The Curse of Oak Island: RARE RELICS Uncovered on Lot Five (Season 11)

on lot five
archaeologists Jamie Kuba and Fiona Steel
are investigating the foundation near the shoreline
where the team discovered the 14th century lead barter token one year ago

hey I got another button
well that’s great
yeah this one’s much bigger
oh that is quite shiny
like gold-plated
are you sure it’s a button
oh I’m sure it’s a button
cuz we got the loop on the back
but maybe it’s gold-plated
I don’t think we’ve seen any of those yet
I haven’t
if this was military it would be an officer’s button
if it was gold-plated

so a gold-plated button
could Jamie Kuba be correct
that it belonged to a high-ranking military officer
if so
could it have been an officer who took part in hiding
or protecting something of Great Value on Oak Island

very cool
oh I can’t wait to see what that turns out to be

right
holy cow what have you got
I’m not entirely sure
but I think it’s a piece of silverware handle
really
oh it’s gorgeous
look at the designs on it
I’ve never found a single piece of precious metal
much less a piece this big
of what could potentially be silver
this is a big deal
we’re here on a treasure hunt
so we’re hoping that maybe we can analyze that
and that would give us the best possible chance
to get answers on who built this

W hello hello
so what do you have
yeah so I don’t really know where to start
so I’m just going to show you the first one that I found today
and we’ll work our way through those
oh all right
that looked like gold
it’s a very cool button
that’s cool
I can almost imagine a design on the front too
it’s hard to tell
what else did you find
you’re going to flip
it’s so cool
oh that’s silver isn’t it
I’m pretty sure it’s silver
it’s quite decorative though with the top
yeah it’s hand decorated
so ornate
yeah that’s really cool

this is not just your average domestic building
and they were using soil from Deep In The Money Pit
and there’s that kind of treasure as well
yeah so what were they doing here
it reminds me of like a crude mortar or cement

nearly 1 month ago
Jamie uncovered a man-made cement-like substance in this feature
that has also been found around the mysterious tunnel
below the garden shaft
this has made the team wonder
if this feature on lot five
was connected to an operation
to hide something of Great Value
Deep In The Money Pit area

I mean finding is the first step
take him to Emma
and trying to get a date on him step number two
all right it’s exciting
yeah we’ll find more stuff for you

okay
three of us were called out to lot five
and Jamie came up with these nice artifacts

at the Oak Island laboratory
Rick, Leina, Craig Tester, and Jack Bagley
meet with archaeologist Laird Niven
and archaeometallurgist Emma Culligan
to receive Emma’s scientific analysis
of the gold-plated button
and the possible silver artifact
that were unearthed one day ago
in the large stone foundation on lot 5

that is somewhat self-explanatory right
yes
the key question is composition
what is it

it is a copper alloy
with about 3% gold on the surface
so it is gilded

gilding, which dates back to the times of ancient Egypt
is a decorative technique
by which thin layers of gold are applied to the surface of an item

what’s really revealing of that age and provenance
in the metallurgical aspect
is the phosphorus
you got about 5%
but that kind of button composition
you wouldn’t see in a regular casual cloth
I’d say it’s more like naval military

it had to have been like an officer’s button then right
yes officer or a gentleman
I can say that it’s most likely English
18th century naval military

this Naval button
does it have something to say about the activities on lot five
might it have been British
who came searching for something
but if you’re doing original work
you want to police your area

I just hope we continue to make finds of artifacts
that will hopefully fill in the gaps in this story on lot five

you know this one appears to be silver
but the question is is it truly silver
yes it is silver
yes um at about 90%

in 40 years
I can’t remember a piece of silver I found
a treasure Trove license would define that as treasure
it is treasure
yeah it’s precious metal
and that’s as far as we can go right now

yes so what is it
if we look at it functionally
we both believe this is its original form
oh yeah
and you can see the slits on these sides
on the edges
there’s some artistry there
yeah I agree with that
so it could be almost like the end of a tassel decoratively
oh wow
a knife hilt
you know something like that
it’s one of the cooler artifacts we found

the initial excitement which you’ve expressed
is it’s silver
and why wouldn’t we be excited about that
but to go further
I think we need more information

yeah the idea of there must be silver from the Concepcion
if there were a metallurgical match
to silver from the Concepcion
and it matches that
Bingo
then we’d be onto something
absolutely
yeah absolutely

since the beginning of this year
the team has found a number of metal artifacts
in the large foundation on lot 5
that according to Emma’s metallurgical analysis
may be connected to Sir William Phips
the English naval officer and privateer
who in 1687 salvaged more than 30 tons of silver and gold
from the Spanish wreck known as the Concepcion

we know that Phips found silver on the Concepcion
and I believe some of the treasure from the Concepcion
was secreted to Oak Island

in 2021
32nd degree Freemason Scott Clark informed the team
that Phips worked closely
with a high ranking Freemason from Nova Scotia
named Captain Andrew Belshire
during his second Salvage operation of the Concepcion
and he believes that much of the treasure they recovered
was hidden on Oak Island

Laird you spent a lifetime and you’ve not found
so that that certainly is quite interesting
I can’t remember a piece of silver I found
mhm

is it possible
as Rick Leina has speculated
that the silver artifact could offer more evidence
that Scott Clark’s theory may be true
if so
might that explain
why the team has found the same man-made concrete-like material
in both the feature on lot five
and around the tunnel below the garden shaft

I think this find is invigorating
there’s no question about it
what it does say emphatically
is that the lot five feature is important
I don’t think one can dismiss the fact
that this find in the concrete from lot five
strongly hint at a connection to Phips
but also it speaks to a connection to The Money Pit

I think it only reinforces that we might be on to something
we know we have the money pit material
that was used in that foundation
they could have kept
you know
some treasure right on site before they moved it
I can’t wait to see what other finds pop up
as we dig up the rest of the feature

there you go
and so I think we’ve got a lot to do
and uh I for one
I’m going to start
you do
all right thank you both
great job
oh yeah