THE CURSE OF OAK ISLAND – THE HISTORY CHANNEL (ALL PICS)
In last night’s episode, “Piling On”, we are taken to the War Room where the Oak Island Team is meeting with Archeoastronomer Adriano Gaspani and his interpreter Michael Amadio. Professor Gaspani was asked if he could find a correlation between the Stone Triangle that was located on the south shore and, what Fred Nolan called, the Pirate Piles that were located on Lot 15. Gaspani begins with the Stone Piles. He suggests that these five stone piles were placed there using astronomical calculations using the rising and setting of the sun and moon. He suggests that these alignments only appear every 18 and ½ years. He states that because there are so many alignments it appears that the formation could have been formed in 1250AD. Dr. Gaspani suggests that the Knights Templar were behind the formation, which the Compendium believes is based on his past research that involves the theory that the Order of the Temple used such alignments when building churches in Europe.
THE CURSE OF OAK ISLAND – THE HISTORY CHANNEL (ALL PICS)
Professor Gaspani continued with his presentation, now focusing on the Stone Triangle. Gaspani says because the Stone Triangle is no longer there, he used the calculations given by the Oak Island Team. Gaspani explains that there are stone alignments in the triangle that show the sunrise and sunset at the winter solstice on the same day. Gaspani goes on to explain that he believes that whoever did this was a navigator who knew both astronomy and geometry. Gaspani then speculates that people from Europe came to Oak Island in the 1200’s-1300’s and codified a message by arranging stones and piles of stones in an astronomically significant way that was not used by common people. He suggests it was a secret that not everyone was supposed to know about and puts forth the Templars as possible builders. Why the Knights Templar, at the height of their power, would do this in the Oak Island area in 1200-1250AD is still uncertain.
THE CURSE OF OAK ISLAND – THE HISTORY CHANNEL (ALL PICS)
The scene shifts to Lot 15 where the Stone Piles discovered by Fred Nolan were located and the remnants remain. Metal Detectorist Gary Drayton and Jack Begley searched the area for any possible finds. Gary records a hit and uncovers a piece of lead. It is described as decorative in appearance and could be related to other pieces of lead that the Oak Island team has found previously. The piece was bagged and tagged and will be taken to Emma Culligan in the Lab for further analysis. Dating of lead is difficult because in most cases lead was used and used for hundreds of years, so narrowing down a specific date of deposit is almost impossible.
THE CURSE OF OAK ISLAND – THE HISTORY CHANNEL (ALL PICS)
We were then taken to the Garden Shaft where the Dumas team has been working since the brief delay from Hurricane Lee. Dumas has reached the top of the tunnel that runs below the Garden Shaft. Gary Drayton is brought in to see if he can detect any artifacts. He gets a hit and identifies it as iron. It appears to be some sort of nail or perhaps pin that will be sent to Emma for testing. Another hit is made, and Gary says it is metal and it has a similar look as the other piece. Later the team starts to take out pieces of the top of the tunnel and notice that the wood has been worked by the use of an adze. The wood samples will be sent out for further testing.
THE CURSE OF OAK ISLAND – THE HISTORY CHANNEL (ALL PICS)
Our analysis concludes at the New Lab where Archeometallurgist Emma Culligan meets with the team to provide her analysis of the lead piece found at the Stone Piles on Lot 15. Emma echoes the fact that the lead is extremely hard to date but she said it was a near compositional match for another piece of lead found in 2021 on Lot 13. That piece is spiral shaped in appearance. Dr. Chris MacFarlane had previously analyzed the spiral piece and said it may have originated from Eastern Scandinavia. No date was given, and according to Dr. MacFarlane’s verbiage, it sounded like there were other possibilities that were not mentioned in this clip. This led to speculation of the Vikings being on Oak Island and curiously a map was shown detailing the settlements of the Vikings as Iceland, Greenland, and New Brunswick. This was an error since there were no known Viking settlements in New Brunswick and should have been listed as Newfoundland. Until next week’s episode.
Good day from the Compendium!