Book of Secrets (2007)
The Olmec Plank
From the film · 00:48:00
“It's pre-Columbian. It's Olmec.”
A safehouse in London, Patrick squinting at the plank under a desk lamp
What we know
A small carved wooden plank with Olmec-style glyphs along its long edge
The Olmec are Mesoamerica's oldest major civilization, flourishing on the Gulf Coast of Mexico from roughly 1500 BCE through 400 BCE. Their carving style — colossal heads, were-jaguar motifs, particular rendering of feathered birds and human hands — is unmistakable to anyone who's spent time in the basement at Dumbarton Oaks. The plank carries a partial inscription: a noble bird (almost certainly an eagle), a hand, and a word that looks like "sacred" or "temple" depending on translation. The plank is half a map. To complete it we need the other plank's mirror inscription — and that is in the kneehole of the Oval Office Resolute desk. Which means, regretfully, the Oval Office.
The Puzzle
Mount Vernon’s service tunnel, beneath the cellar level. Washington walked an apprentice through here in 1799 and showed him a ledge holding a small hand-blown bottle. Find the bottle.
Probes: 0