I haven't watched The Curse of Oak Island all season, but I'll probably tune in tonight. Although next week's episode is titled "Sword Play," the now-infamous sword has apparently been spotted in the advertising for this week's episode. So maybe we'll finally learn what the folks on the show think of it.
It's funny, but I'm not sure it matters much at this point what anyone appearing on The Curse of Oak Island has to say about the sword. I anticipate that the argument will go on, as Pulitzer will continue to assert the same things he's been asserting ("authenticated by an expert," "convincing XRF data," "from a shipwreck," "100 percent confirmed Roman artifact," "gold gilded," etc.), and the Sword Swallowers will continue to repeat those assertions no matter what airs. If someone comes on the show and says "probably a 19th century souvenir," how is that any different from what I've already been saying for weeks?
It's not.
Except, I think (and this is just a guess), that I actually have more data to back that up than someone would have had when the program was taped. As we all know, several other swords (both copper alloy and iron) surfaced after Pulitzer proclaimed the Nova Scotia sword to be a "100 percent confirmed" Roman artifact that would require us all to re-write our history books. Those other swords suggest the Nova Scotia sword was just one of batch of Hercules-hilted swords produced at some point in the fairly recent past. Everything I've seen so far suggests to me that both the "Roman sword from Nova Scotia" and Pulitzer's interpretation of it are not credible. I still haven't seen anything that falsifies by hypothesis about the sword, and I doubt that there will be much new on The Curse of Oak Island episode(s) dealing with the sword. We'll see. I hope none of you threw out your history books too quickly. I'm still holding on to mine.
I wrote a post yesterday calling baloney on some of Pulitzer's interpretations of the design elements on the Nova Scotia sword. The California sword, made from the same mold as the Nova Scotia sword but significantly less worn, allows us to see that what Pulitzer called a "sea shell" is really a palmette (aka an anthemion) and what Pulitzer said were "rocks" beneath Hercules' feet were actually two animals (perhaps lions). Those are inconvenient facts if his interpretation of the sword rests on it embodying some kind of nautical navigation theme. (That's probably a good guess, given what he has said about the "magical qualities" of the sword, its connection to Commodus, and other information that was present on the page selling pre-orders for Commodus's Secret before it was taken down).
I'm in the middle of producing a high quality 3D model of the California sword (and learning how to use my scanner in the process). I wanted to share some of the preliminary (i.e., unprocessed) scan data here in time for tonight's episode of The Curse of Oak Island so interested viewers could have access to images of the California sword while watching whatever interpretations are bandied around the table on the program. Whatever gets said on TV about what is actually depicted on the sword ("rocks" or "sea shells" or whatever), you'll be looking at images of a better-preserved version of the same sword and can make your own evaluations accordingly. It should be fun.
It's funny, but I'm not sure it matters much at this point what anyone appearing on The Curse of Oak Island has to say about the sword. I anticipate that the argument will go on, as Pulitzer will continue to assert the same things he's been asserting ("authenticated by an expert," "convincing XRF data," "from a shipwreck," "100 percent confirmed Roman artifact," "gold gilded," etc.), and the Sword Swallowers will continue to repeat those assertions no matter what airs. If someone comes on the show and says "probably a 19th century souvenir," how is that any different from what I've already been saying for weeks?
It's not.
Except, I think (and this is just a guess), that I actually have more data to back that up than someone would have had when the program was taped. As we all know, several other swords (both copper alloy and iron) surfaced after Pulitzer proclaimed the Nova Scotia sword to be a "100 percent confirmed" Roman artifact that would require us all to re-write our history books. Those other swords suggest the Nova Scotia sword was just one of batch of Hercules-hilted swords produced at some point in the fairly recent past. Everything I've seen so far suggests to me that both the "Roman sword from Nova Scotia" and Pulitzer's interpretation of it are not credible. I still haven't seen anything that falsifies by hypothesis about the sword, and I doubt that there will be much new on The Curse of Oak Island episode(s) dealing with the sword. We'll see. I hope none of you threw out your history books too quickly. I'm still holding on to mine.
I wrote a post yesterday calling baloney on some of Pulitzer's interpretations of the design elements on the Nova Scotia sword. The California sword, made from the same mold as the Nova Scotia sword but significantly less worn, allows us to see that what Pulitzer called a "sea shell" is really a palmette (aka an anthemion) and what Pulitzer said were "rocks" beneath Hercules' feet were actually two animals (perhaps lions). Those are inconvenient facts if his interpretation of the sword rests on it embodying some kind of nautical navigation theme. (That's probably a good guess, given what he has said about the "magical qualities" of the sword, its connection to Commodus, and other information that was present on the page selling pre-orders for Commodus's Secret before it was taken down).
I'm in the middle of producing a high quality 3D model of the California sword (and learning how to use my scanner in the process). I wanted to share some of the preliminary (i.e., unprocessed) scan data here in time for tonight's episode of The Curse of Oak Island so interested viewers could have access to images of the California sword while watching whatever interpretations are bandied around the table on the program. Whatever gets said on TV about what is actually depicted on the sword ("rocks" or "sea shells" or whatever), you'll be looking at images of a better-preserved version of the same sword and can make your own evaluations accordingly. It should be fun.
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