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Thursday Morning Swordgate Update

1/14/2016

30 Comments

 
The drama of #Swordgate has been with us for almost a month now. A lot has happened in the last twenty-four hours.  It has been difficult to keep up with, and I didn't even know if I would have the time today to write anything. But one of my kids got me up at 4:45, so I'm going for it while he watches videos of pancake art.  He's two.  Here are a few more twos. 

Two More News Stories

Two more noteworthy articles about Swordgate came out on the heels of the piece published in the Halifax Chronicle Herald yesterday morning.  

The first is a story titled "The Curse of Hoax Island" in Frank, a so-called "scandal" magazine based in Nova Scotia (unfortunately it's not accessible without a subscription).  The story delivers on the "scandal" angle, for sure, telling some of the backstory of the sword's appearance and J. Hutton Pulitzer's role in the program. Here's an interesting section:

    "When word reached Hutton that the show had been contacted by the son of an anonymous local fisherman claiming to have found an ancient weapon not far away -- only one of the dozens of bizarre tips the show receives, says [Kevin] Burns [produce of The Curse of Oak Island]-- he "went apeshit," aggressively proclaiming that it vindicated his theories that the Ancients had visited Oak Island."


The story goes on to report that the sword was purchased by the Laginas for $10,000 after an examination that took place on the hood of a car (hence the mirror-like background on the sword photo that we've all seen). The story alleges that the program's decision to wait on discussing the sword angered Pulitzer, who threatened to "expose the show's producers."  That certainly dovetails with the title of Pulitzer's promised book: Commodus's Secret: Dirty Secrets Behind History Channel's "Curse of Oak Island" and the Truth about the Lost Roman Legion, Holy Solomonic Relics and the Secret of Hercules of the North (as of now, the webpage that has offered the book on "pre-order" is still unavailable).

The Frank story repeated the assertion that there's an "original sword" in a museum in Naples, Italy. I still haven't seen any proof of that.

The other story is a new piece by Scott Hough in The Inquisitr titled "The "Magical" Oak Island Roman Sword and J. Hutton Pulitzer's, Formerly Jeffrey Jovan Philyaw, Incredible Past."  The story mentions my blog and also draws from the article in The Chronicle Herald. 

Two More Swords

Alert followers of Swordgate found two more Hercules-hilted swords for sale online yesterday, one in Spain and one in France. You can thank Pablo Raw and Matti J. for these.
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Photo of Hercules-hilted sword for sale in Spain (link in text).
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Photo of Hercules-hilted sword for sale in France (link in text).
It's hard to tell from the photos exactly what to make of these.  Is the Spain sword copper alloy, or just painted to look like it?  The France sword certainly appears to be brass/bronze.  Interesting.

How many of these things are there are out there?  Who knows. At this point I wouldn't be surprised if I found one molding in the back of the fridge somewhere (Killbuck - anything in your couch cushions? Rose McDonald - any luck in your junk drawer?).  It seems like there are enough of them that someone should be able to tell us what they are (i.e., when and where they were made).  

Two Lions

 
As I wrote briefly yesterday, James Lawrence commented that the two animals under Hercules' feet could suggest a Spanish connection. It's a potentially promising lead.  Check out of the coat of arms of Andalusia:
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That's our guy right there -- lion skin and double lions at his feet. The coat of arms was adopted in 1918. Could, as JA Sterling suggested in The Fraudulent Archaeology Wall of Shame, the brass/bronze swords be somehow related to that? Commemorative tokens perhaps? 

There are other sword leads to track down. I doubt I'll have much time to work on them today, but I wish anyone out there good luck in helping to solve this mystery. I feel like we're getting close.

How about this: $50 reward to the first person providing evidence leading to the arrest of the original generation of Hercules-hilted, copper alloy swords. I smell blood in the water.
30 Comments
Justin Demetri link
1/14/2016 04:21:32 am

I'm not a metal expert, but I do see a lot of bronze that is/was used in connection to wooden shipbuilding. I can't help but feel that after looking at all of these swords that the patina on at least some of them is "antiqued" like how some lawn furniture and outdoor decorations are.It wouldn't surprise me if a patina like coating is sprayed on the swords and then some of them are "scuffed up" to make them look like real antiques.

I contacted the "Nazionale" museum in Napoli about the sword. If they get back to me I will post it here.

Reply
James Lawrence
1/14/2016 05:05:08 am

I contacted the museum as well through their Facebook page and received a reply yesterday morning redirecting me to another email address for my questions. I sent into to that address yesterday afternoon and will let you know if I hear anything as well.

Reply
Joel Gregory
1/14/2016 06:16:40 am

Yep.

Reply
Greg Little
1/14/2016 04:35:40 am

Apologies if this has already been posted here: https://fuffologia.wordpress.com/2015/12/21/spada-romana-a-oak-island-su-ebay/

Reply
Andy White
1/14/2016 07:15:13 am

Thanks Greg - hadn't seen that. It looks like it's dated (12/21) a few days after the revelations about the Italian eBay sword hit here (12/18).

I'm hoping to get an up close and personal look at it soon.

Reply
Kong
1/14/2016 06:42:56 am


have you read his answer to the criticism ;)

https://medium.com/@InvestigatingHistory.org/attempt-to-hatchet-the-head-off-history-heresy-9ffcbcf0991a#.1vhdi15nd

Reply
Andy White
1/14/2016 07:20:23 am

I see I've been give a new title. Burn.

Reply
Holly McFad
1/14/2016 06:48:51 am

Just a little patina 101. I just wonder if there will be a bigger demand on these "roman swords" now. Perhaps I should get in on buting one before the stock goes up!
http://www.swordforum.com/forums/showthread.php?44050-Patina-101

Reply
Andy White
1/14/2016 07:20:51 am

Thanks, Holly - that's useful.

Reply
Mike Jones
1/14/2016 07:01:06 am

It's interesting that he has an internet radio show "viewed by over 13 million". There is nothing more fascinating than looking at a radio show.

Reply
Peter Geuzen
1/14/2016 07:18:42 am

The viewer numbers are BS. Soundcloud is the easiest and cheapest site to BUY views using bots. Type "how to buy soundcloud plays" into Google and read away.

There's no way he has millions on soundcloud while having only thousands or hundreds on Youtube videos. Some of the Youtube views are bought as well. Note the spikes last July:

http://socialblade.com/youtube/user/treasureforce/monthly

Reply
Peter Geuzen
1/14/2016 07:21:11 am

As a follow up - the giveaway on soundcloud is despite hundreds of thousands or a million listens to individual posts, notice that there are zero comments.

Mike Jones
1/14/2016 07:08:37 am

Andy, Did you ever get an email from Professor "Not My Real Name" PhD.? I mean, "Jim Stella"?

Reply
Andy White
1/14/2016 07:22:23 am

Shockingly . . . no. I need to go and read his last comment. As I said, I'm not going to debate with a nameless ghost. If he's really an "academic" and wants to defend the sword story, I'd love to hear it.

Reply
Fat Cheeky Fraud
1/14/2016 03:44:57 pm

I bet all the money buried on Oak Island that Jim Stella is Hutton Pulitzer.

Andy White
1/14/2016 05:29:36 pm

I'm not sure that's a very big wager.

Peter Geuzen
1/14/2016 09:32:28 am

@Trevor Furlotte - Trevor, JHP stated in his video from last night that your Italian eBay sword is stone cast with fake patina paint. Can you set the record straight?

Reply
Michael
1/14/2016 09:53:15 am


This may or may not be helpful, but I searched a little bit about the backstory behind Hercules with the lions fur since it appears to be a pretty common image of Hercules. I stumbled across this website: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Herakles/lion.html

It seems that the story goes that Hercules killed the lion and then returned to the gates of Mycenae. Interestingly, these gates are decorated with two lions that are mirror images of each other like in the sword.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_depictions_of_lions#/media/File:Mycenae_lion_gate_detail_dsc06384.jpg
http://www.ancient.eu/image/136/

Reply
Joe Scales
1/14/2016 11:02:49 am

If any good can be said to be coming out of this fiasco, it's that actual news outlets are grasping the true fraud of it all, and the hoax that is treasure on Oak Island is coming to light.

Reply
Peter Geuzen
1/14/2016 12:39:28 pm

New composite hilt comparison, including the two newest finds:

http://imgur.com/5ThesuM

click on it to make it bigger and right click>save as to save an even bigger copy

On another note, JHP completely changed his story as to where the alleged Oak Island Sword was found, in his video last night. He claimed it was dragged off of one of the alleged burial mounds he thinks are out there. No mention of the 'confirmed' Roman ship wreck.

Reply
Andy White
1/14/2016 01:02:22 pm

New post up - thanks!

http://www.andywhiteanthropology.com/blog/a-new-hilt-to-hilt-to-hilt-to-hilt-to-hilt-to-hilt-to-hilt-comparison-of-the-hercules-hilted-swords

Reply
ghettohillbilly1 link
1/14/2016 03:23:13 pm

So glad to see some people with some real knowledge see through this conman jhp i found him while watching youtube vids on oak island (which I live across the bay from) and about 10 mins in i realized his statements were just complete BS, he said that mahone bay has the same tides as the bay of fundy and thats completely false and the BS meter just rose, his stories always change, he almost always answers questions with questions and his arguement about him having NO HISTORICAL CREDENTIALS yesterday in the Herald was too funny, just because hes wrote all these book, repeat in all the letters and then wtf does having patents and cell phone devices even have to do with history? I figured it out everyone JHP IS the Curse of Oak Island!

Reply
Killbuck
1/14/2016 03:51:50 pm

Andy, sorry, no sword under my couch cushions. But, I found the Spear of Destiny in my glove compartment. But this is about swords, so I'll save that for later.

Reply
Jay Kahlil
1/14/2016 06:37:55 pm

I'm not familiar with the institutions or how many museums in Naples could potentially own the sword, but has anyone tried contacting the curators of some of the biggest ones in Naples and asked about the sword? It's not that big of a city and there can't be that many museums, right?

Even if you couldn't get lucky by calling up/emailing the most prominent to see if they have the sword, doesn't the academic community share info like this when asked? Seems like it might be worth asking around... Unless it'd be like finding a needle in a haystack, if the original sword is cataloged in some archive and not on display. But if that's the case and we can't find it, it makes me wonder how Pulitzer could...

Reply
Pablo
1/15/2016 06:32:04 am

There is specific information on which exact Museum the supposed original sword can be found (I think it's Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli)

Reply
Mike Morgan
1/15/2016 08:56:45 pm

Could you please point us toward the site that gave the information about the "exact Museum the supposed original sword can be found"?

No one has been able to track the museum down and no one has pointed to place where Pulizer has supplied this information yet.

Pablo
1/16/2016 07:23:24 am

I apologize, there are too many swords! but I know I read it somewhere in the info that was found with one of them. I'll come back and post it if I find it again.

Pablo
1/16/2016 07:29:16 am

But in the case of that museum (Museo Archeologico Nazionale), apparently they have an online gallery of images no similar sword is found there.

Andy White
1/16/2016 08:08:30 am

Pulitzer has said repeatedly now that there is a "match" to the Nova Scotia sword in the "Naples Museum." I don't know that he's put it in writing, but he's said it in various audio/video performances.

Scott Williams
2/1/2016 09:56:04 am

I'm sure someone has already said this, but $10,000?!? For something with no provenience? Can someone please let the show's producers know that I also have genuine Roman artifacts from North America, plus a few Atlantean and Egyptian ones, that I'd be happy to sell to them, and I know their genuine because my deceased uncle's best friend's cousin (twice-removed) found them.

Reply



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