The history of North America may require a radical rewrite this week following a series of staggering archaeological evaluations at St. Mary’s University and the Oak Island Research Center. Brothers Rick and Marty Lagina, leaders of the decade-long treasure hunt on Nova Scotia’s most mysterious island, have unveiled artifacts that suggest an ancient Roman presence in the North Atlantic nearly two millennia ago.
The “Hercules” Blade
The week began with a high-stakes visit to the lab of Professor Myles McCallum, an expert in Roman archaeology. The team presented a bronze sword, reportedly recovered from the waters off the Oak Island coast, featuring a hilt fashioned in the likeness of the demigod Hercules.
While the discovery of a second-century Roman gladius in Canadian waters seems an impossibility to traditional historians, the team noted that Carthaginian coins have previously been recovered in the region. However, Professor McCallum offered a measured perspective. Upon inspecting the blade, he identified a “bivalve mold” line, suggesting the sword was a decorative work of art rather than a functional weapon.
“I’m highly skeptical that it’s actually ancient,” McCallum admitted, suggesting it could be an 18th- or 19th-century reproduction. Nevertheless, Rick Lagina remained undeterred, noting that even a 300-year-old copy found in the Atlantic would hold “profound significance” for the island’s timeline.
The Lot Five Breakthrough
The skepticism surrounding the sword was quickly countered by a far more scientifically rigorous find on the island’s “Lot Five.” Numismatist Sandy Campbell and archaeometallurgist Emma Culligan conducted an X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis on a cut copper coin recently unearthed by the team.
The results were described as “unbelievable.” The coin’s composition—high in unrefined copper, lead, and silver with a 0.51% arsenic signature—points to a pre-1500 manufacturing date. Based on the “Roman-style characters” and the “tree and figure” design, Campbell dated the artifact between 300 BC and 500 AD.
“My gut is that this is Roman,” Campbell stated. “The style is definitely from that period.” The discovery marks one of the few instances of a Roman-era coin being recovered in a documented archaeological context on the East Coast.
The 1400s “High-Prestige” Horseshoe
The Roman connection gained further traction in the triangle-shaped swamp, where Rick Lagina and metal detection expert Gary Drayton recovered a remarkably well-preserved horseshoe from a stone ramp.
Blacksmithing expert Carmen Legge, after examining the artifact, identified it as a “high-prestige” shoe meant for a riding or cavalry horse—not a draft animal used for farming. “This is the oldest horseshoe I’ve seen so far,” Legge remarked. “I would go back to the 1400s.”
This dating is historically explosive, as there are no recorded instances of horses in Nova Scotia until 1670. The presence of a 15th-century riding horse suggests an organized, high-status expedition reached the island centuries before official European colonization.
Connecting the Dots to Portugal
The team is now investigating whether these Roman and medieval artifacts were brought to the island by the Knights Templar. During a research mission to Portugal last year, the Laginas documented 2,000-year-old Roman roads that are “identical” in construction to the stone roadway currently being unearthed in the Oak Island swamp.
“If this is from the 1400s, we have rewritten history,” said Billy Gerhardt. As the team returns to “Lot Five” and the swamp, the search is no longer just for gold, but for the identity of the ancient mariners who left their empires behind in the mud of Nova Scotia.
