Stone marker?

joshua2004

Jr. Member
Jan 31, 2015
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2.jpg
 

joshua2004

Jr. Member
Jan 31, 2015
25
4
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Hope someone can give good reading... and have good explanation....
 

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tabu

Full Member
Oct 17, 2011
141
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Primary Interest:
Cache Hunting
I wonder if the concept of TAKUTSOBU or "octopus trap" often used by the JIA would help you in your search.
 

tabu

Full Member
Oct 17, 2011
141
22
Primary Interest:
Cache Hunting
Josh,

I'm afraid I can't give you an adequate explanation right now. However, aside from searching for "Takutsobu" in the
Internet, we have a good number of TreasureNet members who can elucidate the said concept and its possible relevance to your search.

You have to remind yourself that there are still nagging questions regarding the engraved markings in stone. Are they really of WWII JIA vintage? Concluding that they are (I.e., Japanese) is at best circumstantial. It is not unlikely that they could be markings made by preHispanic inhabitants and therefore quite ancient. How so? Your place is on a slope (flood-free, well-drained) and in close proximity to sources of water and these would make it an ideal location for habitation by natives. Furthermore, the markings you showed bear some resemblance to ancient Bisayan script.
 

tabu

Full Member
Oct 17, 2011
141
22
Primary Interest:
Cache Hunting
Josh,


I would agree with you that the signs are more JIA than Bisayan. Looking over the ancient Visayan alphabets, there is not one script that closely resembles or approximates the shape of the engraved mark in your turtle stone. It could be an obscure symbol, though.

Oftentimes, trying to solve a puzzle such as this one with so many missing pieces can only make you wonder WHAT IF I was a living witness and not presently a "victim" of numerous conflicting historical "conspiracy" theories?

Don't give up.For all we know underneath all those head scratchings lay the EUREKA! moment.
 

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tabu

Full Member
Oct 17, 2011
141
22
Primary Interest:
Cache Hunting
By the way, are there limestone outcrops in your place? If so, be open to the possibility of hidden caverns. About 3 years ago, I accompanied a group of villagers from a hinterland barrio to look over a possible treasure site: a medium-size rocky ledge below a winding mountain dirt road. Underneath the overhang were assorted piles of sharp and angular pieces of rocks of various shapes and sizes. Obviously these were the remnants of an explosive demolition and possibly done during WWII. They were painstakingly removed and to everyone's surprise a tight passageway was discovered underneath that lead into a small cavern with a few interconnecting spaces. It was never explored thoroughly because the people were wary of repeated sightings of big snakes inside. Above the said hollow spaces was a cornfield planted on a slope with occasional limestone outcrop jutting here and there.
 

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tabu

Full Member
Oct 17, 2011
141
22
Primary Interest:
Cache Hunting
Trivia:

The Philippines is composed of 7,100 islands and an archipelago inhabited by many tribes with diverse and unique socio-cultural traditions. As the precious metal gold is quite abundant and found in all the major island groups, it is no big surprise to find beautifully-made jewelries and other artifacts of the metal in burial grounds of long abandoned and forgotten settlements.

Like a simple farmer in the 50's who picked up a pretty gold headband from a new upturned furrow as he was plowing his field in preparation for planting corn.
 

tabu

Full Member
Oct 17, 2011
141
22
Primary Interest:
Cache Hunting
RE: Stone Markers, Landmarks and Signs

A recurring question that begs for a satisfactory answer (or answers) for the ordinary searcher:

In hiding war booty like gold bullion ( to be retrieved later on under more favorable circumstances), would you "sprinkle" the immediate vicinity of the site with landmarks and signs to guide you in the subsequent planned retrieval? Treasure hunters are not that dense in not being able to disregard "decoy" or misleading signs thrown into the mix. Or would rather have the treasure concealed or buried somewhere else unmarked, difficult to pinpoint but still easily located through a set of engineering mathematical formulae only known to a few in the JIA High Command?

Treasure concealment is an art. And so is enticing people to look in the wrong place.
 

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tabu

Full Member
Oct 17, 2011
141
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Primary Interest:
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If one is observant enough, he or she will notice that in the company of an aging Japanese WII veteran (or even the not so old timer) armed with a treasure sketch or map, the same son of the Rising Sun will merely use a compass to locate key landmarks and proceed to triangulate with a fair amount of accuracy the exact spot where the treasure is buried or the very portal to where it is hidden.

No metal detector, no GPR, no physical obliteration of signs. And no mindless digging.
 

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tabu

Full Member
Oct 17, 2011
141
22
Primary Interest:
Cache Hunting
Analyze this sign-strewn boulder.

Over the years curious passers-by have given it more than a passing glance and treasure hunters have examined and dissected the surface markings and presumably most have left scratching their heads. Except perhaps for a few who have knowledge of JIN wartime records but unfortunately have no real access to the site until now of where the treasure is buried. The signs are so numerous and all over and occasionally elaborately engraved that one is tempted to conclude that it is merely "decoy" to "fence in" searchers within the immediate area and to prevent them from looking further out.


DSC01356.jpg DSC01357.jpg

But spare me THE questions. Answers I have none.
 

tabu

Full Member
Oct 17, 2011
141
22
Primary Interest:
Cache Hunting
By the way, the stone is not soft limestone. It's hard as granite.
 

tabu

Full Member
Oct 17, 2011
141
22
Primary Interest:
Cache Hunting
DSC01362.jpg

Also waiting to be deciphered and found several meters away from the boulder. It's a broken heart. But don't tarry too long or it will break yours, too.
 

tabu

Full Member
Oct 17, 2011
141
22
Primary Interest:
Cache Hunting
View attachment 1516934 View attachment 1516937 View attachment 1516939

And finally, analyze this:

It is unglazed-tile smooth, heavy and dark gray under a thin, oxidized exterior. Badly rust-stained, the surface is now lighter in color after immersion in strong hydrochloric acid for several weeks. It was discovered fifteen meters away from the big stone marker and when found it was surrounded by a mix of reddish soil and broken rock debris— about eight meters deep under the original WWII bamboo stand as inferred by decades-old, crumbly stumps of residual culm and friable underground stringers or long, thin roots “hanging” in the laterite subsoil. The remaining surviving green bamboo cluster has crept more than three meters away during the last seventy years or so.

I decided to dump this over-sized egg back into the hole after I chanced upon my five-year old grandson carrying it around and playing with it— risking a badly-crushed toe or worse.

One of these days a nosy amateur treasure hunter will ask me about the site and make an attempt at retrieving the egg. However, I have made up my mind to move on and with no regrets. Who cares about some old crappy stone? I rationalized— it’s just an inconsequential piece of an elaborate Japanese treasure concealment diversionary scheme. Like the sooty root fragment astray at one meter depth that turned out to be the tip of a burnt tree trunk, two meters long and standing on a flat river stone farther down— unmarked but pinpointed— rather, wild guessed on a hunch by a previous field triangulation.

It has been sometime since the stone was unceremoniously tossed back into where it came from—hopefully forgotten and undisturbed. In the end I smugly concluded that I have been saved from a lifetime of pointless rumination. Enlightened, perhaps? Or maybe just plain foolish and rash. Whichever, the aroma of steaming hot morning coffee won’t make things any different.
 

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