✕ marks the spot

X-marks-the-spot

A desk-based, mostly-for-fun catalog of famous lost treasures. Every treasure carries citation-gated facts and three ordinal scores — Exists, Findable now, and Findable (frontier) — displayed as named bands, never false-precision decimals. 33 treasures, scored in run #1 (M1 UAT run).

Rankings

Leaderboard
Most likely still out there
Ranked by the Exists score — did it exist and survive? Resolved cases are labelled; a found case scoring high is the calibration working, not a bug.
Leaderboard
Most undervalued
High plausibility, low attention: P(exists) x (1 - attention), where attention blends fame with how many teams have already searched. The index-fund view of treasure hunting — plausible and neglected.
Leaderboard
Best innovation payoff
Where an emerging technique moves the needle most: the gap between the frontier findability (emerging/speculative techniques at weight) and findability now. Big gap = a technique breakthrough would change the game.
History
Score-delta changelog
What moved between the last two scoring runs, and each treasure's band history as an inline sparkline.

Catalog

TreasureClassStatusExistsFindable now FrontierHistory
Antikythera Wreck Remaining Cargo shipwreck cargo OPEN LIKELY PLAUSIBLY-FINDABLE PLAUSIBLY-FINDABLE
Ark of the Covenant legendary OPEN DOUBTFUL LONG-SHOT LONG-SHOT
Beale Ciphers legendary HOAX ALMOST-CERTAINLY-NOT HARD-BUT-POSSIBLE HARD-BUT-POSSIBLE
Confederate Gold buried hoard OPEN CONTESTED HARD-BUT-POSSIBLE PLAUSIBLY-FINDABLE
Copper Scroll Treasure vault mystery OPEN CONTESTED LONG-SHOT LONG-SHOT
Cuerdale Hoard buried hoard FOUND LIKELY LONG-SHOT LONG-SHOT
Flor de la Mar shipwreck cargo OPEN CONTESTED HARD-BUT-POSSIBLE HARD-BUT-POSSIBLE
Fort Knox Gold Reserve Audit vault mystery OPEN CONTESTED LONG-SHOT LONG-SHOT
Honjo Masamune lost art OPEN CONTESTED LONG-SHOT LONG-SHOT
Hoxne Hoard buried hoard FOUND LIKELY LONG-SHOT LONG-SHOT
Jean Lafitte's Buried Loot buried hoard OPEN CONTESTED LONG-SHOT LONG-SHOT
Kruger Millions buried hoard OPEN CONTESTED LONG-SHOT LONG-SHOT
Library of Alexandria's lost scrolls lost art DESTROYED DOUBTFUL LONG-SHOT LONG-SHOT
Lima Treasure buried hoard OPEN CONTESTED PLAUSIBLY-FINDABLE PLAUSIBLY-FINDABLE
Loot of the Old Summer Palace wartime loot OPEN CONTESTED LONG-SHOT LONG-SHOT
Lost Dutchman's Gold Mine legendary OPEN DOUBTFUL HARD-BUT-POSSIBLE PLAUSIBLY-FINDABLE
Lost Faberge Imperial Eggs lost art OPEN CONTESTED LONG-SHOT LONG-SHOT
Lost Insular Gospel Manuscripts lost in archives OPEN CONTESTED LONG-SHOT LONG-SHOT
MH370 High-Value Cargo shipwreck cargo OPEN LIKELY HARD-BUT-POSSIBLE HARD-BUT-POSSIBLE
Mary Dear treasure buried hoard OPEN CONTESTED LONG-SHOT LONG-SHOT
Merchant Royal shipwreck cargo OPEN CONTESTED PLAUSIBLY-FINDABLE PLAUSIBLY-FINDABLE
Nazi Gold Train wartime loot OPEN DOUBTFUL PLAUSIBLY-FINDABLE PLAUSIBLY-FINDABLE
Nuestra Señora de Atocha shipwreck cargo FOUND VERY-LIKELY PLAUSIBLY-FINDABLE PLAUSIBLY-FINDABLE
Oak Island Money Pit legendary HOAX ALMOST-CERTAINLY-NOT HARD-BUT-POSSIBLE HARD-BUT-POSSIBLE
Panagyurishte Treasure buried hoard FOUND LIKELY LONG-SHOT LONG-SHOT
Priam's Treasure lost art DISPUTED LIKELY PLAUSIBLY-FINDABLE PLAUSIBLY-FINDABLE
SS Central America shipwreck cargo FOUND LIKELY HARD-BUT-POSSIBLE HARD-BUT-POSSIBLE
San José galleon shipwreck cargo FOUND LIKELY PLAUSIBLY-FINDABLE PLAUSIBLY-FINDABLE
Staffordshire Hoard buried hoard FOUND LIKELY LONG-SHOT LONG-SHOT
The Amber Room lost art OPEN CONTESTED PLAUSIBLY-FINDABLE PLAUSIBLY-FINDABLE
The Mountain Eagle lost in archives OPEN CONTESTED LONG-SHOT LONG-SHOT
The Storm on the Sea of Galilee lost art OPEN CONTESTED LONG-SHOT LONG-SHOT
Yamashita's Gold wartime loot OPEN CONTESTED LONG-SHOT LONG-SHOT