1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:26,440
In the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia is this treasure hunter about to claim his bounty?

2
00:00:26,440 --> 00:00:33,280
Was this ancient slab of Viking writing mean America was born in Minnesota?

3
00:00:33,280 --> 00:00:38,360
And could this coded book reveal the elixir of life?

4
00:00:38,360 --> 00:00:44,400
Mysteries from the files of Arthur C. Clarke, author of 2001 and inventor of the communications

5
00:00:44,400 --> 00:00:45,400
satellite.

6
00:00:45,400 --> 00:00:50,400
Now in retreat in Sri Lanka he ponders the riddles of this and other worlds.

7
00:01:16,400 --> 00:01:23,200
Like all old buildings the Dutch house near my home in Colombo hides many secrets and

8
00:01:23,200 --> 00:01:28,200
masked over three centuries since the days when the Dutch were the rulers of this much

9
00:01:28,200 --> 00:01:30,240
colonized island.

10
00:01:30,240 --> 00:01:35,360
Within these walls the Dutch stored this piece of paper which must have been classified

11
00:01:35,360 --> 00:01:37,200
as top secret.

12
00:01:37,200 --> 00:01:40,000
It's a treaty they signed with the local rulers.

13
00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:45,440
In the version the Dutch made public they agreed to destroy all the forts in the island

14
00:01:45,440 --> 00:01:51,440
but in this one which was for Dutch eyes only there's no mention of any such promise and

15
00:01:51,440 --> 00:01:56,320
the Dutch of course held on to the forts and to power.

16
00:01:56,320 --> 00:02:01,640
We wanted to read both versions of this treaty to find the truth of the matter but all of

17
00:02:01,640 --> 00:02:08,160
the world there are writings, inscriptions, coded communications, mysterious maps and

18
00:02:08,200 --> 00:02:15,040
weird manuscripts which are fascinated, obsessed and usually frustrated the experts who have

19
00:02:15,040 --> 00:02:18,160
tried to crack their secrets.

20
00:02:18,160 --> 00:02:23,440
In this fairy tale castle deep in the forests of southern Germany Kirsten Siever hopes to

21
00:02:23,440 --> 00:02:28,840
find the key to the world's most controversial map.

22
00:02:28,840 --> 00:02:36,800
But across the Atlantic in Washington DC Dr Bob McGee contests her solution to the mystery.

23
00:02:36,800 --> 00:02:41,520
They disagree over this piece of parchment known as the Vinland map.

24
00:02:41,520 --> 00:02:46,800
It's claimed to be the first documentary proof that the Vikings discovered America.

25
00:02:46,800 --> 00:02:51,120
In the far west this scrap of land can only be North America.

26
00:02:51,120 --> 00:02:55,160
Its outline matches the Newfoundland coast.

27
00:02:55,160 --> 00:03:04,160
But the map has been dated to 1440, 50 years before Columbus set sail.

28
00:03:04,160 --> 00:03:09,440
In the top left hand corner an inscription says that the map is based on information

29
00:03:09,440 --> 00:03:16,600
passed down from Viking explorers.

30
00:03:16,600 --> 00:03:23,000
On Columbus Day 1965 Yale University announced it had bought the map.

31
00:03:23,000 --> 00:03:25,000
An outcry ensued.

32
00:03:25,000 --> 00:03:32,000
From the first there were those who doubted the map's authenticity and demanded to know its history.

33
00:03:32,120 --> 00:03:39,120
But this man Lawrence Whitten who sold the map to Yale would not explain where it came from.

34
00:03:39,120 --> 00:03:48,720
Tests proved the parchment was medieval but scientists disagree about the age of the ink.

35
00:03:48,720 --> 00:03:53,440
Archaeologist Bob McGee rests his case on historical facts.

36
00:03:53,440 --> 00:03:56,800
He believes the map may well be genuine.

37
00:03:56,800 --> 00:04:01,600
The Norse were quite expert at navigating east-west across the Atlantic along single

38
00:04:01,640 --> 00:04:03,160
lines of latitude.

39
00:04:03,160 --> 00:04:07,440
The latitude of locations would be the type of information which we can see being very

40
00:04:07,440 --> 00:04:12,560
carefully passed on to later generations of sailors.

41
00:04:12,560 --> 00:04:16,240
This information would have been available to European map makers at the time.

42
00:04:16,240 --> 00:04:20,280
If we look at the latitudes of the Vinland configuration on this map and compare them

43
00:04:20,280 --> 00:04:24,720
with those of Europe it's quite remarkable how they do line up.

44
00:04:24,720 --> 00:04:29,040
If we look at the southern tip of Vinland and go across to Europe we come to Brittany

45
00:04:29,040 --> 00:04:31,840
or the northern end of the Bay of Biscay here.

46
00:04:31,840 --> 00:04:37,240
If we look at a modern map across here from the northern end of the Bay of Biscay and

47
00:04:37,240 --> 00:04:42,160
go west we find that it matches almost exactly the southern tip of Newfoundland.

48
00:04:42,160 --> 00:04:47,360
The northern tip of Newfoundland matches with about the south coast of Ireland.

49
00:04:47,360 --> 00:04:52,440
If we go back to the Vinland map and look at this first big inlet and measure across

50
00:04:52,440 --> 00:04:56,800
to Europe we find that it matches with the south coast of Ireland.

51
00:04:56,840 --> 00:05:01,120
This configuration from Bay of Biscay up to the south coast of Ireland correlates very

52
00:05:01,120 --> 00:05:06,720
nicely with the island of Newfoundland.

53
00:05:06,720 --> 00:05:10,160
It's known that the Vikings did reach North America.

54
00:05:10,160 --> 00:05:15,000
In the 1960s archaeologists found the remains of their settlement.

55
00:05:15,000 --> 00:05:18,800
To McGee the dates are everything.

56
00:05:18,800 --> 00:05:24,000
Now if a forger had drawn this map back in the 1920s or 1930s and wanted the latitudes

57
00:05:24,080 --> 00:05:28,520
to match up with what they thought at that time the North had known the island of Vinland

58
00:05:28,520 --> 00:05:32,720
would have been placed much further south because it was fairly commonly accepted that

59
00:05:32,720 --> 00:05:38,000
Vinland would have been somewhere down Cape Cod the mid-Atlantic states perhaps.

60
00:05:38,000 --> 00:05:44,320
Whereas since that time all archaeological evidence and most scholarly evidence now concludes

61
00:05:44,320 --> 00:05:47,480
that Vinland must have been the island of Newfoundland or the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

62
00:05:47,480 --> 00:05:52,480
Well north of where it used to be thought to be and exactly where it is shown on the Vinland map.

63
00:05:55,000 --> 00:05:59,160
McGee's theories are thought small beer in the varier.

64
00:05:59,160 --> 00:06:03,440
Kirsten Siever is quite sure that the map is a fake.

65
00:06:03,440 --> 00:06:05,480
It would be like the virgin birth.

66
00:06:05,480 --> 00:06:08,800
It has no tradition behind it.

67
00:06:08,800 --> 00:06:14,480
It has no reality around it.

68
00:06:14,480 --> 00:06:16,240
It would not.

69
00:06:16,240 --> 00:06:18,560
It cannot be.

70
00:06:18,560 --> 00:06:22,160
Siever is convinced she knows who forged the Vinland map.

71
00:06:22,160 --> 00:06:25,680
A Jesuit priest who died here at Wolfhead Castle.

72
00:06:25,680 --> 00:06:29,200
Only he fitted the profile of the forger.

73
00:06:29,200 --> 00:06:32,480
The person had to be interested in maps.

74
00:06:32,480 --> 00:06:36,120
Secondly he or she had to be fluent in Latin.

75
00:06:36,120 --> 00:06:46,720
Thirdly the person had to know where all the bones of contention lay buried when it came to the Vinland voyages.

76
00:06:46,720 --> 00:06:51,760
In the 1930s father Joseph Fisher was a world expert on maps.

77
00:06:51,760 --> 00:06:57,440
He devoted his days to teaching history until the Nazis closed his college.

78
00:06:57,440 --> 00:07:05,360
Taken under the wing of Wolfhead's prince and princess, he spent his last years in the bosom of their family.

79
00:07:05,360 --> 00:07:08,760
He left some vital clues.

80
00:07:08,760 --> 00:07:13,200
Here at Wolfhead Castle they have many of Father Fisher's letters.

81
00:07:13,200 --> 00:07:20,000
His handwriting is of course of great interest if we want to pin the Vinland map on him.

82
00:07:20,000 --> 00:07:29,200
As you can see it's a very impatient handwriting with a very characteristic D.

83
00:07:29,200 --> 00:07:30,320
Like that.

84
00:07:30,320 --> 00:07:33,600
It's full of strong lateral strokes.

85
00:07:33,600 --> 00:07:42,000
The D that you see in this letter is so similar to the D that you see in this map.

86
00:07:42,000 --> 00:07:46,800
That for starters it is an interesting coincidence.

87
00:07:46,800 --> 00:07:52,560
You will also see that he writes on paper with line guides.

88
00:07:52,560 --> 00:07:59,840
The more tidily written legends such as the one at Vinland are written with a line guide exactly.

89
00:07:59,840 --> 00:08:04,640
Two millimeters apart that is not a medieval form.

90
00:08:04,640 --> 00:08:10,080
Father Fisher would not have thought that it was wrong to make such a map.

91
00:08:10,080 --> 00:08:19,120
Because he was convinced that such a map in some form had existed, I believe he decided to fill in the gap.

92
00:08:19,120 --> 00:08:28,960
Essentially he made the map he'd been looking for all his life.

93
00:08:28,960 --> 00:08:32,640
I'd like to see a solution to the mystery of the Vinland map.

94
00:08:32,640 --> 00:08:38,400
It's more important than simply deciding whether university wasted good money on a fake.

95
00:08:38,400 --> 00:08:44,800
If it's genuine the map would banish myths and illusions of geographical history.

96
00:08:44,800 --> 00:08:49,680
It would not only show how much of America the ancient Norse explored.

97
00:08:49,680 --> 00:08:55,280
It might also mean that Christopher Columbus didn't come across the New World by chance,

98
00:08:55,280 --> 00:08:59,120
but actually knew where he was going.

99
00:08:59,120 --> 00:09:03,840
But perhaps there's another answer to the mystery of how far the ancient Norse explorers

100
00:09:03,840 --> 00:09:05,840
penetrated America.

101
00:09:05,840 --> 00:09:14,640
It's to be found in a weird inscription which brings the tourists from far and wide to a small town in Minnesota.

102
00:09:14,640 --> 00:09:18,240
Alexandria cherishes its links with Scandinavia.

103
00:09:18,240 --> 00:09:23,920
It's where in the 19th century many immigrant Swedes made their home.

104
00:09:23,920 --> 00:09:28,640
The Tans museum boasts an extraordinary tourist attraction.

105
00:09:28,640 --> 00:09:33,760
This stone slab is covered with rooms, the lettering of the ancient Norse.

106
00:09:33,760 --> 00:09:41,120
Translated it says that a party of Vikings were attacked by Indians and forced to flee to their longboats.

107
00:09:41,120 --> 00:09:45,520
The date carved into the stone is 1362.

108
00:09:45,520 --> 00:09:48,640
The people of Alexandria have a proud boast.

109
00:09:48,640 --> 00:09:53,200
They believe the Vikings visited their hometown and left their calling card.

110
00:09:53,200 --> 00:09:59,520
I will show you the rune stone that was found near Kensington, Minnesota.

111
00:09:59,520 --> 00:10:02,960
It proves that the Vikings were here.

112
00:10:02,960 --> 00:10:08,480
The stone was found in 1898 by a Swedish immigrant called Olaf Oman.

113
00:10:08,480 --> 00:10:12,240
He said he found the slab buried in the roots of a tree.

114
00:10:12,240 --> 00:10:18,720
The discovery brought fame to the Oman family, but some people doubted the story of the find.

115
00:10:18,720 --> 00:10:21,360
They suggested it was Oman's own work.

116
00:10:23,760 --> 00:10:33,200
The Oman farm where the rune stone was found is preserved for posterity by the town.

117
00:10:33,200 --> 00:10:39,520
Grandson, Lalard Kolberg, won't hear a word against Olaf Oman.

118
00:10:39,520 --> 00:10:44,080
My grandfather was an honest man and he was a hard-working man.

119
00:10:44,080 --> 00:10:52,560
The Kensington rune stone is a true Viking stone found by my grandfather on the Oman farm.

120
00:10:52,560 --> 00:10:59,280
And it would be to add that my grandmother was a very religious person.

121
00:10:59,280 --> 00:11:02,320
So they can't say that my grandfather buried that stone.

122
00:11:02,320 --> 00:11:05,600
There's no way because he was not educated enough to do things like that.

123
00:11:07,920 --> 00:11:10,480
Einar Bakker remembers Oman from childhood.

124
00:11:12,480 --> 00:11:15,200
Well, he was a real honest man as far as I'm concerned.

125
00:11:15,680 --> 00:11:19,440
He didn't listen for practical jokes of any kind.

126
00:11:19,440 --> 00:11:21,760
I'm sure he would not sit in a carver rock like that.

127
00:11:21,760 --> 00:11:25,440
I'm positive it was genuine as far as Oman was concerned.

128
00:11:27,600 --> 00:11:32,240
But in Lanso Meadows, Newfoundland, where it's known the Vikings landed,

129
00:11:32,240 --> 00:11:35,920
Norse expert Bergetta Wallace is skeptical of Oman's claims.

130
00:11:37,120 --> 00:11:42,160
With the help of stone mason Nathaniel Patey, she is conducting a runic test.

131
00:11:42,160 --> 00:11:53,920
When I first saw the Kensington rune stone, one thing that struck me as very unusual

132
00:11:53,920 --> 00:11:56,480
was the very, very long inscription.

133
00:11:57,120 --> 00:12:03,200
Normally a rune stone only says so and so erected this stone in memory of so and so.

134
00:12:03,200 --> 00:12:03,920
But that's it.

135
00:12:05,360 --> 00:12:09,600
When I saw that the runes were cut into a weathered surface,

136
00:12:09,680 --> 00:12:12,000
but the runes themselves had not weathered.

137
00:12:13,360 --> 00:12:17,440
It suggested to me immediately that they were quite recent.

138
00:12:18,160 --> 00:12:22,560
Runemarks, as we know them from Scandinavia, were all done with a pick hammer

139
00:12:23,280 --> 00:12:28,400
that makes a U-shaped, much more uneven cross-section.

140
00:12:28,400 --> 00:12:32,480
This was a very clear, straight, V-shaped cut.

141
00:12:33,360 --> 00:12:36,960
Bergetta suspected the runes were carved with a modern chisel.

142
00:12:37,840 --> 00:12:44,160
So I went and got one and lo and behold, they fit perfectly in size.

143
00:12:44,160 --> 00:12:50,880
All the upright ones had been made with a regular North American one inch chisel.

144
00:12:52,400 --> 00:12:56,720
Bergetta's research in Sweden uncovered secrets from Oman's past.

145
00:12:57,200 --> 00:12:59,200
They strengthened the case against him.

146
00:12:59,920 --> 00:13:06,320
Oman has been portrayed as a simple and rather dumb farmer who couldn't even in his wildest

147
00:13:06,320 --> 00:13:09,120
dreams have thought of something like a rune stone.

148
00:13:09,120 --> 00:13:14,560
But he was very interested in history and read very deep philosophical things.

149
00:13:14,560 --> 00:13:22,400
He wrote poetry and a very little known fact is that Oman was not a farmer to begin with.

150
00:13:22,400 --> 00:13:23,760
He was a stone maser.

151
00:13:24,080 --> 00:13:30,080
I think that the Kensington stone is proof not that the Vikings went to Minnesota,

152
00:13:30,080 --> 00:13:36,560
but that Minnesota had a very large Scandinavian immigrant population in the 19th century.

153
00:13:40,160 --> 00:13:44,160
When you're dealing with the runes, it's always wise to be wary.

154
00:13:44,160 --> 00:13:51,280
In 1953, Swedish actually started to build a small town in the Netherlands.

155
00:13:51,280 --> 00:13:58,560
In 1953, Swedish experts announced they'd found an inscription dating back almost a thousand years.

156
00:13:59,360 --> 00:14:03,200
But the translation soon revealed a very different story.

157
00:14:03,200 --> 00:14:08,720
The message actually read Joe Dokes went east 1953.

158
00:14:09,280 --> 00:14:10,640
He discovered Europe.

159
00:14:10,640 --> 00:14:11,520
Holy smoke.

160
00:14:16,880 --> 00:14:19,920
In the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia, there may be gold.

161
00:14:20,800 --> 00:14:27,120
Coaded clues left in 1822 by a man called Thomas Beale have drawn hundreds of treasure

162
00:14:27,120 --> 00:14:28,640
hunters to Bedford County.

163
00:14:30,560 --> 00:14:35,840
Albert Atwell believes his detector can find precious metals buried deep underground.

164
00:14:36,640 --> 00:14:41,520
I came here looking for the Beale treasure 148 times in the last six years.

165
00:14:41,520 --> 00:14:46,160
And I've hunted all four different directions and I've tried to break the codes,

166
00:14:46,240 --> 00:14:47,680
tried to locate the treasure by it.

167
00:14:48,560 --> 00:14:50,080
So maybe one day we'll find it.

168
00:14:51,760 --> 00:14:56,400
I'm going to keep looking forward in my spare time practically every weekend or at least five

169
00:14:56,400 --> 00:14:59,760
times a summer because I still believe it's here. It's going to be fine.

170
00:15:02,480 --> 00:15:04,560
Albert is not the only treasure hunter.

171
00:15:06,160 --> 00:15:09,760
Sergeant Cooper of the Sheriff's Department knows this only too well.

172
00:15:10,080 --> 00:15:20,080
Beale treasure is a nuisance and it's part of our job, you know, just more or less take care of the

173
00:15:20,080 --> 00:15:26,800
complaints. One man called in that someone had dug six or seven holes on his property.

174
00:15:26,800 --> 00:15:33,360
It was another incident where a man called that someone dug where his cattle was at.

175
00:15:34,640 --> 00:15:38,080
If the cows would have fell in it, he would have lost some cows.

176
00:15:40,720 --> 00:15:46,640
I mean, it was one incident where they was digging up a cemetery at a local church.

177
00:15:46,640 --> 00:15:51,680
I arrested a man and a woman plus this small dog. I had to put in the dog pound.

178
00:15:54,800 --> 00:16:00,560
In the early 1800s, Thomas Beale is said to have found gold, silver and precious jewels on a trip

179
00:16:00,560 --> 00:16:05,840
out west. Three ciphers tell where he hid the treasure in his native Virginia.

180
00:16:06,800 --> 00:16:12,320
The seemingly incomprehensible lists of numbers are thought to say where it's buried,

181
00:16:12,320 --> 00:16:19,040
somewhere in these hills. Code breaking has become a community hobby.

182
00:16:19,040 --> 00:16:21,760
Farmer Jimmy Luck thinks he might have the answer.

183
00:16:23,360 --> 00:16:29,840
I've been working with Cheyenne Indian from Colorado for good many years and he deciphered the code

184
00:16:30,160 --> 00:16:36,400
and all the information we get of the code we have found and has led us to a certain spot

185
00:16:36,400 --> 00:16:42,320
to where we think the treasure is buried. We are 90 percent sure, maybe a little more,

186
00:16:42,960 --> 00:16:48,160
that we're in the right spot. All Jimmy needs now is the landowner's permission to dig.

187
00:16:49,120 --> 00:16:54,880
It is really frustrating to know where it is and not have your hands on it because after so many,

188
00:16:54,880 --> 00:16:59,760
after the years you worked on it and tried so hard to find it and you think you've come up with it,

189
00:16:59,840 --> 00:17:05,200
and then somebody just cuts you off from it. We'll keep on working to find the treasure as long

190
00:17:05,200 --> 00:17:11,920
as we're here. I think someday we'll be able to dig at the place we think the treasure's buried at

191
00:17:12,480 --> 00:17:20,560
and come up with a goal. Beale's cryptic ciphers have been scrutinized by one of the world's

192
00:17:20,560 --> 00:17:26,960
leading experts and writers on code breaking. Dr. Stephen Matias has tried to put himself in

193
00:17:26,960 --> 00:17:33,680
the mind of Thomas Beale. He believes he knows how the cipher was concocted.

194
00:17:35,600 --> 00:17:43,920
The key that I have come up with is a 10 by 10 key. The alphabet in this key consists of letters,

195
00:17:44,480 --> 00:17:50,800
some syllables, some words and common phrases that would have appeared in Beale's messages.

196
00:17:51,600 --> 00:17:58,000
Matias admits that his key depends on intelligent guesswork, his code breaking experience

197
00:17:58,000 --> 00:18:02,880
and common sense. After much trial and error, he believes he's on the right track.

198
00:18:04,160 --> 00:18:12,560
So for example, the number 21 refers to the letter in row number two and column number one,

199
00:18:12,560 --> 00:18:20,640
which is the letter T. Number 17 refers to the letter A that appears in row one and column seven.

200
00:18:21,040 --> 00:18:27,200
And if you continue in this manner and decipher each of the numbers, you get a message that reads,

201
00:18:27,920 --> 00:18:38,560
take the road to Finn Castle. The vault is beneath a big round stone with the initials T.J.B.

202
00:18:40,160 --> 00:18:46,400
But Matias's ingenious work may yet be in vain. The Beale ciphers could be a hoax.

203
00:18:46,800 --> 00:18:55,040
If Beale ever existed and if the treasure ever existed, I feel confident that the solution method

204
00:18:55,040 --> 00:19:02,560
that I'm proposing will be the method shown to lead to an actual decipherment of paper number one

205
00:19:03,520 --> 00:19:07,040
and will be the basis for leading to the treasure.

206
00:19:16,400 --> 00:19:29,120
Some can't afford to wait. Albert has hired a back home.

207
00:19:46,400 --> 00:19:48,400
I

208
00:19:55,360 --> 00:20:02,160
were hopeful that the Beale treasure could be right here more than likely it is here. We have to dig and find out.

209
00:20:07,120 --> 00:20:11,280
If we don't find it here today, we'll go back to work on the codes and buy

210
00:20:11,280 --> 00:20:15,680
better equipment and then hunt somewhere else. I'm never going to give up hunting for the treasure

211
00:20:15,680 --> 00:20:17,520
until somebody finds it or I do.

212
00:20:27,680 --> 00:20:34,800
At Yale University, one building stands out from all the rest. The Bynackie Library is a forbidding

213
00:20:34,800 --> 00:20:43,280
place. Susan Santeris knows it well. This library does mean a lot to me. As a child,

214
00:20:43,280 --> 00:20:47,760
I came here and saw all the books. Of course, you couldn't touch anything or breathe in there.

215
00:20:48,480 --> 00:20:54,480
And then as an undergraduate student, I spent hours and hours of my life. I still remember

216
00:20:54,480 --> 00:21:00,960
every one of them pouring over a particular manuscript that was there and trying to make

217
00:21:00,960 --> 00:21:08,240
some sense of it. The Wojnich manuscript is an exquisite book first heard of in Prague in the

218
00:21:08,240 --> 00:21:15,440
1600s. The writing seems unintelligible, but the weird illustrations point relentlessly to a hidden

219
00:21:15,440 --> 00:21:23,520
meaning. Theories include a medieval herbal guide, an astrological handbook, or even the elusive

220
00:21:23,600 --> 00:21:30,160
recipe for the elixir of life. Only one man has claimed to be close to the answer.

221
00:21:31,440 --> 00:21:39,760
Robert Brumbauer was a classics professor at Yale. He died in 1992, but his fascination

222
00:21:39,760 --> 00:21:43,600
with the Wojnich lives on in his children, Robert and Susan.

223
00:21:48,400 --> 00:21:52,000
They find it hard to leave their father's notes untouched.

224
00:21:53,520 --> 00:21:56,960
Well, the first thing that hits you when you see it is it should be something that you could just

225
00:21:56,960 --> 00:22:02,320
pick up and read with just a bit more effort. The illustrations are beautiful and vivid.

226
00:22:02,320 --> 00:22:08,640
There's a combination of scientific work and there's a humor to it that that's very arresting.

227
00:22:10,480 --> 00:22:15,600
Together, Susan and her father identified 14 distinct characters in the Wojnich.

228
00:22:16,240 --> 00:22:20,080
Some seemed close to our own writing. Others quite strange.

229
00:22:20,800 --> 00:22:24,800
Brumbauer's inspiration was to use numbers to translate the manuscript.

230
00:22:25,440 --> 00:22:27,920
With Robert, he began to construct a key.

231
00:22:29,680 --> 00:22:32,560
Father tried several possible arrangements.

232
00:22:33,840 --> 00:22:40,720
Came out with this one, which turned out to work the best. Now in this box,

233
00:22:40,720 --> 00:22:45,600
you see that one number represents any one of these three letters.

234
00:22:45,840 --> 00:22:50,400
Matching numbers to the Wojnich characters was much more difficult,

235
00:22:50,400 --> 00:22:53,120
but the family had a stroke of luck.

236
00:22:54,720 --> 00:23:00,640
One of the most important clues helping to match the characters in the manuscript with numerical

237
00:23:00,640 --> 00:23:09,520
values is a set of marginal notes on one of the folios of the manuscript that appear to be arithmetic

238
00:23:09,520 --> 00:23:16,560
problems. The discovery of these equations was a watershed. Brumbauer used them to help

239
00:23:16,560 --> 00:23:22,560
confirm his suspicions. He thought he could now understand some of the Wojnich characters

240
00:23:22,560 --> 00:23:31,200
and fill in his code-breaking key. He tested his ideas on the lettering beside one of his favorite

241
00:23:31,200 --> 00:23:39,120
pictures. If you take the letters that are in here or the squiggles, the scrolls,

242
00:23:39,840 --> 00:23:50,800
they look like this. Pi A2. Each one of those being a distinct form. If you then ascribe to them

243
00:23:50,800 --> 00:23:58,960
the numerical values that appeared on the chart that my father developed, you have seven, five,

244
00:23:58,960 --> 00:24:06,400
seven, seven, five, two. One of the possible readings of it, the only one, is pepper. And

245
00:24:06,400 --> 00:24:11,840
interestingly enough, this actually looks very much like a pepper. My father had a feeling,

246
00:24:11,840 --> 00:24:16,880
he could read more and more of it, but it remained slow going. He read bits and pieces here and there,

247
00:24:16,880 --> 00:24:23,280
he read labels, he read some of the star maps. Then he began reading pages, but as he went,

248
00:24:23,280 --> 00:24:27,920
some of it was almost distressing in its ambiguity because toward the end of some pages,

249
00:24:27,920 --> 00:24:32,640
he thought that perhaps the author lapsed into a kind of gibberish. Does that mean that perhaps

250
00:24:32,640 --> 00:24:38,720
the code needed adjusting or that the author was performing a major hoax on the reader?

251
00:24:39,520 --> 00:24:46,480
We've deciphered enough to show that underneath is a very heavily padded or repetitive message,

252
00:24:46,480 --> 00:24:53,680
which either conceals a second level message or perhaps doesn't conceal anything.

253
00:24:54,560 --> 00:25:03,600
The mysteries in this program show the extraordinary lengths to which people will go when they want

254
00:25:03,600 --> 00:25:10,880
to keep secrets. And we've even more secrets to keep today. As we exchange information by computers,

255
00:25:10,880 --> 00:25:17,280
telephone lines and satellites, the more we need uncrackable codes to make sure that our messages

256
00:25:17,360 --> 00:25:24,080
are read only by the people they're sent to. So these puzzles from the past may one day help

257
00:25:24,080 --> 00:25:33,200
to guide us on the information superhighway.