Roger Fortin confirms that the Geofoam has worked and Dumas has regained control of the water, allowing the Garden Shaft deepening to resume. Borehole I.25-6.25, positioned 5 feet southwest of H8, targets the zone where the H8 plug and possibly the Chappell Vault were displaced during the 2017 caisson operation. Last week the team hit a void at 183 feet while drilling K6 and believes it could be the same space where the H8 caisson made contact with the vault. A core at 88 feet contains wood that Charles suspects came from the Chappell Shaft, the 12-by-14-foot shaft constructed in 1931 that reached a depth of 163 feet. Mike recovers a piece of steel from the top of the core that resembles the skinny drill pipes used in the 1890s.
In the swamp, Jack pulls a notched piece of wood from below the swamp bottom that Rick identifies as doweled construction similar to the U-shaped structure the team found in 2018. The piece will be dated and work continues. Rick and Jack then discover a large timber buried in mud beneath the cobblestone near the edge of the stone road. When Marty and Craig arrive, Rick shows them what he believes is the road's edge: two logs fitted together with brush and smaller logs underneath, apparently serving as foundation before the road was deliberately concealed. Gary reports finding artifacts and chains in the area, and Billy will continue digging.
On Lot 5, Jamie tells Alex that the feature she initially thought was a wall extends much further, with rocks going well past it, indicating a structure too large for a single family to have built. Fiona recovers a flat piece with three rivets that appears to be decorative hardware from a trunk or chest lid. In the lab, Carmen examines copper fragments from the sifting box and identifies a rounded, tapered piece with a pattern as coming from a small jewelry chest. Iron pieces appear to be box straps rather than barrel components. Emma's XRF shows lead sitting atop one iron piece, a characteristic she says is common in English iron from the 1600s to early 1700s. Alex notes these dates align with the Phips theory that Scott Clarke presented to the team.
Deeper cores from borehole I.25-6.25 tell a story of their own. At 180 to 190 feet, the sample produces slush and loose material representing a void, along with wood fibers. The final core at 210 feet hits bedrock. Back on Lot 5, Moya finds a second Venetian glass bead matching the first, a type that could date to as early as the 15th century and was used for both decoration and currency. Lindy then discovers what appears to be a copper coin without a milled edge. Milled edges were introduced in the late 17th century by Sir Isaac Newton at the Royal Mint to prevent counterfeiting. Alex spots a possible pattern along the edge and says the CT scan will reveal any design details. In the swamp, Marty, Gary, and Billy find more boulders in a line that could be part of the stone road, along with barrel staves and a possible tool handle among the wood fragments.
