Time Warp

simply because more is happening. But Harrobert Illig didn't agree. He didn't think that time moved differently. He thought that 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,

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 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

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 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 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

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 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 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 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, 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 Roman Empire, a daunting feat even for three world leaders. Unbelievable, sure, but also more than a little curious. X marks the 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 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 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, 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 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 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 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, 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,

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 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, 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 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 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 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