comedycatalyst
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that
it's either an elaborate hoax, or the world's greatest
practical joke.
Imagine the excavators finally find the bottom and it's
a small gold box. They open the box and...no "Raiders"
surprise---one person picks up the object inside, shows it
to the crowd.
He then exclaims---"See-what did I say?" "It was the Ace of
Spades the whole time-I'm SO relieved!"
"OK, let's pack it up and go home."
Moral to the story---that's 15 years and $22mil. well spent.