it get here? Why is it on lot five in particular? It's just a total mystery right now. Hey, Laird. Hey. Can you join us on this? Sure. I'd love to get your take. This is, like, a typical-looking Roman all the way into Byzantine-period design. Laird, is there a precedent in Nova Scotia of, you know? Not in Nova Scotia. There are precedents in the East Coast of the United States. OK, so. From archaeological sites. Hey, guys. Hey, chaps. Hey, guys. We heard excitement in your voices. And we came running. Brace yourselves. Oh. So this is what you guys found on lot five the other day. And we just showed it to Sandy. My thoughts, and I think I'm, you know, pretty confident that this is Roman. Most likely Roman. Roman, baby. Oh, have I waited for this. Put it in. Probably Roman. That's my gut. So. What do you make of that? That is incredible, mate. Incredible. Run it by me again. Why is it possibly Roman? Well, the design is definitely Roman. This is definitely a person here. And this is a tree here. This style is Roman. Does the elemental analysis confirm what you suspect about the coin? Yeah, when I see arsenic and I see silver in there, you know, it's a very unrefined copper, which shows that, again, really confirms with me that it's probably most likely Roman. A Roman coin on Oak Island. What's it doing here? So when we were in Portugal, we were investigating the road that we found in the swamp, right? And we saw an example of a Roman road over in Portugal. Oh, money. Welcome to Portugal. Thank you. One year ago, Rick, Alex, and members of the team visited a number of locations in Portugal where the Knights Templar established strongholds between the 12th and 16th centuries. OK, let's see what we can find. There, they were shown a number of carvings in Templar churches matching symbols that have been found in the past on Oak Island. This symbol is definitely on the 90-foot stone right there. It's perfect. Yep. The stone path looks exactly like this. But one of the most compelling features they saw was a cobblestone road dating back nearly 2,000 years to a time when the area was once part of the Roman Empire. Incredibly, the road was an exact match to the one unearthed in the swamp by the team in 2020, which is believed to date back at least 500 years and be of Portuguese origin. So maybe the coin and the road in the swamp are connected. Yeah. Is it possible that this Roman coin may have been brought to Oak Island by members of the Knights Templar? If so, could it also explain the possible dam feature at the north end of the swamp, the medieval lead cross found in 2017 at Smith's Cove, or even perhaps the high traces of gold that have been detected in the Money Pit area? A Roman-era coin on Oak Island? It's astounding. It's undeniable that there is a certain geographic connection. But is it Templar-related? I don't know. We have to put it through a more rigorous scientific analysis. This story is incredibly complex. I know one thing for sure. Lot 5 is now on the Oak Island treasure map for sure. Sandy, you know, we welcome your expertise. And if you can continue to look into this, I will. We would love whatever information comes of that. And we need to get back out to Lot 5. We do, mate. Boots on the ground, as you would say. Yeah. Thank you very much. Rick, Gary, and Billy return to the triangle-shaped swamp to unearth additional sections of the believed man-made stone ramp. So I think what we'll do is let's try to follow this path. If we can make a positive relationship between the paved area to the ramp, the ramp to the stone path, then the next step would be try to somehow connect the stone path to something. Right. Let's start digging. Having moved several yards northeast from their previous search location, Rick, Billy, and Gary are digging in drier ground in the hopes of determining if the ramp actually does connect the 800-year-old paved area to the nearby stone pathway. Heads up. And also, if it contains any important clues or valuables. Oh, look at that. Yeah, it didn't even take a step. Billy. Hold up. Straight out of the bucket. Oh, what have we got here? First sweep, first artifact. Straight out. It's an horseshoe, a lucky horseshoe, I hope. Been in the ground a long time, that's what I think. Yeah. It wouldn't have that much corrosion on it. Yeah, it really is. A small horseshoe found on the stone ramp in the triangle-shaped swamp? If so, was it simply discarded here? Or could it have been dropped during the construction of the feature? And what is, is it just misshapen, or is that side smaller than that? Broken? I would imagine it's misshapen. I don't know. Hopefully, Carmen Legge will be able to shed some light on that. And tell us how old it is. Why in the swamp? If you're coming to the island and back in the day by boat, you would have had a small horse on a boat. You don't have large horses on boats. Could Gary be correct that this shoe belonged to a horse that came to Oak Island on a large sailing vessel? If so, might it be related to the various fragments of ships that the team has found in the swamp over the past several years? Or the pieces of cargo barrels that were also found in this area, which blacksmithing expert Carmen Legge believes could date back as early as the 15th century? Might be something special about this horseshoe. Brilliant start. Good start, that's for sure. All right, we are really hot to trot. I knew there was one coming. After all these years, I still believe the swamp has secrets. Oh, that was it. That was good stuff. And the only way to uncover them, unfortunately, is to dig. And given the current discovery conditions, i.e. them being wet, that takes time. I mean, all these logs and sticks. Hard to believe this was always wetland. Yeah. Say that's down in original swamp layer. Kind of looks like it. How far above the water are you? Left foot. I'll leave it up to you to decide the width of it. But I think probably that stone and those alder bushes, I wouldn't go any wider. No, I think that's the limit of the ramp anyway. We'll see, but. Let's keep digging. Yeah. The following morning. Carmen, mate, thanks for coming out. You're welcome. Billy Gerhardt and Gary Drayton meet with blacksmithing expert Carmen Legge in the research center. Always like to see it, because that means that we've found something really interesting. Well, I hope I can tell you something about it. They are eager to get Carmen's assessment of the horseshoe that was recovered one day ago on the stone ramp in the swamp. Look at that. Well, it's certainly a horseshoe. Let me have a look at this. It's not very corroded, so. You'll notice that the top of the shoe is quite thick, and then it comes down quite narrow like that. Usually when you see that, it indicates a very old shoe. Also, you'll notice that the shoe is very short. It's not a draft horseshoe. It's more like a riding horse or a cavalry horse. This, I can say safely, is the oldest horseshoe I've seen so far. The plot thickens. And it's not consistent all the way around, so it's an old handmade shoe. I would go back to the 1400s. But it would bring a riding horse to an island. Everything came to the island by boat, and there would have had to have been someone in charge of all these constructs, and they would have been riding a horse like this, probably. Yeah, that's certainly true. The shortness of the shoe, it makes the horse stand up prouder. It was for a high prestige horse, something that you want to give a commanding presence when you rode this horse. This is found along the edge of the stone path, and some of the construction techniques are similar to stuff that the guides saw in Portugal. The stone path looks exactly like this. One year ago, while visiting Alcadão de Serra, Portugal, where the Knights Templar were known to have maintained a stronghold between the 12th and 16th centuries. It looks similar to what we have, that's for sure. Rick Lagina and members of the team saw a Roman road that was nearly identical to the one that was uncovered in the swamp back in 2020. There is no known recorded visits by horses here in Nova Scotia before 1670. Wow. Could Billy Gerhart's notion that this horseshoe is potentially related to the stone road be correct? If so, might it not only help explain how the Roman coin and token came to be on Oak Island? May doubt tell a story. It is very old. But also be another key clue in identifying just who was behind the 228-year-old mystery. I am surprised that Carmen has indicated that this horseshoe represents stylistically from the 1400s. And for Carmen to say something that specific about something he is very familiar with is quite extraordinary. If this is from that time period, then we have rewritten history. Wow. That is our lucky horseshoe, mate. Yeah, exactly. 1400s, brilliant. That's gotta be the oldest metal artifact ever to come out of the swamp. It's the oldest horseshoe I've seen in Nova Scotia. And I've seen a lot of shoes. Wow. Dang. Making history, Gary. Yeah, really have. Thank you, Carmen. All this is amazing. Very good. Keep bringing stuff to me. We will do, mate. Cheers.