Amateurs find major clue that £15,000,000,000 treasure trove actually exists

A team of archaeologists hunting a mythical treasure trove said to be worth over £15 billion have found an ancient axe, thought to be the first real evidence the hoard actually exists.

According to Scandinavian folklore, the fabled ‘Lemminkäinen Temple’ lies in the depths of a Finnish cave and contains generations of pagan riches.

The vast treasure is said to contain ‘mountains’ of gemstones, gold, and rare antiquities with a conservative value of at least £15,000,000,000.

But the cave’s entrance and limestone passageways were said to have been filled with mud and clay in the Middle Ages to protect the Temple from Christian crusaders sometime in the 10th century, and remained undisturbed ever since.

Proof of the temple’s existence has been elusive despite a decades-long effort by international treasure hunters and hundreds of professional excavations.

But a group of 12 ‘stony broke’ friends, nicknamed the ‘Temple Twelve’ could now be on the verge of hitting the jackpot after finding an ancient axe head inside the mouth of the cave.

The tool, which was buried in a mound of granite rubble and clay, is thought to be around 1,000 years old.

While its wooden handle has long since rotted away, its anatomy and metallic composition is said to ‘perfectly reflect the type of axes used by Vikings in that period of history’.

Its location is also said to lend ‘firm weight’ to the notion that the cave was purposefully filled-in by hand and not by the natural build-up of silt over the centuries.

Originally armed with little more than plastic buckets and spades, the Temple Twelve have spent up to six hours-a-day, seven days-a-week, digging through the labyrinthine cave complex near Helsinki.

Despite having no archaeological training they have spent the last 37 years – and more than 100,000 hours – removing mud and rock from the cave in the hope of accessing its main chamber and striking lucky.

The team devotes each summer to the backbreaking task while living on earnings from seasonal work across the rest of the year.

But if the axe head leads to the discovery of the hoard, each of its 12 members-who have not made a penny from their toils to date -could pocket up to £1.25billion.

Historian and author Carl Borgen, the world’s leading authority on the Lemminkäinen Hoard, has been in regular contact with the Temple Twelve since their excavations began in 1987, and is one of only a handful of ‘outsiders’ they confide in.

His book ‘Temporarily Insane’ chronicles their quest and gets its name from the group’s ‘blinkered, often dangerous obsession’.

Speaking yesterday from his home in Amsterdam, Holland, Borgen said: ‘The group’s discovery is very certainly the first real evidence of the existence of the Temple.

‘It is my understanding that the axe is of Viking origin and that its presence in that part of the cave, buried as it was under rubble and clay, very strongly supports the story that access to the Temple was blocked to prevent access to the Temple below.

‘It is no exaggeration to say that The Temple Twelve are chomping at the bit to get started again this summer and to make the breakthrough we’re all hoping for.’

The hoard is believed to lie within the labyrinthine Sibbosberg cave system close to the coastal resort of Gumbostrand, 20 miles east of Finland’s capital, Helsinki.

References to the temple have appeared in Finnish folklore dating back nearly three thousand years.

According to local landowner Ior Bock, tens of thousands of jewels, ancient artefacts, and life-size gold statues of Lemminkäinen- a prominent figure in Finnish folklore- had been stashed in several interconnected chambers over thousands of years.

But in the 10th century, the cave’s treasures were hidden by local pagans to protect them from invading Christian armies from neighbouring Sweden.

Bock’s aged family line-the Boxström-had been keepers of the secret, and guardians of the cave’s treasures, since then.

The landowner, who never married or had children, revealed the temple’s existence to The SKS Archives in Helsinki in 1987, which documents the oral and written cultural heritage of Finland, to ensure its untold story would not die with him.

Since then, news of the so-called ‘Bock Saga’ had spread worldwide and the possibility of finding the temple’s entrance had attracted the attention of historians, corporate sponsors, and professional archaeologists.

It also captured the imagination of amateur treasure hunters, who flocked to the site in search of gold and glory.

Among them was a group of 24 “likeminded strangers”-12 men and 12 women-who joined forces with Ior Bock to become the site’s first and only permanent, self-funded excavation team.

Since that time, most of the original party have left or died, including Bock himself, who was murdered by a personal assistant in 2010.

There are now a dozen members, two of whom were part of the original 24.

Their number has been maintained across the years with new members from Finland, Sweden, Norway, Holland, Germany, Australia, Russia, and the United States.

The ‘Temple Twelve’, as they have become known, camp nearby and spend each summer hunting for proof that Bock’s claims of an undiscovered ancient civilisation were true.

Using rudimentary tools, the group has so far removed several four-tonne blocks from the cave’s entrance and have excavated around 400 tonnes of sediment below it.

During the last season of digging, two of the group – Johan Rikberg, 40, and Marcus Lundqvist, 44 – spotted an axe head in the mud, 14metres inside the entrance of the cave.

The tool weighs 713g, is about 20cm in length, and is made with the ‘sparing’ use of iron

Based on the size of its central ‘eye’, it is believed to be the exact same style, weight, and metallic composition of other Viking axes of the period, and as there were no Finnish Viking settlements, is assumed to have been obtained by the local pagans through trade.

According to the Temple Twelve, the axe’s discovery proves Bock’s story to be true.

Photographs of the axe were revealed for the first time yesterday by the group’s historian, Carl Borgen.

He said: ‘I spoke to Johan and to Marcus shortly after the made the discovery, and there is now absolutely no doubt in their minds that the Temple and its riches exist.’

The Temple Twelve are now planning to ‘put everything they’ve got’ into clearing the remaining silt and locating the temple’s chambers.

This should be easier this year, they say, thanks to a donation of dynamite.

When digging resumes this summer, the team is confident that the narrow window-between late May and mid-September-will be ‘easily sufficient’ to reach the temple entrance.

The axe is now being scientifically examined and dated by Museovirasto, the Finnish Heritage Agency. Their findings are expected within three years.

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