Lot 5 Discovery Could Rewrite History (S13) | The Curse of Oak Island

[Marty] All right, Gary, it’s time. This is prime hunting ground here, right?
Lots of good finds.
We are between the structure on Lot 5 and the ocean.
-[Gary] Yeah. -…Marty and Gary arrive on Lot 5. -This here is a covered well, right? -Yeah, it is.
We don’t know how old it is.
So this would have been a busy area in between these features.
So it stands to reason, -we should be able to find some artifacts here. -Okay.
[Narrator] One week ago, Italian archeoastronomy professor Adriano Gaspani analyzed the location of the round feature on Lot 5, a feature that the lot’s previous owner, the late Robert Young, believed was no older than the 20th century. But, incredibly, based on its alignment with certain stars in the night sky, Professor Gaspani believes that the feature was originally constructed as far back as the early 13th century. -Let’s start here. Let’s go around the well. -Okay.
[Narrator] Now Gary and Marty want to search a stone well that sits a few yards away from the rounded feature for clues that could help validate Professor Gaspani’s theory. Especially since they have previously found a bronze button and a spike in this area that have been scientifically dated to the 13th century. How about you get that end, I get that end, -we flip this thing up, and you work this from the side? -Yeah.
[Marty] When we bought Lot 5, the people who looked, uh, into Robert Young’s data told me that this thing that was covered up in plywood… [Gary] Ooh, look at that.
…was that this was just a modern well. But it’s weird. I don’t know why anyone would dig a water well so close to the ocean. If you don’t mind, I’d like to get you down in there.
Around the edges.
Nothing in that part.
I’m gonna hand you the shovel -and then I’m gonna crawl down in there. -Yeah. Okay.
Thanks.
Yeah, it’s easy to get down here.
Whoa. [laughs] -This thing goes a little deeper… -Yeah, it’s soft.
-…a little deeper than I thought. -Yeah.
That’s not even a good bottom right there.
I mean, this floor is giving way as we stand here.
-[Gary] Yeah. -Uh, we’re nowhere near the bottom of this, Gary.
-[Gary] No. -It keeps on going.
Yeah, I’m standing on a bunch of leaves.
-That’s all. You want to look again? -Yeah.
Let me get right on out of here.
[both chuckle] [soft beeping] Oh.
Boy, I’m surprised. I thought there’d be more in the walls.
Thanks.
That was crazy, wasn’t it?
-Mm. -Thanks.
-Okay, but we got to talk about this. -Yeah.
Just because we’re not detecting any metals down there -don’t mean– -We’re not at the bottom.
Yeah. Exactly.
And there could be pottery, glass.
All kinds of stuff.
[Gary] This is like metal detecting on a trampoline. The fact that there are several feet of leaves below our feet.
We need to get the archaeologists and do some more exploring in this well. -This looks promising to me. -Yeah.
I’m sure, when all these leaves are taken out, there’s a good chance of finding an artifact in the bottom of the well. [beeping] That’s a good signal.
Sounds like there’s a chance it could be nonferrous -and deep. -Yeah.
Looks like, uh, this rock has to go, Gary, -before– -Yeah.
[Marty] Yeah, I think so.
You do the hard work, and I’ll take the glory.
Okay.
[grunts weakly] [both chuckling] [beeping] -Oh. This has got potential, mate. -Really?
-[Gary] Right there. -[detector whooping] [Gary imitates detector] Woo-woo.
What do you got, Marty?
I can see it at the side.
[Marty] Hmm.
-[beeping] -[Gary] Ah.
I see something moving. There.
You do the honors, mate. You dug it out.
You see, that’s the tip of it. Just there.
-I can pick it out with my hand, you think? -Yeah.
-Yep. -[grunting] You did all the hard work, mate.
See what we got.
[Marty] It’s a hook!
[Gary] Oh-hoo!
That-that’s probably a… an old hook.
And it makes sense if you think about it, right next to a well.
-Lowering something in it, eh? -Yeah.
-You know what, though? -What?
It’s not a chain hook, it’s a driven hook. Look.
-Yeah. -Drove that in, -to pull something. -Yeah.
Kind of like a… a pintle.
-[Rick] It might be a pintle. -Yeah.
I kind of hope it is a pintle because we found a pintle 20 yards away from that big boulder on Lot 8 and on Lot 15.
But if it’s a pintle, then I have a feeling this is gonna be a real oldie as well.
[Marty] You think the metal’s gonna match?
There could be a connection there. Lot 5, -Lot 8, Lot 15. -Yeah.
[Narrator] A pintle is a kind of pivot pin used for doors and gate hinges, allowing them to open and close. Curiously, the team unearthed two other possible pintles this year. one on Lot 15, 200 yards northeast of the Money Pit area and another near the boulder feature on Lot 8. Both could predate 1795. If Marty and Gary have indeed found a third pintle, could Gary be correct that it might be a clue connecting all three areas of Oak Island? [Gary] I would imagine we’re the first ones ever metal detecting down here.
This has not moved for a very long time.
-Yeah. -Let’s put her in the bag.
Whenever we found these pintles around Oak Island, they’ve always been associated with an old feature.
I know this isn’t a wishing well, but I’m wishing that we would’ve explored this well sooner. -We are not at the bottom of this by any means. -No.
This is under-searched.
Yeah, it really is.
Yeah. We need to get to the bottom of it.
-We gotta talk with the crew. -Yeah.
-[Marty] Laird should have a look at this. -[Gary] Yeah.
later that afternoon… -Okay, we’re here to analyze an object. -…Alex, Gary and Marty join Laird and Emma in the lab to hear their analysis of the possible pintle found earlier today on Lot 5. It was found near the supposed -well on Lot 5. -[Laird] Yeah.
Robert Young refers to it as “the 20th-century well.” Anyway, I’m sort of proud of that find because it was so difficult to get.
So, let’s find out, Gary. Shall we?
What do we know about it?
We both thought it was either a pintle or an hook.
-And we’re hoping it’s old. -[Emma] Well, here it is, kind of cleaned up.
We are leaning towards hook rather than pintle.
[Gary] Maybe driven into something to lower that bucket down the well.
The iron’s composition, um, so it is minimal impurities.
This one is just really clean iron that makes it harder to locate.
[Marty] Well, that’s interesting, ’cause most of your artifacts tend to point towards Britain, -don’t they? -Yeah.
Yeah, and here’s one that doesn’t.
Yeah. It does have a higher chromium content and a copper content.
I do see European regions with a higher copper impurity, so that could be kind of a region of interest to look into.
There’s no modern alloying elements, so that brings it before 1800s.
There is a lack of potassium in its base metal.
It does point towards mid-1700s as the most likelihood.
-Oh, wow. -[Marty] Well, that fits with -the bulk of your artifacts. -Yeah, it does.
Well, except that then they’re way off on the age of the well.
-Yeah. -But the takeaway is exciting The potential, what you can find at the bottom of a well -is so great. -Always good. Yeah.
-Yeah. -So, Laird, my information is that Robert Young felt like that well was recent.
But I’m wondering whether this could lead us to some action, because just about everything Robert Young touched, God bless him, seems to be not what it seems.
Mm-hmm, and you have looked at the surrounding areas of the well, obviously, -that’s where that came from. -Yeah.
The well is-is circled with rocks, very similar to the original round feature.
-Yes. -Here it is.
[Marty] Whoa. It’s almost perfectly circular.
[Narrator] When the team began investigating Lot 5 in 2022, after acquiring it from Robert Young’s estate, what is now the large rounded feature, where artifacts that may date between the 13th and 17th centuries have been found, was mostly buried and surrounded by stones that Mr. Young had placed above it. Everybody drops artifacts down the well, because you’re leaning over it…
-Yeah. -…getting the water out.
And they’re used to hide things you don’t want people to see.
-[Gary] Yeah. -[Narrator] Could Laird be correct that the well, which was also reported to be a modern structure, is actually a much older formation? So, I think, again, the well…
it’s worth putting a little bit of effort into it.
Yeah.
Just for the potential rewards at the bottom.
It might be a lot deeper than you think.
-Well, that’s a good thing. -That’s a great thing, yeah.
Well, we’re tied up until the end of the week with Lot 8.
But we can go down, reevaluate.
-I really think you should. -Yeah, I like the idea too.
-It was puzzling. -Yeah.
-Okay, well, let’s get after it. -Yep. -All right. -Thank you.
-[Marty] See you guys. -[Laird] See you. -[Emma] See ya. -[Marty] Thank you.