Well, a few days ago I was going over some Free Mason stuff with a friend of mine and the movie National Treasure was mentioned. I started thinking about it, at first believing that something as stupid as that could never exist, but as I thought about it more and more one thing came to mind: The Arc of the Covenant. Regarded partly as myth, as far as I know, the crusades were reported as complete failures until the last one, when the "Knights Templar" found the Arc of the Covenant and were charged with safe-keeping it. I remember reading something that said eventually it was hid in North America, not necessarily US, and the location has long since been forgotten. Although, you would have to believe that something as important as the Arc of the Covenant (supposedly holding the Ten Commandments) wouldn't have been stashed without something documenting where it is. It is possible the Knights Templar thought it was so important to keep it safe that they didn't document it, but whatever. As I was saying, the relevance to the Free Masons is that the movie itself mentions the masons multiple times, and regard them as the ones who stored the "treasure" themselves. Although the point of this post is not whether or not there IS treasure, but the possibility that there could BE a treasure whether it be the Arc of the covenant or not. My general opinion is that: YES, I'm sure their could be, and I'm sure that the government knows where it is and is hiding it from us. the reason being, the government already does that. Area 51, TONS of things in the Restricted Section of the Library of Congress, Political documents, etc, etc, etc. The point is that there very well could be a National treasure.

If there is a National Treasure, such as in the movie, it wouldn't be property of the U.S. It belongs to other countries, brought here from over seas.

Originally posted by Skewed
I am not an archaeologist but is it even possible to tell where it came from, as in what country it was dug out of the ground. I am just asking, it seems to me it would be traced back to a supernova, if we are talking gold that is.

I'm not an archeologist either, but when I think of treasure, I think of gold coins, statues, gems, etc. I'm thinking there are ways to trace where these things come from, depending on design, etc....especially if the Ark of the Covenant is actually part of this treasure. I could be wrong.

Originally posted by Skewed
Precious metals I am not sure about, but as far as diamonds are concerned they can be traced back to a specific geological location.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Now if there are coins, there should be some indication as to where they are from. If there are statues, there is probably a way to tell what culture they are from. If the Ark of the Covenant exists, and it is there too, well, we know it's not from the U.S.

The Arc of the Covenant should, in theory, look exactly how it is depicted in Indian Jones, which is about the Arc. But the contents inside, if I'm not mistaken, are slabs in which the Ten Commandments are inscribed on. If in fact it was stored in North America, it would in fact not belong to us. The reason being: it would have been stored here before Europeans had even thought of colonizing the West. Not to say that if Americans did find it that we'd MOST likely keep it to ourselves. Hmm as for sources, I can't think of the article, but as for other information on the Arc. I believe I started thinking about it having watched an episode of Brad Meltzer's Decoded (more informative than one would think), as for documents: you may as well look up some Jewish websites or just google "Arc of the Covenant". The reason I say Jewish websites is that the Arc was carried by Jews while traveling the desert and it has a better history of the Arc itself. It was said that the Arc housed the Ten Commandments and was stored in the Holy of Holies and was accessible once a year by the High Priest. Interestingly enough, the comedy movie "Year One" accurately describes the Holy of Holies, but not exactly, in that it was inaccessible and that all who went in would immediately die. It doesn't mention the Arc itself, but the fingerprints are there: anyone who entered the Holy of Holies would be burned alive by a blast of fire coming from the Arc. Similarly, it was said that the Arc was carried some 2000 cubits in front of the traveling Jewish nation and would burn snakes, scorpions, etc to protect the people.