Buried treasure

Common card · No. 369429

Buried treasure is a literary trope commonly associated with depictions of pirates, alongside Vikings, criminals, and outlaws in the Old West. According to popular conception, these people often buried their stolen fortunes in remote places, intending to return to them later (often with the use of a pirate's treasure map). Pirates burying treasure was a rare occurrence, with one of the best known legends being William Kidd, who was accused of burying some of his wealth on Gardiners Island. The myth of buried pirate treasure was popularized by such 19th-century fiction as "Wolfert Webber" by Washington Irving, "The Gold-Bug" by Edgar Allan Poe, and Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. The idea of treasure maps leading to buried treasure is considered a fictional device. There are cases of buried treasure from different historical periods, such as the Dacian king Decebalus and Visigoth king Alaric I, who both changed the course of rivers to hide their treasures. Legends of buried pirate...

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