The Curse of Oak Island: Origins of the Ancient Roman Sword Revealed (Season 3) | History

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 Saint Mary’s University in Halifax.

“Here we are after you, you have the
you got the goodies, you get the goods.
Here’s what you’ve been waiting for, gentlemen. All
right, 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!
What the hell is this? 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, you’re gonna have to ask you guys to
put on, uh, some safety glasses and some lab coats.
Here, I’ll hold that for you. Oh, that’s it, nice.
Oh, look at that sword!”

Although it may seem
unlikely that a Roman sword dating from the reign
of the emperor Commodus in the second century A.D.
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 B.C.

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.

“It plays out that it is an 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.”

“Does this one not done
in one piece, then?”

“Uh, 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 bi-valve 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 A.D., 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 two thousand 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, percent chance that this is something Roman.”

“I’m not really in a position to tell you
at this point. You know, just looking at it as we
have it here, I’m highly skeptical just based
on the construction technique that it’s actually
ancient.”

“Who would fake that? I don’t know. You
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 actually, it’d
probably be more significant if it was the 1700s.

A 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 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.”