The Curse of Oak Island: An ancient artifact suggests Vikings may have landed on the island

This week began with a major disappointment for the guys as the operation to excavate the Garden Shaft ground to a crushing halt. The plan to have the Dumas mining company open up this shaft and get the team below ground in the Money Pit was the main focus for this season. But once again, the guys have found themselves hampered by government bureaucracy.

Dumas’s plan was just to excavate and stabilize the shaft, but the government has stepped in to insist that as it’s a mining operation, they need the proper permits. Craig Tester told a clearly gutted Rick and Marty Lagina that the process would take a long time. Rick added that there is “no end in sight.”

Luckily, the Lagina brothers never stay despondent for too long; after a deep sigh, they picked themselves up and began looking for the next area of the island to explore.

This week’s main excitement stemmed from Gary Drayton and Jack Begley’s mysterious find on Lot 8. Last week the two compadres pulled up an intriguing ornate metal plate that featured unknown insignia. It was something the archaeologists had never seen before.A preliminary analysis of the piece by Laird Niven and his team, along with a visual analysis by Mayan expert Dr. Edwin Barnhart, suggested that the object may be ceremonial in nature and was probably European. And could be extremely old.

Expert archaeologist says Oak Island artifact could be Viking in origin

This week, Edwin was back, and after taking a closer look at the artifact, he came up with a stunning theory. Firstly, Edwin confirmed that the object consisted of copper, zinc, and lead which made it brass, a substance only used in Europe. He initially speculated it might be Portuguese in origin, but, amazingly, he also argued it could be Viking.

Edwin stated that the Vikings were known for using brass to plate over objects. This would place the artifact somewhere between the 8th and 11th centuries.

The archaeologist also said that the Vikings, or Norse, were known to have reached Greenland and Newfoundland in the 10th century and that it was possible they also made it to Oak Island.

Recently, the Fellowship has focused on either the French, the Portuguese, or the Templar knights as being key to the Oak Island mystery, but now with the introduction of the Vikings, the timeline is being pushed even further back.

This isn’t the first time Viking treasure has been associated with the island. In 1996, metal detectorist Robert Young claimed to have found a Viking coin on Lot 5. Unfortunately, Lot 5 is currently out of bounds for our team.

Oak Island team uncovers a mysterious void at the Money Pit

In the meantime, the borehole drilling team at the Money Pit has been following the path of an underground tunnel they suspect might be heading toward the Garden Shaft.

Unfortunately, they seemed to lose track of this tunnel last night, but they may have found something even more interesting. At approximately 145 feet, the drill hit a massive void; a void that Alex Lagina suggested could not be natural.

This void, or cavity, immediately led the guys to suspect they’d found the elusive off-set chamber, an underground and secret room where Marty Lagina suspects the treasure to be hidden.