Templar Dig in Bulgaria Continues

Last December, Grail Seekers reported on an archeological survey being funded by the modern day Templar Organization Ordo Supremus Militaris Templi Hierosolymitani (OSMTH) in Bulgaria. The dig was codenamed “Nisovo Project” and has been headed up by the “Indiana Jones” of Bulgarian archeology Nikolai Ovcharov. Ovcharov, a member of the OSMTH himself, has made a number of fascinating discoveries this summer that has given us a hint as to the “Nisovo Project’s” goals. More to the point, a report reprinted on the Visit Bulgaria web site yesterday makes me think they might be close to their mark.

The avowed purpose of the Nisovo Project was to search for evidence of Templar activity in the Russe region of Bulgaria. Specifically, reports last year mentioned proposed digs in the cities of Russe, Nisovo, and one time capitol Veliko Tarnovo. There is little doubt, in my mind, that the Templars would have held interest in this region due to its strategic location. The city of Nisovo lays near an over land route Crusaders from Teutonic held regions would likely have taken into Constantinople.

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A series of finds at the 13th Century monastery of St. Ivan Rilski in Veliko Tarnovo hints at a possible unnamed goal for Project Nisovo. During the excavations of the monastery, Ovcharov’s team found a number of graves and random gold coins on site. The telling find was that of Tsar Ivan Shishman`s treasure. Shishman was the last Tsar of Bulgaria before the country was taken over by the Ottoman Empire.

Before the fine in June, Shishman’s treasure was simply a legend. In a 2007 Radio Bulgaria interview on the fortress of Urvich, Ovcharov mentions this legend and another related to the last Tsar’s reign. According to the interview, “Legends also tell about the existence of Tsar Ivan Shishman’s treasure and library hidden in the region. They, too, titillate the archeologists’ imagination. The scholars are hoping that the archeological exploration of the fortress [fortress of Urvich] could be launched by the autumn of 2007.”

While Shishman’s treasure was found over 150 miles east of Urvich, its existence was confirmed and a legend dispelled. Could this mean that after finding one piece of Shisman’s legacy, Project Nisovo aims to find the library as well? Within a Tsar’s library there is no telling what could be found. At very least, titles or land grants to organizations and citizens might be found. These records, if they exist, could possibly span back to the beginning of the Second Bulgaria Empire in 1186. What better way to track Templars in Bulgaria than finding out where their holding were.

The report in the Visit Bulgaria web site yesterday makes me think that they are looking for just that. Ovcharov’s team found, in Nisovo, a “medieval burial of a mother and a child. The bodies were laid to resemble those of the Virgin Mary and Infant as usually depicted on icons.” While this in of itself is highly unusual, it’s what the article goes on to say about the unknown origins of Nisovo that caught my eye.

“One of the hypothesis for the origin of the village [Nisovo] is that it was inhibited by the descendants of the Bulgarian aristocracy that fled Veliko Tarnovo, the capital of the Second Bulgarian kingdom at the invasion of the Ottoman Turks in the 14th century. The expedition to Nisovo was carried out thanks to the exclusive financial support of the Priory of Knights Templars in Bulgaria.”

Now where better to find a lost library than the hiding place of the aristocracy after the Ottoman invasion? Anyone up for a trip to Bulgaria to find out?

Bloodline Movie Review

It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honor of kings is to search out a matter.

Proverbs 25:2 KJV

Albeit a little on the tardy side, which seems to be my lot these days, I’ve decided to come full circle with the Blooline issue. I finally got an advance copy of the film a few weeks back from a fellow Grail Seeker. The ripped copy came a full week before the release copy I preordered came in the mail. I guess anything in the shadowy Grail world is possible.

Since then I’ve watched the film at least three times. I searched the footage for minutia that would assist me in coming to a conclusion on the film’s veracity, but to quell questions within myself. Since going to New York for the initial press conference held at the Jewish Museum in May, I’ve had doubts about continuing on with my work here. The range of reasons stem from a spectrum of thoughts ranging from “If this is real, what is there really left to search for” to “If this is an elaborate hoax, why should I waste my time picking through the chaff of charlatans?”

Given this mindset, in watching Bloodlines, it was as if our Mulder and Scully from X-Files were having a running dialogue in my head. Given the theme of the recent X-Files movie, this didn’t seem too far a stretch. Their internal dialogue seemed a fitting, if not goofy, way to structure my review.

Scully: Are we done watching that self aggrandizing hoax yet? It’s the third time he’s made us sit through it. This Kannard fellow is nice enough, but a grown man displaying Dogs Playing Poker in his home is a greater mystery than that film.

Mulder: Come on Scully, he calls it his War Room; it’s obviously his version of the Fortress of Solitude. The whole thing isn’t a hoax; you saw the body this Hammott fellow found in the cave. Besides you could tell Nicholas Haywood believed what he was saying was true. There were none of the classic tells, no breaking eye contact when ask a question, no nervous ticks, no poker face tells. You’ve interviewed enough suspects to have seen that.

Scully: People with mental disorders believe they are Napoleon and are quite convincing at it, but that doesn’t make it true. There was no supporting documentation. No officials from the French government buying into the find, no time or date stamps showing a time line of events, blurred out faces and garbled non descript voices, boxes and bottles found throughout an area treasure hunters have combed for years, and associations with people who might well have faked or stolen documents. P.T. Barnum did a better job with the Fiji Mermaid.

Mulder: Scully, when was the last time the History Channel presented the documentation you were looking for? There is reputable scientific DNA, carbon dating tests, and archeological testing that has been done on various items they found and posted on their web sites. The History Channel doesn’t do that. One thing you have to remember about the folks involved in some of the interviews is they don’t want to be known. Maybe this Hammott guy is smarter than the average treasure hunter. Yes, I know his finds have been attacked as fakes based on the use of French grammar and the like. But maybe Sauniere’s housekeeper did all of this after he died and never divulged it to anyone. She supposedly was told his secret on his deathbed, maybe she was not that educated and parroted his writings for someone else to find.

Scully: Nothing of the sort, you just want to believe that all of this is true Mulder. For every argument I have you’ll have a “plausible” counter. So I’m wasting my breath.

Mulder: You’re right Scully; I do want to believe that it’s true. That will always be the difference between you and me.

That is the point of difference for everyone that watches the film. One falls into three camps: Those that believe, those that don’t believe, and those that think there’s something to this but not everything that has been presented is on the mark. View Bloodlines with an open mind and let your faith guide your decisions.