About This Artifact
A piece of shaped wood recovered from approximately ten feet below sea level at the southern border of the triangle-shaped swamp during Season 8. Billy Gerhardt pulled the timber during a cross-sectional trench excavation designed to model the ancient landscape beneath the swamp. The wood was polished smooth on one surface and curved in a manner consistent with a ship's railing or gunwale, and it was found in alignment with the 200-foot galleon-shaped anomaly that seismic scanning had detected in 2018.
Carbon-14 testing dated the railing to 660 to 770 CE, making it one of the oldest artifacts ever recovered on Oak Island and placing it firmly in the early medieval period, centuries before either the Viking settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland (circa 1021 AD) or the Money Pit's discovery in 1795. Craig Tester noted the result was tested more than once to verify the date. The find was ranked ninth in the Fellowship's Top 10 Finds special that aired in October 2021.
Additional ship components were subsequently recovered from the same area across several seasons. During Season 9, a piece of shaped wood found within thirty feet of the railing returned a carbon-14 date of 224 to 376 AD, and Season 11 produced a runner-like timber that Billy Gerhardt suggested could be from the bottom of a hull, used to protect a vessel as it slid over rocks near shore. The accumulation of nautical timbers at the swamp's southern edge supported Fred Nolan's long-held theory that a large sailing vessel was deliberately sunk in what was then a sea inlet and later concealed when the swamp was artificially created.
Historical Context
Lagina team; carbon dating
Where It Was Found
Found at Southern border of swamp — the triangle-shaped swamp on Oak Island's southeastern quadrant.
