One day I’d love that one of the “Buried Riches from the Ukraininan Anabaptists” show-types actually find something. Aside from the never ending Oak Island (where do they get the money?), there are people in the Phillipines (WWII Japanese treasure), Confederate gold, Templars, Nazi, Czars, and others.
It’s always “look at this button, it could be from the 16th century” and never “this emerald necklace is definitely from Catherine the Great’s jewel box”.
The treasure hunters form Sapnish/Pirate treasure are different because they do find stuff, ocassionally, and there are clear indications, but “Himmler’s secret art stash” never comes up.
Just one, man, just one. Let them recover ther costs and have some 100k for a second honeymoon with the logg-suffering wife.
One of the best (worse) I’ve stumbled on was the archaeologist/adventurer/douchebag looking for Bonnie Prince Charlie’s lost treasure in the Scottish Highlands
The metal detector gets a ping from under the ruins of a poor crofter’s cottage. Everyone immediately goes into overdrive!
IS IT GOLD? IS IT A SWORD? IS IT A PISTOL? HAVE WE FOUND A TRUE RELIC FROM THE 1745 REBELLION? COULD THIS BE WHERE THE JACOBITES HID OUT FROM THE ENGLISH?
OH, WOW! IT’S A SPOON! AND JUST THINK: WE COULD BE THE FIRST PEOPLE TO SEE IT IN 300 YEARS! FANTASTIC!
At that point, I had to turn it off. My brain had started to hurt.
No scrap is too small. “Look a confederate button in Kentucky, this MUST mean that Jefferson Davies slept here with Abe Lincoln’s second cousin thrice removed who told him where to hide his gold.”
But, man, just once, a small, real, valuable object. Not “these marking where used by the Japanese to distract spirits”, I want gold coins, Rembrandts, pearl-encrusted rosaries!!!
I watched the Oak Island one for a short time since the mystery surrounding the site had always intrigued me, but I soon lost interest when I realized the crew was too small and their “discoveries” were unimpressive.
(1) Another archaeologist/adventurer/douchebag is trying to determine if one of the mediaeval kings of Europe was descended from Jesus Christ. None of his remains are available, so they take a sample from those of (wait for it!) his wife from another dynasty. DNA results: Inconclusive.
DUH! OF COURSE a woman from a completely different bloodline wouldn’t show signs of being related to Jesus Christ! Did they really expect she would?
(2) A historian/forensic geologist/douchebag is looking for proof the Vikings colonized North America. Two Midwestern yokels take him into the forest where a bunch of runes are carved into the rocks. He immediately finds something that can’t possibly be right, so the runes must be fake.
He looks up at Darryl and his brother Darryl and asks “Did you know about this?” I was waiting for them to say “Yeah, sure. We just wanted to dick you around for two hours on national TV.”
We saw an episode of Josh Gates’s show, and they actually did find a key that was one of the ones hidden in The Secret. It’s the first time I ever saw him actually find what he was looking for.
Gates did a story on the treasure hidden by Forrest Fenn. He didn’t find it on the show, but someone eventually found it. Forrest Fenn died the other day.
I wonder if there is literally anyone who watches a Finding Bigfoot show and in the pre-first-commercial-break teaser when one of the big food hunters hears a strange noise legitimately thinks “Oh many they might find Bigfoot 8 minutes into this episode halfway into the season!”
As far as we know, Jesus didnt have any children. We dont know of any by his brother James, but of course Jesus had other siblings, Jude, Simon, Joseph and sisters, unnamed (altho some have postulated Mary Magdalene) . It is quite possible Jesus had nieces and nephews, but none are recorded. So, whose DNA would be used?
We know that the Vikings/Norse colonized America. L’Anse aux Meadows is proof, but we also know that that site wasnt Vinland, which is quite likely in New England someonwere, maybe Martha’s Vinyard area.
Usually if they find it it’s a one show documentary, but you have ongoing stuff like Gold Rush and Meteor Men or something like that where they do find stuff but then continue looking for more.
Bit of an aside, but when I lived in Indonesia I once had a 3 or 4 hour car ride with a US Embassy official who I’d always found to be intelligent and credible (and, quite notably for the time and place, not the least bit sexist).
In the car, he proceeded to tell me basically the same story that is in Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code about how there are descendants of Jesus protected by a secret guild (except this was a decade or more before that book came out). He claimed that he himself was a direct descendant of Christ.
To this day I don’t know if he was delusional, pulling my leg, or what the hell was going on. I was so stunned that I managed little more than the occasional “mm…mm-hmm…is that so?”
No treasures, but they actually have found significant evidence of habitation that dates back much farther than anyone previously thought.
Quite interesting, if you ask me.
My (horrible) bad. I don’t know what I confused it with.
This was a real, professional effort by real scientists, not “the people in the town have always said that the Inca buried their treasure where the sun kisses the mountains…”
