National Treasure (2004) is lowkey an American history lesson disguised as a heist movie—or vice versa? Either way, there are no cavemen in it, so we have invited Kyle from the History According to Hollywood Podcast to help us Commonwealth citizens understand the American obsession with faded old documents, broken bells, and Benjamin Franklin.

Listen to the History According to Hollywood Podcast – maybe the episode where Josh joined them to discuss 10,000 B.C.? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBdkfjssevo&list=PLMIHuz5VH0Xdk_w8feD8qJiLM0ygQ-eBl&index=2

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Email: screensofthestoneage@gmail.com

In this episode:

The Silence Dogood Letters: https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-01-02-0008

The Charlotte: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_(1784_ship)

Revolutionary War codes and invisible ink: https://www.mountvernon.org/george-washington/the-revolutionary-war/spying-and-espionage/spy-techniques-of-the-revolutionary-war

Symbols on American Money: https://www.philadelphiafed.org/-/media/frbp/assets/institutional/education/publications/symbols-on-american-money.pdf

Ben Franklin didn’t invent Daylight Saving Time: https://fi.edu/en/science-and-education/benjamin-franklin/daylight-savings-time

George Washington Inaugural Buttons & Medalets 1789 & 1793 by J. Harold Cobb C.P.A.: https://kirkmitchell.tripod.com/CobbGW/GWIBM.pdf

Treasure hunting laws: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/article/130306-finders-keepers-treasure-hunting-law-uk-us

The Repatriation of Egyptian Art: https://scholarship.law.ufl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1054&context=jtlp

Treasure hunters allege the FBI made off with Civil War-era gold and covered it up: https://www.npr.org/2022/06/13/1104823285/treasure-hunters-fbi-gold-civil-war

Metal detectorist who stole £3m Viking hoard jailed for five more years: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/sep/12/metal-detectorist-who-stole-3m-viking-hoard-jailed-for-five-more-years

Amistad (1997): https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118607/

Skullduggery (1970): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEyACQ0Yvy0