Top Ten Lost Treasures- (Part 1)

THE AMBER ROOM

The original treasure room was a set of extraordinary wall panels made from purest amber, set in and on gold and mirrors.  These panels were installed to create a room that was effectively coated with amber and gold.  It was designed by Andreas Schlüter an architect from Hamburg, Germany and constructed at the Charlottenburg Palace in Prussia,  between 1701 and 1709 by the renowned amber specialist Gottfried Wolfram of the Royal Court of Denmark. In 1716 the King of Prussia, Friedrich Wilhelm I, gave it to the ruler of the Russian Empire, Tsar Peter the Great to seal an alliance against Sweden. It was taken first to the original Winter Palace in St. Petersburg and then later moved to the Catherine Palace near the same city where it was expanded by a team of German and Russian craftsmen.  On completion it used 5,440 kg of Amber and was 17 meters in length. Considered to be unique and priceless it was the central showpiece of the palace and famous in aristocratic circles. In 1941 it was discovered by invading German soldiers and dismantled.  Apparently it was packed into 27 crates and shipped to  Königsberg, near the Baltic Coast, where it was put on display.  In 1943 it was stored at Königsberg Castle.  Officially it was destroyed in an WWII Allied bombing raid but significant evidence suggests that it was actually shipped out of the city in the latter months of the war and taken to be hidden along with many other treasures acquired by the Nazi regime. Priceless, it is considered one of the world’s greatest lost treasures.

Oak Island money pit

The mysterious designers of the pit dug a 500 foot waterway that went from the pit to the ocean at Smith’s Cove. This extremely clever trick is designed to keep everyone from getting too close to the treasure if there really is one. The inscribed stone at ninety feet acted as a stopper for the waterway. After pulling it out, water began to fill in from the sea. Bailing out the water would not work, for as soon as water was bailed out, the sea filled it back up. Digging was no longer an option.
Another company was founded for the dig, the Truro Company, and the hunt for treasure resumed in 1849. They dug down to 86 feet, but could not go any further because of the water. They decided to begin drilling for core samples to attempt to discover what the treasure was. Drilling turned out to be a smart choice, and several things were discovered because of it.
Drilling Results
At ninety-eight feet, the drill came upon a layer of spruce wood. Following the spruce wood was four inches of oak and then several pieces of metal occupying twenty two inches. Then eight more inches of oak and another twenty two inches of metal. The metal was thought to be coins contained in chests. When the drill was pulled up oak splinters and cocunut husk strands came with it. During another drilling operation, three gold links believed to be part of a chain were pulled up. This, along with several other items, led people to thinking that there really is treasure hidden at the bottom of this pit.
Although the first attempt failed, the Truro Company wished to dig another parrallel hole and connect it over to the Money Pit with a tunnel. Similar to the first time, water rushed in. A futile pumping attempt was again tried to get rid of the water. But during the attempted pumping, a worker noticed water was coming out of the beach. That’s impossible! Or is the beach man made?
The Artificial Beach
It was discovered that the designers of this pit had created a 145 foot drainage system across the beach that looked like the fingers on one’s hand. Each “finger” was dug into the clay that was below the artificial beach, acting as a filtering system. Lined with rocks and filled with beach rocks, eel grass, and coconut fiber, water could flow through these channels without mineral deposits or sand. The channels eventually meet at a point where they deposit sea water into another channel that connects to the Money Pit. It was discovered that this channel meets the Money Pit between 95 and 110 feet below the surface.
Having discovered this, the Truro Company thought that they could easily block the water with a dam. Accordingly, they would then be able to pump out the water and continuing digging until the treasure was reached. However, the dam was broken up by a storm before they were able to finish constructing it.
Their next plan was to dig a pit further inland, hoping it would cross the water tunnel, making it easy to block off the water. This operation failed as well, and the Truro Company stopped their investigations into the mystery of Oak Island.
Collapse of the Pit
Oak Island Association began their search for the treasure in 1861. They easily cleared the first 88 feet of the pit. Following that, they created a new hole that ran east. The idea of this was to hopefully run into the channel that came from the ocean. But after 120 feet without meeting the channel, the idea was given up.
Then a new shaft was dug, but this time to the east. It was dug 118 feet, then tunneled over to the Money Pit. Again, water filled in and began rising in the new pit. Knowing it was probably useless, they made an attempt to bail out the water. Despite their thoughts, the bailing seemed to have worked. But then everyone heard a loud CRASH! The bottom had fallen out, water was quickly rushing into the shafts, and the bottom of the Money Pit had dropped. It left people wondering why, how, and how far did it drop?
The Money Pit fell over 15 feet, but no one knows exactly how far. Many different companies tried to uncover the answers to the mystery that was quickly becoming more and more complex. Despite digging more pits, filling the drain on the beach, more drilling, and building a new dam, no answers were reached.
The Cave-in Pit
Fred Blair and The Oak Island Treasure Company began their attempts at cracking this mystery in 1893. First thing they did was look into the “Cave-in Pit”, a shaft discovered 350 feet east of the Money Pit in 1878. The Cave-in Pit is thought to be a shaft used by whoever created the Money Pit as an air ventilation shaft. The ventilation shaft might have been used while they were digging the flood tunnel. The flood tunnel and the ventilation shaft either crossed at some point or nearly missed each other since the Cave-in Pit began to flood while the Oak Island Treasure Company was clearing it out.
In the course of the next few years, the Oak Island Treasure Company tried many times to unravel more of this mystery. They hardly got anywhere except for that in 1897, the Money Pit was cleared to 111 feet. They could see the entrance of the flood tunnel. Although the water flow was stopped by rocks, the water pressure soon pushed aside the rocks and resumed filling the pit.
Following that, the company decide to blow up the flood tunnel with dynamite. They hoped that it would stop the water flow from Smith’s Cove. Placed in holes, five charges were set off. However, they had no effect and the water continued to flood into the Money Pit in the same manner as before.
The Cement Vault
Wood and iron were found at 126 feet. The two materials are most likely laying in a strange arrangement because of the collapse of the pit. This is confirmed because wood was reached on other drillings at 122 feet and iron was not touched at all. Between 130 and 151 and 160 and 171 feet, a blue clay mixture was reached that was composed of clay, sand, and water. This is probably the same material that was found at 50 feet.
But the significant discovery was found between the two layers of clay. A cement vault seven feet high with 7 inch thick walls was found. Wood was directly under the cement at the top, then nothing for several inches, and then an unkown substance. Following the unknown substane was soft metal, about 3 feet of metal pieces, and more soft metal.
The mystery became more intricate as the drill was brought back up. A small piece of parchment paper was found attached to the drill. We are unsure what it says or what the parchment is part of, but we know that the letters are either “vi”, “ui”, or “wi”.
The Second Flood Tunnel
In 1899, it was discovered that there was a second flood tunnel, this time coming from South Shore Cove. Many thought that because of the added work to secure tunnel, there must be something valuable down there.
This discovery didn’t help to get closer to the treasure, but was important nonetheless. Between 1930 and 1936, several more attempts were made to reach the treasure. However, no ground was gained.
The Stone Fragment
In 1936, Gilbert Hadden and Fred Blair made discoveries on Oak Island, but not in the Money Pit. In a different shaft, a stone fragment was found. The symbols on it looked very similar to the stone that was found in the Money Pit at ninety feet. The second discovery was quite a few old timbers found at Smith’s Cove. The wood must have been from the original designers since they were joined together not with metal, but with wooden pins.
The First Fatalities
In 1959, Bob Restall and his family decided it was their turn to give it a shot. Attempting to stop the water at Smith’s Cove, he found a stone that had the year “1704″ inscribed on it.
In 1965, Bob fainted while excavating a shaft and fell to the bottom into the water. His son and two others workers when down to rescue him, but fainted as well. They were all hit by some gas, possibly carbon monoxide, passed out and then drowned. These were the first four lives taken by this intriguing mystery.
Heavy Machinery
Bob Dunfield gave this mystery a try in 1965. With the help of several bulldozers and cranes, he tried to block the water flow at Smith’s Cove. Then at the south side of the island, they dug a trench to try to intercept and block the water tunnel. Although the flood tunnel was not found, an unknown shaft that had been refilled with dirt was discovered. This shaft may have been dug by the original designers of the Money Pit, and for an unknown reason goes down only 45 feet before stopping.
Dunfield also made several drilling operations. At 140 feet, two feet of limestone was found followed by a forty foot void. After the void was a layer of bedrock, matching the information gathered from a drilling in 1955. Apparently, there is a big, natural underground cavern that has something in common with limestone all around the world.
More Recent Discoveries
Daniel Blankenship began his search for the treasure in 1965. In 1996, he excavated more of the shaft Dunfield found in 1965 and discovered that it actually went further than 45 feet. At 60 feet he found a hand-wrought nail and washer. At 90 feet he came across rocks sitting in stagnant water. However, he couldn’t explore the shaft any more because of constant cave-ins that could not be prevented.
In 1967, wrought-iron scissors were found at Smith’s Cove as well as a stone in the shape of a heart.
Blankenship formed the Triton Alliance to continue his search. Triton found the remains of what might have been the cofferdam of the origanal builders. Found were numerous logs that measured about 2 feet thick and 65 feet long. Every four feet, they were carved with Roman numerals. This wood has been dated back to 250 years ago. Two wooden structures and a pair of leather shoes were found at the western end of the island.
Borehole 10-X
In 1967, Triton dug a 237 foot tube of steel that had sunk 180 feet northeast of the Money Pit. Many artificial cavities were found at 230 feet. A camera was lowered down into one of these cavities and came back with some ghastly images. A severed hand could be seen in the water. Then three chests and different tools could be seen. Following the tools was a human body.
Triton decided to send down divers to look, but the strong water currents and poor lighting and visibility rendered it impossible to see anything. Soon after that, the hole collapsed and was not reopened.
Today’s Quest
Daniel Blankenship and the Triton Company are still attempting to get to the bottom of this mystery and find whatever treasure may lie at the bottom of the Oak Island Money Pit.

The Copper Scroll

 

In the years that followed, archaeologists found eleven caves and more than 900 documents here at Qumran. But one scroll was different from all the rest.
Instead of leather or parchment, it was made entirely of copper, and it could be the greatest treasure map in history.
The Copper Scroll describes a hidden cache of gold and silver buried in more than 60 locations throughout Israel.
The monetary value is close to $3 billion, but the historical value – is priceless.
The only place in ancient Israel with that much wealth was the Jewish Temple.
Stephen Pfann is one of the editors of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
“This is a tremendous witness to history. To actually have a list of treasures from the temple itself from the first century is just amazing. We have nothing better than the Copper Scroll now for telling us what was really there,” Pfann, one of the editors of the Dead Sea Scrolls said.
Pfann took CBN News’ Chris Mitchell up to cave number 3 at Qumra, where the Copper Scroll was hidden for nearly 2,000 years.
“You can actually see the place where the Copper Scroll was found,” Pfann said.
The Purpose of the Scroll
“Well, the copper scroll had to be written just immediately before the destruction of the temple,” Pfann explained.
“It actually fits the glove perfectly for these people known as the Zealots, who were the priestly group, who were holding down the temple, who were keeping it from the Romans in the best way possible. Before they were massacred, they left things behind in caves here in Qumran,” he said
Some of their hiding places are easy to find on a modern map like Jericho, the Valley of Achor, and Mount Gerizim.
Others are more cryptic like “Solomon’s Canal,” which contains a stash of silver coins, a well in Milham where garments for the high priest were hidden, or Matia’s Courtyard, where more than 600 gold and silver temple vessels were buried.
“The instruction on the scroll is like a kids’ treasure map in a way; They’re talking about caves, they’re talking about tombs, they’re talking about aqueducts and pools that were known to them at the time – probably with aliases of names applied to these places so that only those people who are part of the inner circle would know where to go, how many steps to go away and where to find the temple treasure that was buried in that spot.” Pfann said.
The scroll’s language is a mystery in itself.
Some passages use a style of Hebrew that’s 800 years older than the scroll itself. Adding to the puzzle is a series of random Greek letters.
Pfann said, “It kind of freezes in time the language to around 70 AD to what the Hebrew language looked like among the common people of that time.
The Fate of the Lost Treasure
Pfann says anyone looking for it today is about 2,000 years too late.
“In my mind, most if not all of these were actually found by the Romans under the point of the sword … And we do know that Titus used the booty to build the Colosseum in Rome. It says so on the Colosseum. You can actually see the impression of the letters, ‘this was built with the booty,’” Pfann said.
“If there’s any treasure left, there would have been small parts that might not have been found that still lie out there ready for people to find today. We don’t know,” he said.
The scroll’s last line hints at an even greater treasure, “In a dry well at Kohlit… a copy of this document with its explanation…and an inventory of each and every thing.”
“What’s interesting is that there were actually two treasure maps that were made,” Pfann said.
“Line 64 of the copper scroll is the most fascinating of all – hard to decode but quite compelling,” said author Joel Rosenberg.

Peking man fossils

Iconic ancient human fossils from China are 200,000 years older than had previously been thought, a study shows.

The new dating analysis suggests the “Peking Man” fossils, unearthed in the caves of Zhoukoudian are some 750,000 years old.

The discovery should help define a more accurate timeline for early humans arriving in North-East Asia.

A US-Chinese team of researchers has published its findings in the prestigious journal Nature.

The cave system of Zhoukoudian, near Beijing, is one of the most important Palaeolithic sites in the world.

Between 1921 and 1966, archaeologists working at the site unearthed tens of thousands of stone tools and hundreds of fragmentary remains from about 40 early humans.

Palaeontologists later assigned these members of the human lineage to the species Homo erectus.

The pre-war Peking Man fossils vanished in 1941 whilst being transported to the US for safekeeping. Luckily, the palaeontologist Franz Weidenreich had made casts for researchers to study.

Experts have tried various methods over the years to determine the age of the remains. But they have been hampered by the lack of suitable techniques for dating cave deposits such as those at Zhoukoudian.

Open habitats

Now, Guanjun Shen, from Nanjing Normal University in China, and colleagues have applied a relatively new method to the problem.

This method is based on the radioactive decay of unstable forms, or isotopes, of the elements aluminium and beryllium in quartz grains. This enabled them to get a more precise age for the fossils.

The results show the Peking Man fossils came from ground layers that were 680,000-780,000 years old, making them about 200,000 years older than had previously been believed.

Comparisons with other sites show that Homo erectus survived successive warm and cold periods in northern Asia.

Researchers Russell Ciochon and E Arthur Bettis III, from the University of Iowa, US, believe these climatic cycles may have caused the expansion of open habitats, such as grasslands and steppe. These environments would have been rich in mammals that could have been hunted or scavenged by early humans.

Recent revised dates for other hominid occupation sites in North-East Asia show that human habitation of the region began about 1.3 million years ago. The Nature study forms an important addition to this work.

The Peking Man fossils are a vital component of the Out of Africa 1 migration theory, which proposes that Homo erectus first appeared in Africa around two million years ago before spreading north and east (modern humans, Homo sapiens, would follow much later and supplant all other Homo species).

Evidence of the first dispersal comes from the site of Dmanisi in Georgia, where numerous hominid fossils dating to 1.75 million years ago have been unearthed. Finds from Java suggest early humans reached South-East Asia by 1.6 million years ago.

 The northern populations represented at Zhoukoudian were probably separated from southern populations represented on the island of Java by a zone of sub-tropical forest inhabited by the giant panda, orangutans, gibbons and a giant ape called Gigantopithecus.

These early humans may have survived in island South-East Asia until 50,000 years ago.

Recent discoveries suggest that on the Indonesian island of Flores, Homo erectus, or another early human species, became isolated and evolved into a dwarf species called Homo floresiensis, nicknamed “The Hobbit”.

It is not clear whether H. erectus ever reached Europe; the earliest European fossils have been assigned to the species Homo antecessor. But this classification is disputed, and some researchers believe the Spanish antecessor fossils do indeed belong with H. erectus.

The Mystery of the Missing Kruger Millions

 Some say that it (or part of it) was buried in the Lowveld area, whilst others claim that a substantial amount of it was taken with President Kruger when he fled to Europe towards the end of 1900. What is known is that on the 4th of June 1900, President Kruger and his closest associates began preparations to leave the country. They left Pretoria by train and headed for Machadodorp in the Lowveld. Here they set up offices and apartments in the train carriages and remained there until the time came for them to cross the border to Mozambique and leave for Europe from there. Legend has it though that the train also carried a large freight of gold coins and bars and the story gained credibility a few days later when Lord Milner discovered that a huge amount of money had been removed from the SA mint and National Bank. The final tally revealed that over 1.5 million pounds was unaccounted for when Milner took control of the Republic.  In fact, after further investigation it became clear that President Kruger’s government had started taking possession of gold from the banks and mines a few months before the war had even started, as a preventative measure to ensure it didn’t land up in enemy hands.
In 1905, 5 years after this happened; a man came forward and claimed that he was hired, along with two other men,by the ZAR government to bury gold, coins and diamonds to the value of 2 million pounds. John Holtzhausen made this declaration while he was imprisoned on an unrelated charge and stated that he was actually on his way to the treasure when he was arrested (for stealing a horse and carriage). Unfortunately, the other two men involved (Pretorius and Swartz) had since been killed and ultimately he was the only living person able to refute this remarkable story. Of course, he disappeared without disclosing any further details of the treasure except that it was ‘buried 50 miles north of the Blyde River and north of Leydsdorp.’
Whilst history has since disproved the existence of the Kruger Millions, there are still many hopefuls who believe that this treasure of gold and rare coins remains buried on South African soil. To add fuel to the speculation, there are news stories such as these that lead historians and treasure hunters to believe that the hoard does exist and may one day be discovered. Some say that if found, it could become one of the most significant discoveries in the world. After all, 2 million pounds in 1900 is estimated to be worth over $250,000,000.00 today. Although some say that the original amount stashed is largely exaggerated, the fact remains that any gold bars and rare South African coins in that hoard would be incredibly valuable in today’s market, not forgetting the major historical significance surrounding them.

Unfortunately, we may never discover the true history of the missing Kruger millions, or if they are in fact still somewhere in South Africa. What we do know is that the possibility of discovering a treasure that exceeds your wildest dreams is enough to keep the faithful positive that it does indeed exist.