With three episodes remaining of season 11 of The Curse of Oak Island, it is a race against television time for Acorns and armchair archaeologists to see what discoveries the Fellowship makes and what secrets are brought to light. Episode 23, "Cone E Island," shed light on some of the island's questions as well as asking more.
RUNDOWN Continuing their adventures across the Atlantic, Rick and Alex Lagina, Peter Fornetti, Doug Crowell, Emiliano Sacchetti, Corjan Mol, and Jacquo Silvertant arrive at the 12th century Valkenburg Castle in the Netherlands. While touring the dungeon beneath the castle, they find Templar carvings on a 14th century wall which are not unlike those discovered on and around Oak Island and other European locations associated with the Knights Templar. Among these carvings was one that may depict the sail of a Viking longboat; you may recall from previous posts that there is a possible connection between the Templars and the Vikings. Does this etching confirm their collaboration? From there, Rick and company travel to Bornholm, Denmark where they meet with author/journalist/documentary filmmaker Erling Haagensen at the 12th century Nylars Church. Suggested to have been built by the Knights Templar, it is here, that Haagensen believes that Vikings had met with the Templars to plan a transatlantic voyage to the New World, i.e. Oak Island. While looking around the church, Rick Lagina points out that several Norse runes match the carvings on Oak Island's 90-Foot stone. Besides the runes, there is also depicted what appears to be a Templar cross. The trail takes them to Madsebakke where they are shown a 3,000-year-old feature consisting of a series of petroglyphs. Local historian/researcher Jeanne Cordua explains that this is a Scandinavian Bronze Age astronomical compass. The Vikings and the Templars could have used this to study navigation. Among the symbols was that of the four-dot cross which represented the rising and setting sun. Cordua also points out a group of five potholes that represent the Hyades star cluster. It is, in fact, this same star cluster with which Prof. Adriano Gaspani had recently stated the five stone cairns on Oak Island are in alignment. The team's final Dutch destination in the episode is the Ladby Viking Museum in Kerteminde. Here, Doug Crowell shares with curator Ane Jepsen Nyborg a photo he had taken of an artifact which was found on Oak Island in the 1960s by treasure hunter Robert Dunfield (refer to my post covering S11 Ep21). Nyborg dates the artifact, a Viking arrowhead, as early as AD 800 to no later than the 1200s. On Oak Island, Marty Lagina visits Lot 10 where Cone E, the westernmost boulder of Nolan's Cross is located. The goal is to lift the boulder to find any clues underneath that could confirm whether it was placed naturally, i.e. by a glacier, or artificially. Representatives from Corkum's Towing used a tow truck to lift it up. Beneath it, Lagina collected organic samples which geoscientist Dr. Ian Spooner can analyze. He also found a peculiar rock which could be cement. He later joined Jack Begley, Laird Niven, Terry Matheson, and Emma Culligan in the lab where Niven makes note of a strand of hair found within the conglomerate rock. Culligan said they can conduct an SEM (scanning electron microscope) test on the hair. We will have to wait for next week's episode to see what this clue can reveal. CONCLUSION To me, the Norse discoveries made in Europe add further credence to the possibility of a Viking-Templar collaboration. It is also noteworthy that the four-dot cross that has been associated with the Templars was also found on the Bronze Age feature at Madsebakke; how many more symbols were appropriated by future communities and cultures? Who originally established these symbols and what did they mean to them? To once again paraphrase Rick Lagina, "It's an Old World treasure wrapped in an Old World mystery," (S11 Ep22) so where better to search for answers than in the Old World? This is not just a journey through history, it is a journey through time; the Fellowship is retracing the footsteps of those who came to bury treasure, and following in the footsteps of those who came to find it. Oak Island is only one side of the coin, with Europe being the other side. The two are more connected than anyone could have imagined, going far beyond a European fellowship arriving on the island for such-and-such a purpose. With every piece put in place, the puzzle is coming together to reveal long-lost pages of history.
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