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via LiveScience, 03 February 2020: Article commenting on the current treasure hunting search in Panay Island, Philippines. Yamashita’s treasure is a legend that refuses to die.
Excavations by treasure hunters searching for a hoard of gold in the Philippines, said to have been hidden by a Japanese World War II general, are threatening to cause landslides in a remote village.
The search for fabled buried treasure is inspired by centuries-old Filipino folktales, according to an anthropologist. The treasure seems to be just that — a fable — as historians say it probably doesn’t even exist.
“People [are] spending a lot of money and a lot of time and effort looking for stuff that is probably not there,” said Piers Kelly, a linguistic anthropologist at the University of New England in Armidale, Australia.
