This section deals with
the two Thetas that appear in the text of Parchment 1. I have to say that
the positioning of this line relative to all the others obtained from the
parchment was quite a problem to begin with. However after returning to the
parchment following a long pause, I began to notice a few things which encouraged me.
The following are my findings.
The two Thetas appear
on the second line from the top and the second line from the bottom. Each of
these lines has exactly 20 letters. This fact is surely more than
coincidence on the part of the author and it undoubtedly carries some
significance. By connecting up the two Thetas with a line passing through the dots in each of them, you will see that
the line passes
through 5 letters, M, Q, N, R and T.
The positioning of the line in relation
to all the other bearings is particularly difficult to establish because it
is necessary to have at
least one known starting point before it can be drawn. Fortunately the clue to this
starting point is actually on the parchment.
Before proceeding any
further I think this is a good place to just recap
on how I orientated the parchment for use on the map. This will help in
understanding the landmarks.
First I connected up
all the crosses on the parchment and extended all the lines from the
pictogram. This resulted in the following arrangement:-
Next, in order to obtain the
proper alignment it was necessary to for points S+L and S+P to change places
with each other and finally you must flip the tracing over (right to left):-
Now all that needs to be done is
to rotate the tracing slightly so that the point S+P is on the village St.
Papoul and the point S+L is on the village St. Louis de Parahou and the
alignment is complete.
Returning to the
positioning of the Theta line, look at the very first line of the parchment
and notice that the line cutting the Thetas passes in between two letters, F and A. Now look at the real map of the area. The line
running from the pictogram to the cross S+L appears on the map as a line running
from St. Paulet directly through the Col de Taurize and just missing,
slightly to the North, the Chateau of Villerouge-Termenés.
From a purely logical
perspective the line connecting the Thetas must cut this line somewhere
between the
Col de Taurize and the Chateau of Villerouge-Termenes. At this point it is
necessary to recall the two letters above the first Theta, F and A. By
following the line connecting St. Paulet and the Chateau of
Villerouge-Termenes and looking slightly to the north of it you will come
across a small village by the name of Fontiés d'Aude, F-A. Since you have the
angle for the Theta line you can now draw this line from the point of Fontiés d'Aude and, the position of this line,
appears to be in perfect coordination
with the way it should appear on the parchment. There is still some more
corroboration to be obtained regarding the positioning of this line. On the parchment you will see a
line radiating from the pictogram which runs in a direction of NNW-SSE. If
you examine the diagram it is the yellow line that passes through
Rennes-les-Bains.
The line through the
Thetas cuts this line at a specific point. On the parchment itself you will see that
at this point it just about touches the letter N. On the actual map of the area
this letter N will appear on the right of the line, and in fact the town of Nebias
appears close to this location. On the left therefore, will have to appear a place with the letter M and in fact there is a location called the Pic
de Minier.
Up to now all that
has been done is to position a line on the basis of a supposition. The
supposition that the letters F, A, representing the village of Fontiés
d'Aude is the starting point for the line. The parchment must
contain additional information which would confirm this line as being exact
and I believe that it does. What we are now looking for is a geographical
height. A landmark through which the line should ideally pass and which will act as
additional corroboration.
Each line containing a
Theta carries 20 letters. Combined this amounts to 40. The Theta in line
2 appears at position 14 while the second Theta appears in position 12.
Together they add up to 26. 26 times 40 equals 1040. If you extend the
Theta line across the map in a NE direction you will see that it passes
close to a town called Olargues and a short distance further on stands a peak with a marked height of 1040m. This line passes almost
directly through the peak. Although it does not cut the peak exactly it
certainly is close enough to imply that there is some basis for believing
this is correct.
Finally there are the letters MQNRT which are
traversed on the parchment by the the Theta line. An interesting observation
is that all these letters with the exception of the Q are in position 12
on their respective lines. Q is in position 13. This information is of
importance and will be used in a minute.
The first Theta is in position 14
on its line. If you move each of these letters 14 places further on in the
alphabet you obtain ZDAEG which, coincidentally, can be rearranged to form the
word GAZED. Interestingly if you go 14 places backwards in the alphabet you
arrive at the same five letters ZDAEG. Alphabetically the values of these
letters rearranged into the word GAZED are 7, 1, 26, 5 and 4. Now, by
taking only the first four numbers you can perform the following sum:-
7+1 = 8
8 x 26 x 5 = 1040
Again the same value for the peak
outlined above. Shouldn't you also use the 4, I hear you ask? Well it may be the
case that you do need to use it but here is my argument for leaving it out of
the calculation.
All the letters used in the
calculation were those which appeared in position 12 on their respective lines.
Remember the Q was the only one in position 13, i.e. the odd man out. Moving the
Q forward 14 in the alphabet results in it becoming the D, i.e. the redundant
letter. To me there is a certain symmetry in this arrangement and it seems quite
logical to use only the values that are the same. Clearly the Q is not the same
by nature of its position on the line, position 13, hence one must leave it out
of the sum.
Finally a complete overlay of the
coordinates appearing on parchment 1 has emerged. I cannot say with 100%
certainty that these are absolutely definitive but in my own heart I feel that
this particular arrangement has evolved through a process of observation,
deduction and logical reasoning and that to me at least, there is a good deal of
substance to it. It is true that some trial and error was used but then again I
am sure that every major discovery in the world was due to at least some trial
and error and I would be very surprised indeed if any of you researchers had not
done the same at some point in time.
Have these results yielded anything?
Well we still don't know where the treasure is. However one interesting observation
is that the pictogram's location on the actual map of the region appears to be at a place
called Villerouge-Termenès. What makes this spot so interesting is that the triangular
shape of the pictogram happens to be mirrored by a similar shape formed from three
Châteaux in a tight group, the Château of Villerouge-Termenés, the Château of Durfort
and the Château of Termes.
These are Châteaux which date back to the time of the crusades.
Interestingly, during the 13th
Century the owner of the Château de Termes (Olivier de Termes) was accorded 50% of the
profits derived from the mines of the region in return for all the timber required to run
them. The principal ore production was gold and silver.
So, the pictogram is situated at the
meeting point of three châteaux. This could once more be a simple coincidence although I
would have to say that the odds are slightly less than when I started. Also many of the
these bearings now have some firm basis in that information from the parchment seems to
have indicated just where they should be positioned. Superficially, at least, the parchment may
be revealing some of its secrets.
The following is a completed map showing
all the lines derived from the above plus all the bearings obtained from parchment 2.
Parchment 2 bearings are colour coded. The result is only an approximation and if you are
looking for 101% accuracy it will be necessary for you reproduce my findings yourself and
use them on maps of whatever scale you care to employ.
