"Hairy Situation" is season 11's penultimate episode. With winter approaching, the Fellowship has a limited amount of time to conduct more searches and make further discoveries. The time remaining is time they know to wisely spend.
RUNDOWN While there is never a dull moment on and around Oak Island, the major takeaway for me in this episode was the European adventures. On Oak Island, Marty Lagina, Jack Begley, archaeometallurgist Emma Culligan, and lead archaeologist Laird Niven meet in the lab where they confirm that clay samples collected from different features on Lot 5 match those collected from the Money Pit. This is conclusive evidence that the activity conducted on Lot 5 is related to activity in the Money Pit. Later, Begley and historian Charles Barkhouse travel to Saint Mary's University in Halifax, Nova Scotia where Dr. Christa Brousseau and Dr. Xiang Yang analyze the conglomerate rock Marty found beneath Cone E in last week's episode. The hair protruding from the conglomerate did not appear to be human hair, but rather from an animal. A likely animal would be an ox as oxen would have been used to set the Cone E boulder in place. Across the Atlantic in Roskilde, Denmark, Rick and Alex Lagina, Doug Crowell, Emiliano Sacchetti, Corjan Mol, and Peter Fornetti visit the Viking Ship Musuem. The team learns that it is possible that Vikings could make the transatlantic voyage. Curator Dr. Marten Ravn informs them that Norse ships were originally rowed, but at the beginning of the Viking Age (approximately AD 750), the mariners began using sails, thus making a journey to North America easier. The team then tours a replica of a Viking cargo ship which could carry up to 20 tons. In the 13th century, a cargo may have contained Templar treasure! Crowell points out that parts of the ship are similar to wooden artifacts found in the triangle-shaped swamp on Oak Island that are likely from a ship. From Denmark, the team travels to Reykjavic, Iceland. At the Arni Magnusson Institute, they meet curator Prof. Gudvardur Mar Gunnlaugsson and are informed that Templar astronomical knowledge had in fact spread as far as Iceland. More than 15 abbeys had been established between the 11th and 14th centuries where hundreds of manuscripts containing astronomy and sacred geometry were produced. The team was shown a 12th century manuscript written primarily in Latin with some passages in Norse. This manuscript names several stars including Arcturus, which was one of the stars that archaeoastronomer Prof. Adriano Gaspani stated was used in the stellar alignment and construction of Nolan's Cross on Oak Island. Crowell also notes a symbol within the text that matches one on a copper artifact found on the island and may be of Viking origin. Following their visit to the Arni Magnusson Institute, Rick and company head south to the National Museum of Iceland to find out if there is any Viking Age connection to 5th century Roman coins discovered on the island. They have come to this museum since there are Roman coins in its collection. Curator Armann Gudmundsson notes the trade between Europe and the Mediterranean and suggests that the Vikings could have come by the coins within the British Isles. Before returning to Oak Island, the team concludes their Icelandic adventure outside of Reykjavic where they join researcher Roberto Pagani at Kverkarhellir Cave. The cave is a man-made feature, created around 800 AD by a Christian monastic order from Ireland. The area was later conquered by the Vikings in 874 who settled the land until the 13th century. Pagani shows the team a carving near the mouth of the cave depicting a cross with a round top. This same image bears a striking resemblance to the lead cross artifact found on Oak Island as well as the shape of a Templar stronghold in Italy and a carving on the wall of a Templar prison in France. The teams led by Rick and Marty regroup in the War Room on Oak Island to share what they have learned and discovered. CONCLUSION I find it fascinating that the Vikings most likely had a collaboration with the Knights Templar. Sure, one artifact cannot tell an entire story, but when further investigation and world travel yield results that corroborate with a theory brought forth by the artifact, then the truth of the story becomes more apparent. The Norse-Templar connection may have been a theory among the Fellowship, but after visiting Portugal, Italy, France, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Iceland, and finding even a simple artifact or carving that links them together, that theory is becoming more probable. Only one episode remains of season 11. Even if a borehole does not yield the desired result, all data is good data and, like a game of Battleship, the Fellowship of the Dig is narrowing the grid and closing in on the ultimate hit.
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