600 barrels of loot found on Crusoe island

[Story]

G'day - longtime lurker, firsttime poster. Ten thousand pardons if this story has been posted elsewhere, but for general edification:

600 barrels of loot found on Crusoe island

Jonathan Franklin in Santiago

Monday September 26, 2005

The Guardian

The archipelago is named after Robinson Crusoe, but perhaps it should have been called Treasure Island.

A long quest for booty from the Spanish colonial era appears to be culminating in Chile with the announcement by a group of adventurers that they have found an estimated 600 barrels of gold coins and Incan jewels on the remote Pacific island.

"The biggest treasure in history has been located," said Fernando Uribe-Etxeverria, a lawyer for Wagner, the Chilean company leading the search. Mr Uribe-Etxeverria estimated the value of the buried treasure at US$10bn (£5.6bn).

Article continues

The announcement set off ownership claims. The treasure hunters claimed half the loot was theirs and said they would donate it to non-profit-making organisations. The government said that they had no share to donate.

It also prompted speculation about the contents of what is considered to be one of the great lost treasures from the Spanish looting of South America. Chilean newspapers were filled with reports that the stash includes 10 papal rings and original gold statues from the Incan empire.

The hoard is supposedly buried 15 metres (50ft) deep on Robinson Crusoe island, also known as the Juan Fernández island, home to Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk, the adventurer immortalised by Daniel Defoe as Robinson Crusoe. Selkirk was dumped on the island and lived alone for four years before being rescued. His exploits brought worldwide attention to the islands.

For centuries treasure hunters have scoured the island in search of booty which was reportedly buried there in 1715 by Spanish sailor Juan Esteban Ubilla y Echeverria. Using everything from old Spanish ship manifests to teams of islanders with shovels and picks, foreigners have made so many claims of discovering the lost treasure that islanders are usually sceptical of the proclamations.

This most recent announcement, however, deserves greater credence because of the equipment used by the treasure hunters: a mini robot that can scan 50 metres deep into the earth. The robot, dubbed "Arturito", was invented by Chileans and over the past year has grabbed headlines by breaking some of the country's biggest criminal mysteries.

First, the robot detected the buried arsenal of a rightwing sect known as Colonia Dignidad. The guns and rocket launchers were buried at some 10 metres and while the authorities had searched for years, the robot found the buried weapons almost instantly. Then, in the case of missing businessman Jose Yuraszeck, Arturito was able to analyse the soil and identify the molecular composition of human bones, allowing investigators to dig straight to the body of the murder victim.

[JoshuaRed]

IF this is true...I'm stunned beyond words. Incredible. Just incredible. 200 Freakin' barrels!!! Here's hoping it's not a hoax of some kind.

And if this robot works so well, they should get it up to Oak Island, post haste!

[MadMike]

The story is in the Santiago Times, haven't heard anything in the major news networks yet.

Will be interesting history if it's true (or even partially so).

Yours, &C.

Mike

[Story]

IF this is true...I'm stunned beyond words. Incredible. Just incredible. 200 Freakin' barrels!!! Here's hoping it's not a hoax of some kind.

And if this robot works so well, they should get it up to Oak Island, post haste!

200?

Article sez 600.

Remind me to 'evenly split' loot with you.

More proof -

Robot claims 'treasure island' booty

* 18:22 26 September 2005

* NewScientist.com news service

* Will Knight

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8054

A robotic treasure hunter has laid claim to the find of the century, on the very archipelago that inspired the novel Robinson Crusoe.

The robot, called "Arturito" or "Little Arthur", is said to have discovered the 18th-century buried treasure on the island of Robinson Crusoe - named after the book. The island lies 660 kilometres from the coast of Chile in South America.

A Scottish sailor called Alexander Selkirk was marooned on the island in 1704. His story inspired Daniel Defoe to write Robinson Crusoe in 1729.

The Chilean company responsible for developing Arturito, Wagner Technologies, announced at the weekend that the robot had found the booty by probing 15 metres below ground. The company plans to start excavating in a matter of days, as soon as permits can be obtained.

Gold ingots

According to legend, a fabulous treasure haul was buried on the island in 1715 by Spanish sailor Juan Esteban Ubilla-Echeverria. The bounty is said to have been discovered a few years later by British sailor Cornelius Webb, who reburied it on another part of the island.

By some estimates the haul would include 800 barrels of gold ingots, silver pieces, gems and other riches worth up to $10 billion. Naturally, the promise of such fabulous wealth has attracted scores or treasure hunters to the island in the past.

"The biggest treasure in history has been located," Fernando Uribe-Etxeverria, a lawyer working for Wagner Technologies told AFP News. And the announcement has already sparked a dispute over who could claim the treasure, with the Chilean government suggesting it would have full rights.

Wagner Technologies could not be reached for comment, but the robot Arturito has previously helped Chilean police locate buried weapons using ground-penetrating radar. GPR, or georadar, locates subsurface objects or structures by emitting microwave-frequency electromagnetic radiation and measuring the reflected signal, which is then represented as a two or three dimensional image.

Subsurface objects

Adam Booth an expert in GPR archaeology at the University of Leeds, UK, says it would be necessary to use a low-frequency signal to search at 15 metres' depth. But this would decrease the resolution of the signal, he says. It would be "very, very difficult", to distinguish between different metals so far down, Booth told New Scientist.

But Booth says further details could be gleaned by using other techniques in combination with GPR, such as magnetometry, which measures disturbances to the Earth's magnetic field.

Robert Richardson, a robotics expert at the University of Manchester, UK, says a robot could feasibly hunt for treasure, but believes a human controller would be crucial. "It is difficult to interpret GPR images, requiring a trained operator," he says. "It sounds more of a mobile sensing platform than a robot."

Marvin Pitney of US company Subsurface Radar Solutions agrees that it can be tricky to identify sub-surface objects accurately. "It takes years of practice," he says. "But once you get really good at interpreting images you can tell the difference between metals and plastic."

[Story]

and from the September 22 SCOTSMAN -

Island gives up secret of real Robinson Crusoe

STEPHEN MCGINTY

http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=1975692005

A GLINT of metal in the soil marked the end of a 13-year quest by a Japanese explorer to locate the base camp of Alexander Selkirk, the marooned 18th-century mariner, whose ordeal inspired the book Robinson Crusoe.

As a teenager, Daisuke Takahashi read the classic novel by Daniel Defoe and when he discovered it was based on the life of a Scottish sailor, an obsession was ignited which has carried him across the globe to the island of Mas-a-Tierra, 416 miles off the coast of Chile, where Selkirk was abandoned in 1704.

An expedition led by Mr Takahashi has now uncovered clinching evidence of the location of Selkirk's base camp, where he spent four years and four months scanning the horizon in hope of rescue.

Excavation of a site, high in the hills along an abandoned trail, has led to the discovery of a bronze tip from a pair of navigational dividers, which have since been dated to the early 18th century and are almost certain to have belonged to Selkirk, a ship's master.

"I have finally reached him," said Mr Takahashi, who previously wrote the Japanese best-seller, In Search of Robinson Crusoe.

"It's a peaceful site, with the sound of a nearby river and birds singing. You can see how Selkirk could have conquered his loneliness here."

Dr David Caldwell of the National Museums of Scotland accompanied Mr Takahashi and scientists from Chile on the month-long excavation which took place last January and was sponsored by the magazine National Geographic.

He discovered the 16mm piece of copper while sifting through soil taken from the site. Initially Dr Caldwell was baffled as to what it might be, but the following day on the hike up to the site he suddenly realised that it was the tip of Selkirk's dividers. "Selkirk was known to have been carrying a pair of dividers with him when he was rescued and we can assume that a piece broke off, perhaps while he was using them for some other purpose," said Dr Caldwell.

"In archaeological terms, that is as good evidence as you are going to get."

The site on Mas-a-Tierra, which is also known as Robinson Crusoe Island, yielded traces of a fire, animal bones and holes that appear to have housed poles used for building a shelter. Selkirk built two huts of wood covered with long grass and lined with goatskin. Carbon dating then confirmed the camp as from around the time of Selkirk's long exile.

The story of Selkirk fascinated early 18th century British society and eight years after his return in 1709, the author Daniel Defoe published his novel, The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe.

Born in the village of Lower Largo, Fife, Selkirk was the seventh son of a shoemaker, and went to sea against his father's wishes and to avoid a summons to appear before the Kirk session accused of "indecent carriage" in church.

In May 1703 he was appointed master of the privateer ship, Cinque Ports, but quarrelled with its captain, Thomas Stradling. After the ship underwent a hasty refit in South America, Selkirk declared the vessel unseaworthy and demanded to be put ashore on Mas-a-Tierra.

He was landed on the island with suitable supplies, including a musket, powder and a Bible, but changed his mind as the boat prepared to sail. Stradling, however, refused to take him back and so abandoned him. Yet Selkirk was proved correct about the poor repairs. The Cinque Ports sank shortly afterwards, with the loss of most of its crew.

For the first eight months Selkirk was in despair. In an account published in 1712 he "had much ado to bear up against melancholy and the terror of being left alone in such a desolate place".

However, he successfully built a camp of two huts high above Cumberland Bay, hunted goats, whose skin he stitched into clothes, and lived on fresh fruit, fish and goats' meat.

On one occasion the island was visited by the Spanish, from whom Selkirk was forced to hide, as he would have been hanged as a pirate. However, on 1 February 1709, a vessel called the Duke, captained by Woodes Rogers, visited the island and discovered Selkirk clothed in skins and unable to speak English.

In Rogers' later account of Selkirk's adventures he wrote: "A man cloth'd in goat-skins, who look'd wilder than the first owners of them [who] had so much forgot his language for want of use, that we could scarce understand him, for he seem'd to speak his words by halves."

Three years after his rescue Selkirk married a 16-year-old dairymaid, but the draw of the sea remained strong. He eventually died of yellow fever in 1721 and was buried at sea off West Africa.

The endurance of Selkirk inspired Mr Takahashi, who has dedicated more than a decade to following in the Scot's footsteps. He has spent time researching Selkirk's life in Fife and once spent a month alone on Mas-a-Tierra in order to experience a portion of what Selkirk endured.

In his book, Mr Takahashi wrote that on his first evening on the island he was so frightened that he consumed most of the bottle of Scotch he had brought in case of "emergencies".

Today, the island - which has been renamed after Defoe's novel by the Chilean government - is inhabited by about 600 people , descendants of the Spaniards who settled on the island 40 years after Selkirk left.

The discovery of the site of Selkirk's base camp, which is reported on in the October issue of National Geographic, has delighted Mr Takahashi, who said: "In today's times when the word 'adventure' is almost obsolete, I would like to convey to young people how exciting it feels to explore our dreams."

[blackjohn]

I saw this come over on netscape.com news popup, but was too tired to bother. So when I did, I was amazed! I did a quick search and found another link.

http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=...72647143C256463

The weird thing is, none of my usual archaeology resources have mentioned it.

[blackjohn]

Well, I found this:

http://www.showcaves.com/english/misc/cave...nsonCrusoe.html

Still, it's not the equivalent of a good article from an archaeology magazine. I know the chief archaeologist where I work. I'll have to ask him if he knows anything about it.

[Cascabel]

So far, all the info I have seen is speculation based on detection of anomalies found by a ground pentrating robot of some sort. I will believe it when they actually bring up some loot.

>>>>> Cascabel

[JoshuaRed]

Lol perhaps it's the proverbial crashed UFO, buried under 3 centuries of jungle. I don't know what would better! UFO find or Legendary Pirate Treasure find!

[Story]

This is better than TV -

On the site of Arturito’s latest discovery on Robinson Crusoe Island, excavation will not begin until October, but the turf wars have already begun.

Representatives from Wagner Technologies and the government are trying to decide how to divide the loot amongst them. The location of the site is under the jurisdiction of the Council of National Monuments, on government property. As such, there are two laws that apply to the buried treasure.

The first involves the discovery of money, jewels, and other precious articles. The law states that in any discovery where the rightful owners cannot be determined, the finds should be divided equally between the finder and the property owner.

The second law involves discoveries on national monument property, and states that any material of historical value, including ancient treasure, found on government property is archaeological by default and therefore must be returned to the state to allow for historical research on the artifacts found.

Chile’s government says that because the treasure is on national monument property, the second law applies in this case, entitling it to 100 percent of the treasure. Predictably, Wagner Technologies immediately rejected the government’s claim.

Island officials have also weighed in, stating that they are entitled to the government’s share of the find, as it was discovered on their island, effectively making them the interested property owners.

SOURCE: LA NACIÓN, LA TERCERA, EL MERCURIO

By Nathan Gill (editor@santiagotimes.cl)

http://www.tcgnews.com/santiagotimes/index...0006&topic_id=1

[Monterey Jack]

Lol perhaps it's the proverbial crashed UFO, buried under 3 centuries of jungle. I don't know what would better! UFO find or Legendary Pirate Treasure find!

How about an alien pirate ship? the best o both worlds!

[Coastie04]

OK, BBC and ABC have jumped on the bandwagon for this story. Looks like there is at least a claim being made. If it really is pirate treasure, then I think the fair thing would be to distribute it among all the pirates. I won't hold my breath for my share, though.

ABC online

BBC News

Coastie

[Nam Singh]

WONDERED where I left them barrels.

Be good tykes and pick em up for me, will ya? :)

[Story]

Wagner renounces claim to buried treasure

WAGNER RENOUNCES CLAIMS TO CHILE’S BURIED TREASURE

Government Expected Contentious Debate Over Rights To Loot

(Oct. 5, 2005) A new twist in the story of buried treasure on Robinson Crusoe Island, which has kept Chile and the world in suspense for the last three weeks, surfaced Monday after Wagner Technologies renounced all claims to the treasure supposedly worth US$10 billion.

Wagner Technologies, the company that claims it discovered the treasure, met late Monday with government officials in Valparaíso in what was expected to be a contentious debate over the rights to the treasure.

But according to Fernando Uribe-Etxeverría, lawyer for Wagner Technologies, the company does not believe it is capable of excavating the treasure; all it wanted was the free press.

This abrupt turn of events surprised government officials, who were prepared to discuss excavation permits and decide how to divide the treasure with the company. Wagner instead agreed to turn over the coordinates to the government on the condition that if the treasure is excavated, a portion would be given to a number of Chilean charities, as well as the island’s residents.

Uribe-Etxeverría’s announcement also surprised journalists because of the commotion the company generated with threats to withhold the location of the treasure unless the government agreed to give them a cut of the loot (ST, Oct. 3).

Wagner still maintains that “Arturito,” a mobile robot designed by one of their engineers, detected the presence of 800 metric tons of gold and jewels on the west side of Robinson Crusoe Island in southern Chile. However, the company claims that the treasure is located in a very difficult-to-reach spot that requires divers to enter through sub-marine caves on the island’s coast.

Wagner representatives said the company is withdrawing from the controversy that surrounded their claims because of the difficulty involved in removing the treasure.

“There is no company in the country capable of excavating this treasure,” said Uribe-Etxeverría. “For this, you will need something bigger: the state.” He also added that for Wagner, the treasure did not represent a business opportunity. Instead, the company’s exploration was meant to publicize the extraordinary capabilities of their robot.

The robot in question, Arturito, operates like a robotic bloodhound. He can be programmed to search for a particular substance, such as water, gold, or even DNA. Using a variety of tools from geo-radar to a “gamma-camera,” capable of differentiating between atomic molecules, he searches a specified area for the presence the programmed substance. According to Manuel Salinas, designer of the robot, with the right sample, Arturito could help police find missing persons, wanted criminals, and water in the desert.

Debates have also surfaced in Chile over the history of the newly discovered treasure: what treasure is actually buried on the island and how it got there. Robinson Crusoe Island is located along the Spanish colonial navigation route that connected Spain’s Latin American colonies with Europe. At the time, Spain was mining vast amounts of silver and gold from Peru and Bolivia for transport to Europe. These ships were a favorite of pirates operating in the South Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.

Some treasure-seekers believe a popular legend which holds that the Spanish navigator Juan Esteban Ubilla y Echeverría, in charge of transporting the treasure back to Spain, landed on the island in 1715 and interred it instead. Sometime later, an English pirate named Cornelius Webb unearthed the treasure and reburied it elsewhere.

Others believe another legend claiming that the treasure was stolen from the Aztec Empire in Mexico by Spanish conquistadors. A third theory holds that it was the bounty taken off the Spanish galleon “Nuestra Señora del Monte Carmelo” in 1741 by the English lord George Anson.

The island first became famous for hosting the real-life character of Daniel Defoe’s “Robinson Crusoe,” Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish sailing master marooned on the island between 1704 and 1709. Selkirk was pirating the Spanish off the coast of South America in the early 1700s when his ship was badly damaged by a series of fights with the Spanish armada.

Fearing that the ship would soon sink, he asked the captain to set him ashore at the next port and ended up stranded off the coast of Chile on an uninhabited island in the Juan Fernandez archipelago. Selkirk was later picked up by English privateers and continued pirating Spanish fleets until 1712, when he finally made his triumphant return to Scotland as a very rich man.

SOURCE: PUBLIMETRO, LA NACIÓN

By Nathan Gill (editor@santiagotimes.cl)

[kaizoku]

Wow, me needs some loot meself. Who do ye feel should get it?

Not to sound rude but finders keepers me says! Why were they looking for treasure anyway? Were they looking for that treasure or something else?

Funny thing is just the other day I nabbed a copy of Smithsonian of the nursing home I work at magazine shelf because it had a rather large article on the true story of Robinson Crusue and the island...

[Story]

While this specific shipwreck is outside the time period of interest, the method of discovery is worth reading about -

http://www.whoi.edu/mr/pr.do?id=8086

After lying hidden for centuries off the coast of Greece, a sunken 4th century B.C. merchant ship and its cargo have been surveyed by an international team using a robotic underwater vehicle. The team accomplished in two days what it would take divers years to do. The project, the first in a new collaboration between U.S. and Greek researchers, demonstrates the potential of new technology and imaging capabilities to rapidly advance marine archaeology.