# Do they ever find "Lost Treasures" on any of the TV series? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 10, 2020, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-ever-find-lost-treasures-on-any-of-the-tv-series/920255 "2020-09-10T12:52:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2020, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-ever-find-lost-treasures-on-any-of-the-tv-series/920255/21 "2020-09-10T23:43:06Z")
Getting a long lasting TV show with big ratings IS the treasure that they’re all after. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2020, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-ever-find-lost-treasures-on-any-of-the-tv-series/920255/22 "2020-09-10T23:57:30Z")
> [@CairoCarol](#): > > 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. That idea has been floating around at least since 1982, when _The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail_ was published: > **[The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Holy_Blood_and_the_Holy_Grail)** > > The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail (published as Holy Blood, Holy Grail in the United States) is a book by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln. > The book was first published in 1982 by Jonathan Cape in London as an unofficial follow-up to three BBC Two TV documentaries that were part of the Chronicle series. The paperback version was first published in 1983 by Corgi books. A sequel to the book, called The Messianic Legacy, was originally published in 1986. The original work was re... From the Wikipedia item: > [@](#): > > In _The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail_, the authors put forward a hypothesis that the historical Jesus married Mary Magdalene, had one or more children, and that those children or their descendants emigrated to what is now southern France. Once there, they intermarried with the noble families that would eventually become the Merovingian dynasty, whose special claim to the throne of France is championed today by a secret society called the Priory of Sion. They concluded that the legendary Holy Grail is simultaneously the womb of Mary Magdalene and the sacred royal bloodline she gave birth to. Sound familiar? I don’t think your embassy official was delusional (except, perhaps, if he was seriously claiming that he was a direct descendant of Christ), but _HBHG_ was a bestseller, and made enough of a splash when it came out that Dan Brown admitted that it contributed to _The Da Vinci Code._ ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2020, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-ever-find-lost-treasures-on-any-of-the-tv-series/920255/23 "2020-09-11T00:06:10Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > Sound familiar? I don’t think your embassy official was delusional (except, perhaps, if he was seriously claiming that he was a direct descendant of Christ), Yes, I know the concept predates The Da Vinci code (when the book came out, it jogged my memory about the story I was told, which I’d more or less forgotten until a friend read the book, described the premise, and I suddenly remembered that this was almost exactly what the embassy guy told me). But I don’t think it was particularly common knowledge in the early 1990s - for sure the story was new to me. Obviously, though, the embassy guy was familiar with it. He told me with a straight face that he was a descendant of Jesus, so he was either delusional or had a very peculiar sense of humor. ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2020, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-ever-find-lost-treasures-on-any-of-the-tv-series/920255/24 "2020-09-11T00:13:32Z")
You forgot about Jesus’s younger brother Hong Xiuquan!! > **[Hong Xiuquan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Xiuquan)** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > > Hong Xiuquan (1 January 1814 – 1 June 1864), born Hong Huoxiu and with the courtesy name Renkun, was a Chinese revolutionary and religious leader who was the leader of the Taiping Rebellion against the Qing dynasty. He established the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom over varying portions of southern China, with himself as the "Heavenly King" and self-proclaimed younger brother of Jesus Christ. > Hong Xiuquan (洪秀全), born "Hong Huoxiu", was the third and yo... ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2020, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-ever-find-lost-treasures-on-any-of-the-tv-series/920255/25 "2020-09-11T00:13:58Z")
I remember when they found the remains. The impression I got from the news reports was indeed that it was an accidental discovery, so you weren’t the only one to believe that. I’m glad I know the true story now. I should have read more about it back then. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2020, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-ever-find-lost-treasures-on-any-of-the-tv-series/920255/26 "2020-09-11T00:19:42Z")
Ack! I just got curious so I looked the guy up. He left the Foreign Service after ending his career as an ambassador to a not-very-desirable posting and now works for a consulting firm in Thailand. Without thinking I clicked on his LinkedIn page, so now he’s gonna see that I looked him up. It’s been more than 25 years so he probably won’t even have a clue who I am (and my profile doesn’t go back far enough to list the job I had when we worked together). Or maybe he’ll remember the whole thing and think I got curious about what Jesus’s great-great-greatiddy-great grandson was up to these days 🤪 ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2020, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-ever-find-lost-treasures-on-any-of-the-tv-series/920255/27 "2020-09-11T03:39:47Z")
IIRC, this was somewhere much farther inland, probably Minnesota or thereabouts. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2020, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-ever-find-lost-treasures-on-any-of-the-tv-series/920255/28 "2020-09-11T03:42:47Z")
There’s blood on the Turin Shroud and the head covering that supposedly goes with it. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2020, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-ever-find-lost-treasures-on-any-of-the-tv-series/920255/29 "2020-09-11T03:46:44Z")
Yeah, Anywhere on the North Atlantic coast, I am fine with, but Minnesota- I am gonna need some pretty solid stuff. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2020, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-ever-find-lost-treasures-on-any-of-the-tv-series/920255/30 "2020-09-11T03:47:06Z")
The Shroud is problematic. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2020, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-ever-find-lost-treasures-on-any-of-the-tv-series/920255/31 "2020-09-11T03:50:17Z")
Undoubtedly, but that’s what they’d use. There’s nothing else available. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2020, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-ever-find-lost-treasures-on-any-of-the-tv-series/920255/32 "2020-09-11T03:53:11Z")
I have to admit, if you got a match to the Shroud, it’d be a interesting result. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2020, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-ever-find-lost-treasures-on-any-of-the-tv-series/920255/33 "2020-09-11T06:06:44Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Undoubtedly, but that’s what they’d use. There’s nothing else available. It’s not “problematic,” it’s a documented hoax from the late 1300s. Whosever’s blood is on it, it isn’t Jesus’s. It’s not even established that the stains are blood. ---
**Author:** ![GMANCANADA](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gmancanada/32/2837_2.png) [@GMANCANADA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GMANCANADA)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2020, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-ever-find-lost-treasures-on-any-of-the-tv-series/920255/34 "2020-09-11T10:54:53Z")
> [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](#): > > Aside from the never ending Oak Island (where do they get the money?), One place they get lots of money from is the Government of Nova Scotia. [https://novascotia.ca/news/release/?id=20190903001](https://novascotia.ca/news/release/?id=20190903001) > Documentary TV Series, The Curse of Oak Island Season 7, produced by Tell Tale International Inc., has been approved for a funding commitment of $3,540,925… ---
**Author:** ![APB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@APB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2020, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-ever-find-lost-treasures-on-any-of-the-tv-series/920255/35 "2020-09-11T12:11:14Z")
> [@CairoCarol](#): > > Yes, I know the concept predates The Da Vinci code (when the book came out, it jogged my memory about the story I was told, which I’d more or less forgotten until a friend read the book, described the premise, and I suddenly remembered that this was almost exactly what the embassy guy told me). But I don’t think it was particularly common knowledge in the early 1990s - for sure the story was new to me. Obviously, though, the embassy guy was familiar with it. > > He told me with a straight face that he was a descendant of Jesus, so he was either delusional or had a very peculiar sense of humor. _The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail_ had argued (using that word in its loosest possible sense) that several prominent families, which it named, were descended from Jesus. Moreover, between its publication and the publication of _The Da Vinci Code_, lots of other writers had developed those claims about some of those families. [One such theory centred on the Sinclairs was relatively well-publicised from the early 1990s onwards.](http://www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/henry-sinclair-the-knights-templar-and-the-holy-bloodline-a-chronology#) It is not too difficult to see why a very gullible person who knew they were descended from one of those families might then have taken a special interest in those theories and thus come to the conclusion that they were indeed descended from Jesus. While such a belief is very silly, it is actually no more silly than believing that other people are descended from him. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2020, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-ever-find-lost-treasures-on-any-of-the-tv-series/920255/36 "2020-09-11T12:20:43Z")
Depends what you call a treasure. Geraldo Rivera discovered Al Capone’s lost treasure, it just happened to be a few empty bottles. A safe from the Andrea Doria was opened on TV and the treasure was a handful of waterlogged silver certificates, worth much more than Geraldo’s bottles. I first heard of Oak Island in the early 60s on a travelogue TV show. It sounded like a cool mystery and I planned to grow up and find that treasure. But time and again the story was revived, each time enhanced, and now we find the entire island was constructed by aliens burying a treasure several thousand feet down, leaving a series of important clues all of which have been lost after their discovery. So I decided not to bother. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2020, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-ever-find-lost-treasures-on-any-of-the-tv-series/920255/37 "2020-09-11T13:49:41Z")
> [@APB](#): > > It is not too difficult to see why a very gullible person who knew they were descended from one of those families might then have taken a special interest in those theories and thus come to the conclusion that they were indeed descended from Jesus. Maybe that’s the answer, then! ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2020, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-ever-find-lost-treasures-on-any-of-the-tv-series/920255/38 "2020-09-11T15:05:50Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > We dont have any DNA of Jesus or any descendants. > > 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? Catholic doctrine FWIW is that none of those people were actually siblings of Jesus’s. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2020, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-ever-find-lost-treasures-on-any-of-the-tv-series/920255/39 "2020-09-11T22:05:37Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Catholic doctrine FWIW is that none of those people were actually siblings of Jesus’s. True, but that was mainly because they had a vested interest in maintaining the doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary, and that she didn’t have sex with Joseph even after Jesus’s birth. The most natural reading is probably that they were actual siblings; AFAIK there is nothing in the original text that indicates they were not. (But this thread is probably not the best place to get into the fine points of Biblical interpretation.) ---
**Author:** ![Retzbu\_Tox](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/retzbu_tox/32/11829_2.png) [@Retzbu\_Tox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Retzbu_Tox)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2020, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-ever-find-lost-treasures-on-any-of-the-tv-series/920255/40 "2020-09-11T23:13:46Z")
I have another Josh Gates reference. On Expedition Unknown, in the “Warrior Queen’s Treasure” episode, Josh follows some archaeologists who are looking for the burial site of Boudica, a Celtic queen who fought the Romans. They find nothing definitive regarding Boudica, but do use metal detectors to find a trove of Roman silver coins. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-ever-find-lost-treasures-on-any-of-the-tv-series/920255.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-ever-find-lost-treasures-on-any-of-the-tv-series/920255.md?page=3)