Shugborough Inscription

Staffordshire, England

On the grounds of Shugborough Hall, an estate in Staffordshire, England lies a stone monument depicting a recreation of “The Arcadian Shepherds” by Nicolas Poussin. Etched just below it is an inscription consisting of ten letters, O-U-O-S-V-A-V-V, positioned beneath a sequence of symbols that include a Chi-Rho, a trident, and a sunburst.

Despite numerous attempts over the last 250 years to decipher the code by some of the world’s greatest minds including; Charles Dickens and Charles Darwin, no one has been able to conclusively determine its meaning. Some believe it represents a Masonic cipher, while others speculate it is a code used by the Knights Templar. Many have even suggested that the inscription holds the key to a hidden treasure on the estate.

One of the most famous interpretations of the code was proposed by author and researcher, Byron Preiss, in his book “The Secret: A Treasure Hunt“. Preiss claimed that the code was a clue to the location of one of twelve buried treasure casques hidden throughout North America as part of a treasure hunt he had organized. The Shugborough Inscription, according to Preiss, pointed to the location of the casque buried in Cleveland, Ohio.

Despite the popularity of Preiss’s theory, the actual location of the casques remains a mystery. In fact, only two of the casques have ever been found, leaving the fate of the remaining ten a subject of much speculation and fascination.

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For more information: Shugborough Estate

Sources:

“Shugborough Estate” www.nationaltrust.org.uk