Introduction Classic History Mysteries
Introduction classical history mysteries
This chapter provides a plausibility check of the classical history mysteries and treasure tales.
During my search activities I gained much experience to find items using on written sources. Items that shed light on historical events and proved that these events actually did take place. The same technique applies if one tries to find the “big” treasures or prove mythical events. Whether you look for World War 2 relics or a pirate’s treasure or want to prove the bible’s deluge did take place , in all cases you need to find material evidence.
Each searcher for historical evidence gets into the habit of performing a thorough plausibility check of every new piece of information he comes across. This is indispensable since searchers are acting in a field where many oral and written statements are wrong. 99% of the treasure tales are considered just gossip.
A plausibility check is an attempt to debunk a story or to destroy a myth. However, man does like to dream, does like myths and great stories. This is even more true for searchers who are usually very romantic. So many searchers are temptated not to check a story as thoroughly as they could. From a searchers or explorers point of view debunking is a vital quality assuring measure and often it is not performed in a sufficient matter. For them, not to check a story critically is the key to failure.
From an hype author’s point of view the opposite is true. He needs a great story to sell his books. So when he learns during research that the story is not as great as it has seemed in the beginning he will usually stop researching or ignore the results – and start writing the story. More on this in the chapter about hype authors.
In both the treasure and the mystery literature it can be observed that no or just a superficial check of the underlying story is made. The same is true for many discussions on internet forums. Most remarkably, it is even true for costly search expeditions financed by real world businessmen. It seems even they are romantic at heart.
These observations were the reason for me to write this chapter, to provide a plausibility check from a searchers point of view, and try to tell fact from fiction.
Usually my comment is preceded by some lines describing the story. However, there is so much literature on these mysteries that it will be assumed that the story is known. There is no need to give a 1354. account of, say, the Oak Island story here. The interested reader can find more material easily on the net or in literature.
(C) Thorsten Straub www.metal-detecting.de 2006-2019.