November 21, 2019 • 10 mins
Nothing is more powerful than the human imagination, whether its creating something new or hiding something old. Thankfully, today's tour through the Cabinet will cover both of those topics.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
is an open book, all of these amazing tales right
there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome
to the Cabinet of curiosities. What a year this week
(00:29):
has been? Is a popular saying these days. The speed
at which news and information happens tends to skew our
perception of time. Yet, no matter how much occurs, the
passage of time doesn't really change. It doesn't move faster
simply because more is happening. But Harrobert Illig didn't agree.
He didn't think that time moved differently. He thought that
(00:50):
it had been changed on purpose. Illig was born in
Bavaria in and followed the teachings of Emmanuel Velakovski. Velakovski
believe of that the Earth had been shaped by short,
but violent worldwide phenomena in a philosophy known as catastrophism.
Ilig and Velokovsky didn't describe to gradualism, the idea that small,
(01:11):
incremental changes created the world's geography. As he became more
active in the revisionist historical community, Ilig began publishing his
own theories about time. First and foremost, he believed the
Middle Ages never happened, despite the existence of numerous texts
and other artifacts from the period. The years six fourteen
(01:32):
to nine eleven a d never occurred. But if they didn't,
then where did they go? The answer is what Illig
referred to as the phantom time hypothesis, and according to him,
it's all because three world leaders conspired to dupe the public.
Holy Roman Emperor Otto the Third didn't like the idea
of his reign beginning in or as all thought at
(01:54):
the time, the year seven oh three. Instead, he joined
forces with Pope Sylvester the Second and Byzantine Emperor Constantine
the seventh to reshape the calendar so it looked like
they all ruled during that nice round number of one
thousand a d. To accomplish their task, Ilid claimed that
these three monarchs changed specific documents and even forged a
(02:15):
few of their own, conjuring up fake historical events to
reinforce the lie. One such fabrication was the Emperor Charlemagne,
whose policies had been cited as the blueprints for much
of Europe. In their version, he wasn't a real person,
but a legendary figure, practically a myth like King Arthur.
As a result of their scheme, the historical record gained
(02:36):
an extra two nineties seven years, making the current year
roughly seventeen twenty two. He reasoned that a lack of
earth shattering events during that time meant those years could
easily have been fudged by anyone with enough power and
authority to do so. I mean, they're called the Dark
Ages for a reason, right, and Ilig believed that they
were so dark they didn't even happen. But he didn't
(02:59):
stop there. He also noted that Romanesque architecture, a style
that came into prominence in Medieval Europe, appeared in Western
Europe in the tenth century, long after it was believed
the style had fallen out of favor. Finally, and perhaps
most importantly, the calendar itself had been modified to cover
up the gap. Pope Gregory discovered in fifteen eighty two
(03:20):
that the Julian calendar, which had been the dominant calendar
since forty five b C, was roughly eleven minutes too
long each year. The discrepancy amounted to an additional thirteen
days between the Roman era and fifteen eighty two. To
close the gap, Pope Gregory unveiled the Gregorian calendar, which
we still used to this day, except he didn't shorten
(03:41):
the amount of time by thirteen days like he should have.
He only skipped ten days, which accounted for the time
from forty five b c Up until twelve eighty two,
not fifteen eighty two, a three hundred year period of
time that went missing. It hasn't helped that modern historians
have discovered documents that were urged by the Roman Catholic
Church to appear as though they were written hundreds of
(04:03):
years before they actually were. The faked records were such
a huge problem in the nineteen eighties a worldwide conference
was held to address them, and all of this has
helped fuel iligs fire since he first put forth his
phantom time hypothesis in nineteen eighties six. Since then, it's
gained a small but devoted following who also believe in
its validity, even given the evidence or lack thereof supporting it,
(04:26):
although most historians and archaeologists don't really pay illigs theory
much heed. After all, for every claim he makes, there's
a reasonable explanation to refute it. For example, if Charlemagne
were just a legend, then the monarchs who invented him
would also have had to invent the history of Anglo Saxon, England,
the Byzantine Empire, and the Islamic expansion throughout the former
(04:49):
Roman Empire, a daunting feat even for three world leaders. Unbelievable, sure,
but also more than a little curious. X marks the
(05:12):
spot for words that conjure images of pirates and dotted
lines painted on flimsy fabric. Just follow those lines until
you reach a point in the sand and start digging,
because somewhere out there is a treasure chest overflowing with
gold and jewels, just waiting to be discovered. But as
books and movies have taught us, X never really marks
(05:33):
the spot. There's always a conspiracy, a set of clues
one must follow in order to find the real treasure
that isn't so much buried as it is hidden thanks
to time and obscurity. Thomas Beale captivated the world with
a story of Buried Treasure in he had led thirty
explorers from Virginia on a trek to a Spanish province
(05:54):
just north of New Mexico. Today we know it is Colorado,
but back then it was a vast tract of land
with a hidden secret. While hunting for buffalo, the men
came across a mine teeming with precious metals. Their journey
of exploration quickly turned into an eighteen month mining operation.
By the time they'd finished, they'd hauled thousands of pounds
of gold and silver out of the mine. After that,
(06:17):
bal just needed to take it back to Virginia to
bury it in a safe place, and he did just that,
making several trips back and forth across the country until
all the gold and silver was secured, all forty three
million dollars worth of it by today's estimates. Beale kept
meticulous records of his party's hall. However, he needed to
make sure the information about the treasure couldn't fall into
(06:39):
the wrong hands. In eighteen twenty two, he wrote down
three separate pieces of information the location of the treasure,
a description of what he buried, and the names of
the people who had helped him find it, as well
as their next of kin. He placed the information in
a metal box and handed it off to an innkeeper
in Lynchburg, Virginia named Robert Morris, a man he trusted
(07:00):
to keep it safe in the event Beal or one
of his men failed to come back for the box.
Within the next ten years, Morris would be allowed to
open it and claim the treasure for himself. Well twenty
three years passed and no one from the original mining
crew Beale included ever showed up to collect the box.
Morris opened it up and found three sheets of paper
(07:22):
with the information about the treasure, except for one thing.
He couldn't read any of it. Beale had encrypted everything
in a cipher text, a method of concealing information using
an algorithm called a cipher. The location, description and list
of contacts had all been obscured using three different ciphers,
and Beale had not provided a key. He'd meant to,
(07:45):
of course, months after he deposited the box with Morris,
he sent him a letter from St. Louis with word
that a friend would be mailing the key soon, but
it never arrived. Morris wasn't a codebreaker, so he held
onto the box for a while before eventually giving it
to a friend. A friend fancied himself, a cryptographer of sorts,
managed to decode the second ciphertext, the description of the treasure,
(08:08):
using the Declaration of Independence as the key. The two
remaining texts proved more difficult to solve. Rather than ask
someone else for help, he decided to crowdsource the efforts.
He published the other ciphertext in a widely distributed pamphlet
called the Bell Papers. The Bell Papers have become a
code breaking right of passage, mainly because the two unsolved
(08:29):
text remain unbroken to this day. Some people have claimed
them to be hoaxes meant to keep people guessing. That
the second text was so easily decoded is seen as
incentive to keep working on the first and the third,
But no expert nor any supercomputer has been able to
decrypt either message. They've used all manner of possible keys,
(08:50):
such as the Bible and the Constitution, but nothing has
yielded such clear results as the Declaration of Independence did
with the second text. The Bill Papers have been the
subject of countless news stories, books and documentaries over the years,
with each one proposing new theories as to whether the
ciphers are real or all just one big prank meant
(09:10):
to fool the public. But even with enough evidence, the
possibility that it's fake cannot squash the one thing keeping
the legend alive. Hope. If there is a chance that
millions of dollars in treasure is sitting in a vault
somewhere waiting to be discovered. People are going to keep
looking until they find it. Of course, if the story
(09:31):
is fake, it wouldn't be the first time an empty
vault has made national news. Just ask Al Capone. I
hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about
the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show
(09:53):
was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how
Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore,
which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and
you can learn all about it over at the World
of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.
Yeah h
Our world is full of the unexplainable, and if history
is an open book, all of these amazing tales right
there on display, just waiting for us to explore. Welcome
to the Cabinet of curiosities. What a year this week
(00:29):
has been? Is a popular saying these days. The speed
at which news and information happens tends to skew our
perception of time. Yet, no matter how much occurs, the
passage of time doesn't really change. It doesn't move faster
simply because more is happening. But Harrobert Illig didn't agree.
He didn't think that time moved differently. He thought that
(00:50):
it had been changed on purpose. Illig was born in
Bavaria in and followed the teachings of Emmanuel Velakovski. Velakovski
believe of that the Earth had been shaped by short,
but violent worldwide phenomena in a philosophy known as catastrophism.
Ilig and Velokovsky didn't describe to gradualism, the idea that small,
(01:11):
incremental changes created the world's geography. As he became more
active in the revisionist historical community, Ilig began publishing his
own theories about time. First and foremost, he believed the
Middle Ages never happened, despite the existence of numerous texts
and other artifacts from the period. The years six fourteen
(01:32):
to nine eleven a d never occurred. But if they didn't,
then where did they go? The answer is what Illig
referred to as the phantom time hypothesis, and according to him,
it's all because three world leaders conspired to dupe the public.
Holy Roman Emperor Otto the Third didn't like the idea
of his reign beginning in or as all thought at
(01:54):
the time, the year seven oh three. Instead, he joined
forces with Pope Sylvester the Second and Byzantine Emperor Constantine
the seventh to reshape the calendar so it looked like
they all ruled during that nice round number of one
thousand a d. To accomplish their task, Ilid claimed that
these three monarchs changed specific documents and even forged a
(02:15):
few of their own, conjuring up fake historical events to
reinforce the lie. One such fabrication was the Emperor Charlemagne,
whose policies had been cited as the blueprints for much
of Europe. In their version, he wasn't a real person,
but a legendary figure, practically a myth like King Arthur.
As a result of their scheme, the historical record gained
(02:36):
an extra two nineties seven years, making the current year
roughly seventeen twenty two. He reasoned that a lack of
earth shattering events during that time meant those years could
easily have been fudged by anyone with enough power and
authority to do so. I mean, they're called the Dark
Ages for a reason, right, and Ilig believed that they
were so dark they didn't even happen. But he didn't
(02:59):
stop there. He also noted that Romanesque architecture, a style
that came into prominence in Medieval Europe, appeared in Western
Europe in the tenth century, long after it was believed
the style had fallen out of favor. Finally, and perhaps
most importantly, the calendar itself had been modified to cover
up the gap. Pope Gregory discovered in fifteen eighty two
(03:20):
that the Julian calendar, which had been the dominant calendar
since forty five b C, was roughly eleven minutes too
long each year. The discrepancy amounted to an additional thirteen
days between the Roman era and fifteen eighty two. To
close the gap, Pope Gregory unveiled the Gregorian calendar, which
we still used to this day, except he didn't shorten
(03:41):
the amount of time by thirteen days like he should have.
He only skipped ten days, which accounted for the time
from forty five b c Up until twelve eighty two,
not fifteen eighty two, a three hundred year period of
time that went missing. It hasn't helped that modern historians
have discovered documents that were urged by the Roman Catholic
Church to appear as though they were written hundreds of
(04:03):
years before they actually were. The faked records were such
a huge problem in the nineteen eighties a worldwide conference
was held to address them, and all of this has
helped fuel iligs fire since he first put forth his
phantom time hypothesis in nineteen eighties six. Since then, it's
gained a small but devoted following who also believe in
its validity, even given the evidence or lack thereof supporting it,
(04:26):
although most historians and archaeologists don't really pay illigs theory
much heed. After all, for every claim he makes, there's
a reasonable explanation to refute it. For example, if Charlemagne
were just a legend, then the monarchs who invented him
would also have had to invent the history of Anglo Saxon, England,
the Byzantine Empire, and the Islamic expansion throughout the former
(04:49):
Roman Empire, a daunting feat even for three world leaders. Unbelievable, sure,
but also more than a little curious. X marks the
(05:12):
spot for words that conjure images of pirates and dotted
lines painted on flimsy fabric. Just follow those lines until
you reach a point in the sand and start digging,
because somewhere out there is a treasure chest overflowing with
gold and jewels, just waiting to be discovered. But as
books and movies have taught us, X never really marks
(05:33):
the spot. There's always a conspiracy, a set of clues
one must follow in order to find the real treasure
that isn't so much buried as it is hidden thanks
to time and obscurity. Thomas Beale captivated the world with
a story of Buried Treasure in he had led thirty
explorers from Virginia on a trek to a Spanish province
(05:54):
just north of New Mexico. Today we know it is Colorado,
but back then it was a vast tract of land
with a hidden secret. While hunting for buffalo, the men
came across a mine teeming with precious metals. Their journey
of exploration quickly turned into an eighteen month mining operation.
By the time they'd finished, they'd hauled thousands of pounds
of gold and silver out of the mine. After that,
(06:17):
bal just needed to take it back to Virginia to
bury it in a safe place, and he did just that,
making several trips back and forth across the country until
all the gold and silver was secured, all forty three
million dollars worth of it by today's estimates. Beale kept
meticulous records of his party's hall. However, he needed to
make sure the information about the treasure couldn't fall into
(06:39):
the wrong hands. In eighteen twenty two, he wrote down
three separate pieces of information the location of the treasure,
a description of what he buried, and the names of
the people who had helped him find it, as well
as their next of kin. He placed the information in
a metal box and handed it off to an innkeeper
in Lynchburg, Virginia named Robert Morris, a man he trusted
(07:00):
to keep it safe in the event Beal or one
of his men failed to come back for the box.
Within the next ten years, Morris would be allowed to
open it and claim the treasure for himself. Well twenty
three years passed and no one from the original mining
crew Beale included ever showed up to collect the box.
Morris opened it up and found three sheets of paper
(07:22):
with the information about the treasure, except for one thing.
He couldn't read any of it. Beale had encrypted everything
in a cipher text, a method of concealing information using
an algorithm called a cipher. The location, description and list
of contacts had all been obscured using three different ciphers,
and Beale had not provided a key. He'd meant to,
(07:45):
of course, months after he deposited the box with Morris,
he sent him a letter from St. Louis with word
that a friend would be mailing the key soon, but
it never arrived. Morris wasn't a codebreaker, so he held
onto the box for a while before eventually giving it
to a friend. A friend fancied himself, a cryptographer of sorts,
managed to decode the second ciphertext, the description of the treasure,
(08:08):
using the Declaration of Independence as the key. The two
remaining texts proved more difficult to solve. Rather than ask
someone else for help, he decided to crowdsource the efforts.
He published the other ciphertext in a widely distributed pamphlet
called the Bell Papers. The Bell Papers have become a
code breaking right of passage, mainly because the two unsolved
(08:29):
text remain unbroken to this day. Some people have claimed
them to be hoaxes meant to keep people guessing. That
the second text was so easily decoded is seen as
incentive to keep working on the first and the third,
But no expert nor any supercomputer has been able to
decrypt either message. They've used all manner of possible keys,
(08:50):
such as the Bible and the Constitution, but nothing has
yielded such clear results as the Declaration of Independence did
with the second text. The Bill Papers have been the
subject of countless news stories, books and documentaries over the years,
with each one proposing new theories as to whether the
ciphers are real or all just one big prank meant
(09:10):
to fool the public. But even with enough evidence, the
possibility that it's fake cannot squash the one thing keeping
the legend alive. Hope. If there is a chance that
millions of dollars in treasure is sitting in a vault
somewhere waiting to be discovered. People are going to keep
looking until they find it. Of course, if the story
(09:31):
is fake, it wouldn't be the first time an empty
vault has made national news. Just ask Al Capone. I
hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about
the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show
(09:53):
was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how
Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore,
which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and
you can learn all about it over at the World
of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.
Yeah h
Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities News
Host
Aaron Mahnke
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