THE LOST SKULL
An Armchair Treasure Hunt
Overview
In September 2019 a Kickstarter was launched by game designer Robert Brewer. The Kickstarter was about a SciFi armchair treasure hunt book that Brewer was going to launch. A little over a month later the book was launched and the hunt began. The book contained amazing artworks hiding 10 cryptic puzzles which when solved would reveal coordinates that lead to the hiding place of the famed Lost Skull of Orion, a skull crafted from marble!
At the start of 2020 treasure hunters Nick Spera and Robert Jenner had solved the puzzles, flown out to the location and in the early hours of the morning dug up the Lost Skull winning a cash prize of $1,000. At the end of this article you can find the expedition journal wrote by Nick Spera and Robert Jenner describing how they solved the puzzles and their epic adventure going to retrieve the Lost Skull of Orion.
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Origins
The Lost Skull is a richly illustrated armchair treasure hunt book created by author, artist and game designer Robert Brewer in 2019. All the treasure hunters in the galaxy are searching for the famed Lost Skull of Orion. Captivated by the Masquerade and The Secret treasure hunt books as a child Robert Brewer discovered that the armchair treasure hunt genre of book was a great hobby to get involved in and decided he too would like to bring the thrill, adventure, and magic of hunting for treasure to others. For the next six months Brewer designed the artwork and puzzles and completed the Lost Skull armchair treasure hunt.
The Lost Skull project started out on Kickstarter so that funding could be gathered in order to publish the book and have it mass distributed. Backers of the project through Kickstarter were offered an extra incentive of receiving the book first and they would be sent an additional clue that wouldn’t be included in the wide release of the book. The Kickstarter was a success and the book launched in October 2019 sending treasure hunters on a researching frenzy in hopes of being the first to solve the clues and claim the Lost Skull.
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The Treasure
The first person to solve the 10 puzzles and locate the treasure would be the proud new owner of The Lost Skull of Orion, a skull crafted from marble weighing 3.3lbs and worth around $500. But, that’s not all, in addition to the skull the winners would receive a cash prize of $1,000!
A runner up prize for the first person to send a picture of themselves at all 10 locations would also be offered in the form of $500 cash.
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The Clues
Hidden in the beautiful artwork of this SciFi adventure are 10 puzzles in the form of riddles, logic problems, and hidden clues in the images. When solved, these puzzles reveal the coordinates of the location of the treasure’s hiding place. The clues come in varying levels of difficulty so that it could be accessible to those familiar with puzzles and those who were new to the armchair treasure hunt genre.
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Conclusion
At the start of February 2020 treasure hunters Nick Spera and Robert Jenner solved all 10 clues and recovered the Lost Skull of Orion from its hiding place and claimed $1,000! Nick and Robert flew out to Hudson Ohio where in the early hours of the morning dug up the famed Lost Skull of Orion and became the winners of The Lost Skull armchair treasure hunt.
The Runner Up prize of $500 was won by Tray Fitzgerald and the Champion skulls went to Beth Hoanec, Brian Poeppelman, Bill Gardner, and Tina Jones.
Robert Brewer says that “even though the main prizes have been won, I designed my hunt so it can still be enjoyed by being able to solve the puzzles and visit the locations and see the images and clues come to life. I think this hunt can be a good introduction to new hunters and even a family activity. Enjoy”
Find more from Robert Brewer on The Lost Skull website and on their social media accounts linked below.
The puzzle book full of amazing artwork is still available to buy if you think you have what it takes to solve the puzzles!
Sources & References
Information for this article has been provided by various sources and are referenced here:
Primary Source: Atlantis of the Sands – Wikipedia
REFERENCES:
- “The Incense Road: Ubar”. Nabataea.net. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
- “Atlantis: The Lost Empire”. IMDb.
- “Atlantis: Milo’s Return”. IMDb.
- Wilford, John Noble (5 February 1992). “On the Trail From the Sky: Roads Point to a Lost City”. The New York Times. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
- Fiennes, Ranulph (1993). Atlantis of the sands: The Search for the Lost City of Ubar. Harmondsworth: Signet Books. ISBN 0-451-17577-8. OL 17393459M.
- Glassé, Cyril; Huston Smith (2003). “ʿĀd”. The New Encyclopedia of Islam (Revised ed.). AltaMira Press. p. 26. ISBN 978-0759101906.
- Clapp, Nicholas (1999). The road to Ubar: Finding the Atlantis of the Sands. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 978-0-395-95786-8. OCLC 41557131.
- Zarins, Juris (May–June 1997). “Atlantis of the Sands”. Archaeology. Vol. 50 no. 3. New York: Archaeological Institute of America. pp. 51–53. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
- Andy in Oman. “Is “The Lost City of Ubar” Found or Still Lost?!”. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
- Thomas, Bertram (1933). “Ubar – the Atlantis of the sands of the Rub’ al Khali”. Journal of the Royal Central Asian Society. Royal Society for Asian Affairs. 20 (2): 259–265. doi:10.1080/03068379308725252.
- Lawrence, T. E. (1964). The letters of T.E. Lawrence. London: Spring Books. OL 17198428M.
- Thesiger, Wilfred (October–December 1946). “A New Journey in Southern Arabia”. The Geographical Journal. Royal Geographical Society. 108 (4/6): 135. doi:10.2307/1789822. JSTOR 1789822.
- Morton, Michael Quentin (2006). In the Heart of the Desert (2nd ed.). Aylesford, Kent, UK: Green Mountain Press. ISBN 0-9552212-0-X. OL 24229851M.
- Phillips, Wendell (June 1972). Unknown Oman. Librairie Du Liban Publications. ISBN 978-0-86685-025-4. OL 9339953M.
- “The lost city of Ubar”. Islam 101. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
- Thomas, Bertram (September 1931). “A Camel Journey Across the Rub al-Khali”. The Geographical Journal. Royal Geographical Society. 78 (3): 209–38. doi:10.2307/1784895. JSTOR 1784895.
- Wynn, Jeffrey C.; Shoemaker, Eugene M. (November 1998). “The Day the Sands Caught Fire” (PDF). Scientific American. Springer Nature. pp. 64–71. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
- Edgell, H. Stewart (2004). “The myth of the lost city of the Arabian Sands”. Proceedings of the Seminar for Arabian Studies. Archaeopress. 34: 105–120. JSTOR 41223810.
- Stark, Freya (1936). The southern gates of Arabia. New York: E. P. Dutton. OCLC 557374. OL 6342012M.
- Zarins, Juris (September 1996). “Interview with Dr. Juris Zarins”. PBS Nova Online (Interview). Retrieved 27 June 2013.
- Zarins, Juris (2000). Bawden, Garth; Reycraft, Richard Martin (eds.). “Environmental disruption and human response: an archaeological-historical example from south Arabia”. Environmental Disaster and the Archaeology of Human Response. Anthropological papers. Albuquerque, NM: Maxwell Museum of Anthropology. 7: 35–49. OCLC 45708208.
- Blom, Ronald G.; Crippen, Robert; Elachi, Charles; Clapp, Nicholas; Hedges, George R.; Zarins, Juris (2006). Wiseman, James; El-Baz, Farouk (eds.). “Southern Arabian Desert Trade Routes, Frankincense, Myrrh, and the Ubar Legend”. Remote Sensing in Archaeology. Interdisciplinary Contributions to Archaeology. New York: Springer: 71–87. doi:10.1007/0-387-44455-6_3. ISBN 978-0-387-44455-0. S2CID 128081354.
- Lawton, John (May–June 1983). “Oman: Frankincense”. Saudi Aramco World. Vol. 34 no. 3. pp. 26–27. Retrieved 1 January 2015.
- Kakutani, Michiko (27 February 1998). “Stumbling Upon the Desert’s Secret”. The New York Times. Retrieved 16 November 2019.
- Groom, Nigel (August 1994). “Oman and the Emirates in Ptolemy’s map”. Arabian Archaeology and Epigraphy. Blackwell Publishing. 5 (3): 198–214. doi:10.1111/j.1600-0471.1994.tb00067.x.
- Groom, Nigel (Spring 2000). “The Road to Ubar—Pros and Cons”. Bulletin of the Society for Arabian Studies. Society for Arabian Studies. 5: 42–43.
- Jones, Barri (July–August 1992). “On the Incense Trail” (PDF). Minerva. Vol. 3 no. 4. Myles Poulton. p. 17. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
- “Information on tentative lists and examination of nominations of cultural and natural properties to the List of World Heritage in Danger and World Heritage List” (PDF). UNESCO.org. Retrieved 24 May 2012.
- Sasson, Jack M., ed. (1994). Civilizations of the Ancient Near East. London: Hendrickson Publishers. p. 1351.
Other sources of information:
Bertram Thomas: Bertram Thomas – Wikipedia
Major Wilfred Thesiger: Wilfred Thesiger – Wikipedia
The Road to Ubar – Finding the Atlantis of the Sands by Nicholas Clapp: http://thereaderdiary.blogspot.com/2011/01/
Wadi Rum: Wadi Rum – Wikipedia
Nizwa: Nizwa – Wikipedia
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Written By
ADAM L C
Director of Areas Grey
Adam is an avid treasure hunter, seeker of adventure and the creator of Areas Grey. After travelling for almost half his life and cataloguing over 100 treasure legends along the way. He decided this was simply far too much treasure for one person to chase! As a result he created Areas Grey so he could share his stories, connect with other treasure hunters and put a little more adventure in the lives of the treasure hunting community.
Adam is a Private Investigator and former Wilderness Guide with a passion for history and archaeology. With the skills, knowledge and gear, Adam is always eager to go on the next fortune seeking adventure and connect with fellow treasure hunters along the way.
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Expedition Journals
Expedition Journals are detailed accounts of treasure hunters such as myself that have conducted in-depth research and have gone on expeditions in search of lost treasures.
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“Even though the main prizes have been won, I designed my hunt so it can still be enjoyed by being able to solve the puzzles and visit the locations and see the images and clues come to life. I think this hunt can be a good introduction to new hunters and even a family activity. Enjoy.”
– Robert Brewer, 2020