The Chest Coins - A brief description

The coins discovered in the old buried chest numbered thirty and some had deteriorated to such an extent they can not be identified, others though had survived their incarceration in better condition and after cleaning some of these were identified. The coins date from 100BC all the way through to the 12th Century, many of which were in circulation in Jerusalem at the time of Jesus and Mary Magdalene.


15 of the better condition coins after cleaning

The coins seem to be telling a story, though with many of the coins unidentifiable we may never know their full meaning. With there being 30 coins in the chest, and although they are not silver, we can not help but link them to the 30 coins mentioned in the bible.

Judas' 30 Pieces of Silver - Matthew 26:14-15
"Then one of the 12, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests, and said unto them, 'What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you?' And they covenanted with him for 30 pieces of silver."

WIDOW MITES
The coins include those coins used by the poor widow referred to in scripture and on which Jesus comments:

Luke 21:1-4
1 And he looked up, and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury. 2 And he saw also a certain poor widow casting in two mites. 3 And he said, Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all: 4 For all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God: but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had.


Widow Mites showing both sides

Bronze Prutah, Obverse BASILEWS ALEXANDROU (King Alexander) around anchor; reverse eight ray star (or wheel) surrounded by diadem, Hebrew inscription “Yehonatan the king” between the rays.

The ANCHOR: The anchor was adopted from the Seleucids, who used it to symbolize their naval strength. Anchors are depicted upside down, as they would be seen hung on the side of a boat ready for use.

The STAR (Wheel): The star or star with diadem symbolizes heaven. Some prutah mites stars look more like wheels, and there is some debate as to whether that was meant to be a wheel or a star.

There was also a coin dating from the Crusader period.

CRUSADE COIN


BILLON SILVER DENIER OF THE LOCAL CRUSADER AREA
COMMANDER ANTIOCH-BOEMUND 3rd or 4th.
1149AD -1233 AD

Crusader.Principality of Antioch.
Bohemond III or IV c.1149AD-1233AD Bi.Denier.

BOAMANDVS, helmeted bust left, crescent in front star behind.
These coins were commonly used to pay the knights during the crusades.

MARCUS AMBIBULUS COIN


Marcus Ambibulus prefect under Augustus 9 A.D. - 12 A.D.
Minted at the approximate time that Jesus visited the Temple at age 12

Head of barley curved right; reverse palm tree with two bunches of dates

The palm is a date palm and this tree was a symbol of judea where these palms grew in great abundance. The palm also symbolised abundance and plenty, dignity, royal honour, jubilation and victory, and was used in religious processions.

In 6 AD, Herod Archelaus, son of Herod the Great, was deposed and banished to Gaul by Augustus. Archelaus' part of his father's kingdom (including Judea, Samaria, Idumea and Archelais) was (except for Archelais) organized as a Roman Procuratorial Province.

The coins of Herod Antipas were generally struck using poor metal alloys and consequently coins of his in this condition are extremely rare. HEROD ANTIPAS was the son of Herod the Great who became ruler of Galilee. He built the city of Tiberias as his capital. This is the Herod who was condemned by John the Baptist and later had John killed according to the Bible.

The Last Supper - Ben's Chest - Radio Interviews

The world has spoken! Fifteen million simultaneous hits crashed amateur Italian scholar Slavisa Pesci’s website where he had posted his work revealing hidden images in Da Vinci’s The Last Supper. Proof that no matter what anyone does to try and suppress it, the interest in the ideas behind this mystery has not waned. People want to know the truth NOW.

And if that is a woman, maybe even Mary Magdalene, holding a child, then Leonardo was very clearly encapsulating the Bloodline idea into The Last Supper.


Da Vinci’s The Last Supper


The Last Supper Reversed


Last Supper with Mirror Image Overlayed

In the coming weeks, we will be releasing more information, images and footage from Bloodline, so keep an eye on this site.

As we’ve previously revealed, the buried chest that Ben found contained ancient relics dating back to 1st Century Jerusalem.

As interesting as the contents are, although we haven’t spoken about it publicly before right now, the chest itself excited us on first sight because of an interesting emblem, faded, but still clearly visible on the top of the lid.



Those of you familiar with the Rennes-le-Chateau mystery will immediately recognize this image.

Analysis of the chest by Royal cabinet makers Beckwith & Son in England, dated the chest to as early as 1800 and notes that it gave the appearance of having been kept underground.


Bruce and I had the recent pleasure of doing a couple of radio interviews which are live on the internet right now—the first was with the esteemed panel of Rennes-le-Chateau researchers, Andrew Gough, Philip Coppens and Corjan de Raaf at www.rennessence.com, and the second was with RLC author William Henry and can be heard at www.unknowncountry.com/dreamland. If you have a moment, stop by those great sites where you’ll not only find our interviews, but lots of great information on this mystery!

Thanks, as always, for your continued interest.

René Barnett, Producer

Filming the research and discoveries of ‘Ben Hammott’, aka 'The Tombman'

We have been promising, amidst widespread curiosity and speculation, exciting news about discoveries in France. I can now confirm that Bruce has spent much of the last twelve months filming the research and discoveries of ‘Ben Hammott’, aka 'The Tombman'.

Back in 2000, Ben and his brother discovered what appeared to be an extraordinary tomb not far from the village of Rennes-Le-Chateau. As many of you know, he posted images that he’d captured at the time on his website, but few took him, or his find, seriously.


In 2006, as part of his investigations for Bloodline, Bruce met up with Ben to learn more about his find. By using what he said were a series of encoded messages in the décor of the church at RLC, Ben had discovered a series of bottles containing handwritten, signed, “confessions” of the priest Sauniere.


The contents, if they were true, were stunning.
"I have done what I have done to preserve the secret. Maybe in the future the time will come for the secret to be revealed because it is too great a secret to be kept for all eternity."

"I abandon and renounce my religion I now know to be false…Jesus did not die on the Crucifix but 22 days later. Mary Magdalene removed his body from his tomb. The Disciples and the People were fooled about his Resurrection."

"His body has been hidden three times…For many centuries this great lie has been concealed."

The signatures, at least, on the clues are similar to those on letters from the priest’s own archives, supplied by Antoine Captier.


Each clue led Ben to another. The final one led to a cave near Rennes-le-Chateau, which has come to be known in recent times as ‘the Cave of the Magdalene’.

Bruce joined Ben for the hike to the cave, and it was there they discovered the the small pottery cup, an anointing jar, the glass vial containing the rolled parchment and a collection of ancient coins.


Those of you who have followed the news on our site will know by now that after analysis, by both the British Museum in London and Dr Gabi Barkay in Jerusalem, those contents were proved to be genuine 1st Century relics, most likely brought from Jerusalem to France.


The question Bruce faced was whether these relics had been found originally in the tomb of Mary Magdalene, and if so, was that a very strong indication she is buried in the area as the legends suggest ?

The small piece of parchment rolled up inside the glass vial was dated to circa 1430 by the radio carbon lab at Oxford University. On it were the words Regalis Crypta or Royal Tombs and the letters MM.


Among the written confessions on one of the clues was this…

"I have dug the earth to make a passage to the mountain tomb….I found there beautiful things…a treasure and a corpse…the sacred letters, the sacred history and the sacred objects of the Jews…because it had been buried for so long the shroud was all in tatters exposing me to a great secret…”

Had the priest found the tomb of Mary Magdalene? And was this what Ben had discovered back in 2000?


Inside there was what appeared to be a shrouded corpse, bearing the distinctive red cross of the Knights Templar.

There were also a number of wooden chests and other artifacts scattered on the ground.

It appeared as if someone had started to loot this tomb.

It was clearly time to re-examine Ben’s tomb, and in early 2007 Ben took Bruce to the tomb site.

The only access to it was a deep, winding narrow air shaft. Using fibre optic cables and a remote camera, Ben unsealed the tomb shaft and lowered the equipment down into the tomb.

It was soon clear from the images on the monitor that there had been a heavy rock fall inside the tomb sometime since Ben's last filming visit. Much of the floor was now covered in debris, but the shrouded corpse was still there.


As the remote camera moved around the tomb it revealed open chests with gold cups, coins and jewels…..


A badly rotted book, or Codex….


The shrouded body.


Bruce had this to say: “It's really too early to say whose body is under the shroud. Wild speculation serves no purpose, and as recent finds in Jerusalem have proved, I think it can be damaging. We need to take this really slow, proceed very carefully, do the tests, analysis and then see what’s what. One thing is for certain though, this is a real corpse, in a real tomb, surrounded by real treasure. Whoever it is, this could be a very important historical find. That is why plans are underway to approach the French authorities for a full scale excavation of the site.”

We will update you with more news in due time. Thanks again for your interest, and thanks especially for all the supportive emails that continue to come in.

Rene Barnett
Producer

Priory of Sion and Bloodline families confirm items as genuine relics.

Representatives of the Priory of Sion and the Bloodline families have confirmed to us in a series of emails and telephone conversations that the items in the chest: the cup, the anointing jar and the vial are all genuine relics.

They said that the cup and the anointing jar were both used at the wedding of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene and have been passed down by families in the Bloodline for centuries as sacred relics celebrating that Royal union.

We have been promised further details and ‘incontrovertible proof’ of the items provenance.


__________________________________________________________________________________________

The Oxford Radio Carbon Laboratory, famous for its dating of the Turin Shroud, has just completed its analysis of the small rolled up parchment that we found in the glass vial.
According to their tests, carried out in January 2006, there is a 95.4% probability that the parchment dates from between 1430AD and 1520AD.
__________________________________________________________________________________________

We are also pleased to show the latest photographs, after cleaning, of the ancient coins that were found in the chest.

“ It looks like someone’s collection from parts Levantine, with Byzantine, East Roman provincial and even a crusader coin. The coins date from Jewish King Alexander Geneas of the Hasmonean dynasty 100BC through to the late Roman period, into the Byzantine Emperors of the 5th and 6th centuries up to the Crusades in the 12th Century.”
Richard Abdy, Department of Coins and Medals, British Museum
__________________________________________________________________________________________

Bloodline is nearing completion at our edit studio in Los Angeles. We will begin screening a rough cut of the film over the next week for friends and family and to iron out any kinks.
After that we will be showing it to studios and distributors here in Hollywood and perhaps arrange for screenings at one or two Festivals around the world, to help spread the word.
__________________________________________________________________________________________

We remain thrilled that several best-selling authors, academics and theologians have come on board to support the film and its findings. Here are some of the latest…

"Let me be the first to congratulate you on the good vibe and pr you seem to be getting on your BLOODLINE production. Good title! Good luck !
Robert Eisenman, Director of the Institute for Judeo-Christian Origins at California State University Long Beach, Visiting Senior Member of Linacre College, Oxford and author of the newly released "New Testament Code."

"In thirty years years as a Rennes researcher, this could be the most important find ever made…if this IS the cup from the wedding and the anointing jar used by Mary Magdalene then this find is truly AWESOME…”
The Reverend Lionel Fanthorpe, Anglican priest, author and journalist

"This vessel (the jar) is very clearly, beyond any doubt, Jerusalemite, from the 2nd Temple period. It is an unguentarium and usually contained oil based perfumes. Best of luck with your film !"
Dr. Gabi Barkay, Senior Lecturer of Bar Ilan University currently excavating the Temple Mount.

"If this cup and jar are connected to Jesus, Mary Magdalene and/or their descendants then this would corroborate what I have been saying for years, that they were married and that their Bloodline does exist."
Sir Laurence Gardner, author The Magdalene Legacy, The Bloodline of the Grail, The Lost Secrets of the Sacred Ark and the forthcoming The Hidden Descent from Jesus

“I find sufficient evidence in the New Testament to convince me that Jesus was married. I hope he was. I would rejoice if that supposition could be proved…I wish you well with this film.”
The Right Reverend John Shelby Spong, Episcopal Bishop of Newark, New Jersey (retired), author and lecturer

“(the jar)…It is from the late Greek Period, Hellenistic, 1st century BC into the early 1st century AD. It’s an unguentum orca, an anointing jar, from the east Mediterranean which would have been used to carry an oil based perfume.”