Ooparts.

1963

Noble
Hi guys, been meaning to start a thread on "Ooparts" for a while now as it has been a real source of interest for me for a long time. And I know that most of us have ogled at these presentations with a sense of both wonderment and uncertainty over the years.
... Nothing is set in stone but by ooparts I mean are the 'out of place artifacts' that can be easily found in books , documentaries and especially nowadays on the web. I used to regard 'Ooparts' as being the ones that I grew up learning about ... the Antikythera Mechanism, the Bagdad Batteries, the Chrystal Skulls etc, but time and the advent of the internet has generally rolled interest on in this aspect of the 'Mysterious World' and indeed broadened it to include things like seemingly 'modern dress and technology' being spotted in old films and photographs. [that just shouldn't be there!] ... I've spent many a lazy hour gazing in puzzlement at these things and has human-nature dictates have personally dismissed quite a few of them to my own personal satisfaction, but on the other hand, there are plenty of these things that still leave me nonplussed? ... I would like to include a thing that might be considered as really being a different class of anomalous investigation, and that is the equally interesting field of study into the seemingly ubiquitous amount of alien/ufo's found in ancient paintings.

I'll start the thread with a couple of 'the biggies' , and invite everyone to post their own personal favourites to discuss....

The-Baghdad-Battery.jpg


Found in 1938 by a German archaeologist, the ‘Baghdad Battery’ could be 2,000 years old, and consists of a clay jar, a copper cylinder and an iron rod. If filled with a weak acid, like vinegar, the combination produces around 1 volt. Yet while even some experts refer to it as a battery, its true origin and purpose remains unclear. One idea is that it was used for electroplating objects with precious metals. ... could this be real? or could it just be a case of a jar intended to house papyrus manuscripts?


... The Aluminium wedge of Aiud

...
aiud2-tm.jpg


The Aluminium Wedge of Aiud, also known as the Object of Aiud, is a wedge-shaped object found 2 kilometres East of Aiud, Romania, on the banks of the Mures river in 1974. According to an article written by Boczor Iosif, a contributor to Hungarian paranormal magazines, it was found under 35 feet of sand and along side 2 mastodon bones. His article also claims it was found in 1973. For three reasons some claim the wedge is proof that aliens came to visit Earth in the past. An unnamed aeronautical engineer said it resembled the foot of landing gear not unlike the current space vehicles at the time, only smaller. This was corroborated by Florin Gheorghita, a known ufologist in Romania. The fact that it was found in the same layer as mastodon bones, and assuming it was found in original context, would make it at least 11,000 years old. The third reason people believed that this was from an alien ship was because aluminium was not even discovered until 1808 and could not be produced in mass until 1885. Therefore, because it looks like landing gear, it was found with mastodon bones and the oxide dated to at least 300 years old (before aluminium on earth), it was from an alien spaceship. Most scientists believe the wedge was made here on earth and its purpose is just not yet identified. Not much information is to be found on this subject. The lack of data can possibly be explained by the imposed restrictions on archaeology and history by the communist rule of the time. Aluminium requires 1,000 degrees of heat to be produced. The aluminium wedge of Aiud remains a mystery.



... The London Hammer.

1bd59668e42a88e4d2c3460e19fbb727--old-tools-london-hammer.jpg


In June 1936 (or 1934 by some accounts), Max Hahn (1897-1989) and his wife Emma were hiking along Red Creek near London, Texas. It was there that they discovered an artifact that seemed completely out of place. What they found was a unique piece of wood protruding from a rock concretion. When the rock was broken by their son in 1947, it revealed an iron hammer with a wooden handle. ... which is disputedly said to be 400-500 million years old.





... this is just three of the archaeological mystery finds that no one can currently fully resolve, and of course there are many more, as well as the other kind of ooparts that this thread is meant to showcase. :Thumbsup:

Cheers.
 

nivek

As Above So Below
...
aiud2-tm.jpg


The Aluminium Wedge of Aiud, also known as the Object of Aiud, is a wedge-shaped object found 2 kilometres East of Aiud, Romania, on the banks of the Mures river in 1974. According to an article written by Boczor Iosif, a contributor to Hungarian paranormal magazines, it was found under 35 feet of sand and along side 2 mastodon bones. His article also claims it was found in 1973. For three reasons some claim the wedge is proof that aliens came to visit Earth in the past. An unnamed aeronautical engineer said it resembled the foot of landing gear not unlike the current space vehicles at the time, only smaller. This was corroborated by Florin Gheorghita, a known ufologist in Romania. The fact that it was found in the same layer as mastodon bones, and assuming it was found in original context, would make it at least 11,000 years old. The third reason people believed that this was from an alien ship was because aluminium was not even discovered until 1808 and could not be produced in mass until 1885. Therefore, because it looks like landing gear, it was found with mastodon bones and the oxide dated to at least 300 years old (before aluminium on earth), it was from an alien spaceship. Most scientists believe the wedge was made here on earth and its purpose is just not yet identified. Not much information is to be found on this subject. The lack of data can possibly be explained by the imposed restrictions on archaeology and history by the communist rule of the time. Aluminium requires 1,000 degrees of heat to be produced. The aluminium wedge of Aiud remains a mystery.



It sure does seem possible it could be a non-terrestrial object given its dating compared to when it was known in history of humans discovering and making aluminum in quantity or perhaps a group of humans discovered aluminum much earlier than we knew of yet only to lose this technology through some calamity or other event before it had a chance to spread to other groups of humans across the world...If the latter is the case I think this wouldn't be the first time in our past that technology was lost only to be rediscovered later...

...
 

1963

Noble
It sure does seem possible it could be a non-terrestrial object given its dating compared to when it was known in history of humans discovering and making aluminum in quantity or perhaps a group of humans discovered aluminum much earlier than we knew of yet only to lose this technology through some calamity or other event before it had a chance to spread to other groups of humans across the world...If the latter is the case I think this wouldn't be the first time in our past that technology was lost only to be rediscovered later...

...
To start with... the only reason that I knew about it was probably from another forum thread which prompted me into looking at 'Brian Dunning's' debunk-style a few years ago. [ps. he's just as bad as the rest... Nikell, Shermer, Oberg etc] .. but came across his 'debunk' of this object which I actually thought was a good effort [for him] and would have agreed with his assertion that it was obviously just an excavator bucket tooth [which was my initial thought when I first saw the picture]... and that he knew that aluminium ones were made for specialised jobs that necessitated no sparking. ie digging near gas banks etc. ... But then I started to wonder just how might such a thing then be found among Mastodon skeletons 35 ft below ground? ... and a quick check about aluminium bucket teeth online confirmed only that there was indeed such things as "Steel Aluminium Teeth" but their tech/section revealed that these things were composed of 39% aluminium and 61% steel. ... Which goes against the analysis of the Aiud artifact being a definite 89% aluminium and 11% mixture of other elements. ... And so for this thing to be 'a bucket tooth' then everything about the story must be a lie! ... the place that it originated from, the palaeontologists digging for the mastodon bones and the scientific analysis of it's composition.
... I don't know very much about the circumstances in which this object came to light, only what i've read online, and so cannot say that Dunning is wrong to claim that everything about this object is just made up... and can only say that I find the prospect of this story and the facts surrounding it just might be real... fascinating. ... perhaps someone else here can shed a little more light on the actuality of The Aluminium wedge of Aiud??
... Oh! by the way, I forgot to mention that another aspect of the story is that the oxidization from around the object was dated as being probably more than four, but certainly no less than three hundred years old ... it is apparently too hard to go back any further with regards to dating aluminium oxide with present day technology, but even at 3 or 4 hundred years it is still centuries before it should have been man made!

Here is the results of study conducted under Dr. Niederkorn of Institute for the Study of Metals and of Non-metallic Minerals of Magurele, Romania confirmed that The Aluminum Wedge of Aiud was made of alloy of extremely complex metal.
89% Aluminium, gallium in trace amounts, 0.0002% silver, 0.0003% bismuth, 0.0023% cobalt, 0.0024% nickel, 0.11% cadmium, 0.2% zirconium, 0.33% pond, 0.41% lead, 1.81% zinc, 2.84% silicon and 6.2% copper.
... so No Steel then!

... but then with a little more internet-diving, I came up with that big part of the mystery being actually negated by fact that I found that in 1903 a German metallurgist named Alfred Wilm developed "Duralumin 2024" ... an aluminium/copper alloy. with the constituency of 91-95% aluminium, 3.8-4.9% copper, 0.3-0.9% manganese, 1.2-1.8% magnesium, <0.5% iron, <0.5% silicon, <0.25% zinc, <0.15% titanium, <0.10% chromium and no more than 0.15% of other elements together. ... 'Bingo!' that's about right! ... and in short was used in the air industry, firstly on the Junkers A3 airframes from 1916 and then after WW1 internationally , even on the U.S Airship Akron ZRS4 ...
ZRS-4_USS_Akron_duralumin_sample.jpg



... so not so much an exotic material then! ... but that still leaves us with the mystery of how it was found with the Mastodon bones 35 below ground and how come the oxidization proved to be from centuries before it was developed in 1903? ... Well apparently the oxidization thing turns out to be a bit of a misnomer as it happens!... because according to 'corrosion experts' [yep! apparently there are such creatures. lol] the copper in the alloy causes increased oxidization in speed and levels on the aluminium! ... so much for the oxidization proof then! ... which leaves us with the last 'mystery surrounding the object' ... and that is just how was it found 35 ft underground with the Mastodon bones? ... the only answer that I can come up with for that question is... either it didn't! [and was dropped there by one of the workers, either intentionally or rolled there by some disturbance from the top of the dig by accident] ... or it is still a genuine mystery? ... so , what do you think my friend? Genuine Oopart? ... or a bit of Graf Zeppelin ? ;)


Cheers Buddy.
 

SOUL-DRIFTER

Life Long Researcher
I have also find many of such finds interesting.
I recall reading in a book(I do not recall what book...sorry) where a lady somewhere had picked up a piece of coal, and when it slipped from her hand and struck the flood it broke open revealing a small gold figure.
There has been UFO occupant reports where the occupants told that they had use to live on the earth before the asteroid impact of 65 million years ago.
I think there is enough indications to strongly suggest that somebody did long long before our ancient history.
 

1963

Noble
I have also find many of such finds interesting.
I recall reading in a book(I do not recall what book...sorry) where a lady somewhere had picked up a piece of coal, and when it slipped from her hand and struck the flood it broke open revealing a small gold figure.
There has been UFO occupant reports where the occupants told that they had use to live on the earth before the asteroid impact of 65 million years ago.
I think there is enough indications to strongly suggest that somebody did long long before our ancient history.
Hi SD, hope you are well old friend. :Thumbsup: .. and thanks for joining in the thread.
... I think that The case that you are referring to is likely this one ...
On June 11, 1891, an Illinois newspaper reported the unusual discovery of a modern artifact found embedded in a lump of coal that had originated from a South Illinois mine, which the Illinois State Geological Survey said had formed between 260 and 320 million years ago, at some time during the Carboniferous Period. The bizarre report printed in The Morrisonville Times went as follows: ... A curious find was brought to light by Mrs. S.W. Culp last Tuesday morning. As she was breaking a lump of coal preparatory to putting it in the scuttle, she discovered, as the lump fell apart, embedded in a circular shape a small gold chain about ten inches in length of antique and quaint workmanship.’
According to the report, Mrs. Culp initially suspected that the chain must have accidentally been dropped into the coal container, but as she went to pick up the chain she saw that it was actually still attached to the coal itself.
‘the idea of its having been recently dropped was at once made fallacious, for as the lump of coal broke, it separated almost in the middle, and the circular position of the chain placed the two ends near to each other; and as the lump separated, the middle of the chain became loosened while each end remained fastened to the coal.’
Example-of-a-gold-chain.jpg


... and that as you probably already know SD is not the only Oopart to be found in coal over the years, for instance there is the equally mind boggling case of the Iron Pot that was said to have been broken out of a solid lump of coal at the Municipal Electric Plant in Thomas, Oklahoma, in 1912 by Robert Nordling .. and the find was witnessed by workmate Jim Stall.

... here is a picture of the very pot, along with Mr. Nordling's signed affidavit...
The-iron-pot-OOPart-.jpg


‘While I was working in the Municipal Electric Plant in Thomas, Okla[homa], in 1912, I came upon a solid chunk of coal which was too large to use. I broke it with a sledge hammer. This iron pot fell from the center, leaving the impression or mould of the pot in the piece of coal. Jim Stall (an employee of the company) witnessed the breaking of the coal, and saw the pot fall out. I traced the source of the coal, and found that it came from the Wilburton, Oklahoma Mines.’

... Then there's the claim that this 'Brass Bell' came from a solid piece of coal when 10 year old Newton Richard Anderson was Tasked with stoking the furnace at his home in Buckhannon, West Virginia, in 1944....

An-ornate-brass-bell.jpg


"Tasked with stoking the furnace at his home in Buckhannon, West Virginia, Anderson went down to the basement one evening and picked out a particularly large lump of coal which he placed onto his already loaded shovel. The large piece inevitably wobbled and fell to the ground, splitting in two as it hit the hard floor. Protruding from one of the broken halves was a slender metallic object; so setting aside the piece containing the unusual item, the curious boy threw the remainder into the furnace. Using a croquet mallet, Anderson bashed the bituminous coal lump that had been mined in Upshur County not far from his house, and extracted what appeared to be a small and ornate brass bell with an iron clapper, before cleaning it with lye and a scrubbing brush. Again, the coal from that particular mine is supposed to date back to around 300 million years ago."

The bell was tested using neutron activation analysis (NAA), a nuclear process used for determining the concentrations of elements in various materials, and the results revealed an unusual mix of metals which included copper, tin, iodine, zinc, and selenium, proving they were different from any known modern alloy production.
In order to validate his claims, Newton Anderson took a polygraph test in 2007, which he passed comfortably.

link.. https://www.ancient-origins.net/sit...ublic/Newton-Andersons-2007.jpg?itok=kRtC5tAk

Cheers Buddy.

 

pigfarmer

tall, thin, irritable
Been a few years but Chris Aubeck seems to be the go-to ooparts guy.

@1963 I think you would be interested in this one but if it's available I sure haven't found it.
Chris Aubeck – UFOs Throughout History

Damned interesting but he does offer some very reasonable explanations for a number of things, including modern objects found in improbable places.
 
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SOUL-DRIFTER

Life Long Researcher
Hi SD, hope you are well old friend. :Thumbsup: .. and thanks for joining in the thread.
... I think that The case that you are referring to is likely this one ...
On June 11, 1891, an Illinois newspaper reported the unusual discovery of a modern artifact found embedded in a lump of coal that had originated from a South Illinois mine, which the Illinois State Geological Survey said had formed between 260 and 320 million years ago, at some time during the Carboniferous Period. The bizarre report printed in The Morrisonville Times went as follows: ... A curious find was brought to light by Mrs. S.W. Culp last Tuesday morning. As she was breaking a lump of coal preparatory to putting it in the scuttle, she discovered, as the lump fell apart, embedded in a circular shape a small gold chain about ten inches in length of antique and quaint workmanship.’
According to the report, Mrs. Culp initially suspected that the chain must have accidentally been dropped into the coal container, but as she went to pick up the chain she saw that it was actually still attached to the coal itself.
‘the idea of its having been recently dropped was at once made fallacious, for as the lump of coal broke, it separated almost in the middle, and the circular position of the chain placed the two ends near to each other; and as the lump separated, the middle of the chain became loosened while each end remained fastened to the coal.’
Example-of-a-gold-chain.jpg


... and that as you probably already know SD is not the only Oopart to be found in coal over the years, for instance there is the equally mind boggling case of the Iron Pot that was said to have been broken out of a solid lump of coal at the Municipal Electric Plant in Thomas, Oklahoma, in 1912 by Robert Nordling .. and the find was witnessed by workmate Jim Stall.

... here is a picture of the very pot, along with Mr. Nordling's signed affidavit...
The-iron-pot-OOPart-.jpg


‘While I was working in the Municipal Electric Plant in Thomas, Okla[homa], in 1912, I came upon a solid chunk of coal which was too large to use. I broke it with a sledge hammer. This iron pot fell from the center, leaving the impression or mould of the pot in the piece of coal. Jim Stall (an employee of the company) witnessed the breaking of the coal, and saw the pot fall out. I traced the source of the coal, and found that it came from the Wilburton, Oklahoma Mines.’

... Then there's the claim that this 'Brass Bell' came from a solid piece of coal when 10 year old Newton Richard Anderson was Tasked with stoking the furnace at his home in Buckhannon, West Virginia, in 1944....

An-ornate-brass-bell.jpg


"Tasked with stoking the furnace at his home in Buckhannon, West Virginia, Anderson went down to the basement one evening and picked out a particularly large lump of coal which he placed onto his already loaded shovel. The large piece inevitably wobbled and fell to the ground, splitting in two as it hit the hard floor. Protruding from one of the broken halves was a slender metallic object; so setting aside the piece containing the unusual item, the curious boy threw the remainder into the furnace. Using a croquet mallet, Anderson bashed the bituminous coal lump that had been mined in Upshur County not far from his house, and extracted what appeared to be a small and ornate brass bell with an iron clapper, before cleaning it with lye and a scrubbing brush. Again, the coal from that particular mine is supposed to date back to around 300 million years ago."

The bell was tested using neutron activation analysis (NAA), a nuclear process used for determining the concentrations of elements in various materials, and the results revealed an unusual mix of metals which included copper, tin, iodine, zinc, and selenium, proving they were different from any known modern alloy production.
In order to validate his claims, Newton Anderson took a polygraph test in 2007, which he passed comfortably.

link.. https://www.ancient-origins.net/sit...ublic/Newton-Andersons-2007.jpg?itok=kRtC5tAk

Cheers Buddy.
Those are the ones.
Great job finding them.
 

SOUL-DRIFTER

Life Long Researcher
There was another one from I believe it was Indiana. They were drilling a well when at about I believe it was 130 feet or so they came up with an odd coin no one could identify.
 

1963

Noble
Been a few years but Chris Aubeck seems to be the go-to ooparts guy.

@1963 I think you would be interested in this one but if it's available I sure haven't found it.
Chris Aubeck – UFOs Throughout History

Damned interesting but he does offer some very reasonable explanations for a number of things, including modern objects found in improbable places.
Hi PF, thanks for the input matey. :Thumbsup: .. Chris Aubeck is more familiar to me via the 'ancient alien's' thing... specially with regards to the book 'Wonders In The Sky' that he co-wrote with Jacques Vallee . ... Here's a link to a free archived copy... Wonders In The Sky - Unexplained Aerial Objects From Antiquity To Modern Times - Jacques Vallee, Chris Aubeck : Jacques Vallé and Chris Aubeck : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive .. I loved that book and found it very interesting , if only for the amount of ancient UFO references that they had found... but a couple of years ago Jason Colavito [author and researcher... and all-round super-smart-guy] destroyed a large part of the book's claims through his superior research skills... and when fans of the book asked Vallee about this, and whether or not they were going to rectify the obvious 'mistakes' that Colavito had pointed out [vituperously, as is his unfortunate bent] ... Vallee replied [something like] "no chance! ... it would be far too expensive, and he would only be willing to reprint without the debunked items if the general public would foot the bill!" ... he also wasn't too subtle in his pushing the blame onto Aubeck's shoulders as he said that they should take it up with his co-writer because it was him that had done virtually all of the compiling for the book." [Heroic grand old doyen of ufology eh!]
... and I know that he wrote a book on Ooparts called 'Ooparts , Things out of time. [in Spanish, his adopted homeland] , but i've never read this book ... but I think that i've seen his work online sometime... but like you I can't seem to find it just now? :Unsure:

Cheers Buddy.
 

1963

Noble
There was another one from I believe it was Indiana. They were drilling a well when at about I believe it was 130 feet or so they came up with an odd coin no one could identify.
Hi SD, ... that sounds interesting my old friend, but I can't say that i've heard about that one. ... I do vaguely recall that there was allegedly a gold coin that was brought up and secretly pocketed by someone when a team were drilling at the Oak Island site.[Nova Scotia] But that was decades ago, before that silly-saga grew into the international circus of nonsense that it has developed into over the years. ... If it's not that one mate then i've had a quick surf and come up with these two that are branded as being out of place artifacts .
'They Find in Utah , A Spanish Coin Minted 200 Years Before The Arrival Of Columbus To The New World' ...
They find in Utah a Spanish coin minted 200 years before the arrival of Columbus to the New World • Soul:Ask | Unlock your mind and soul
utah-moneda-espanola-850x491.jpg


.. which to be honest... I don't get the big deal about this story? ... surely they could just have been brought over from Spain and either lost and found and crossed many palms before being lost again in that location?

... And there is this one that for some reason has made it on to the Oopart search engine ... "The Time Traveller's Nazi Coin Found In Mexico."
A Man find in Mexico a Nazi coin of the year 2039, a test of time travel or a parallel universe? - Infinity Explorers

...which I saw sometime last year on YT and I don't know about you mate, but I dismissed it as being just another fuss-over-a-hoax thing. ..



Cheers Buddy.
 

1963

Noble
petradox_02.jpg


Just pinched this offering from Nivek over on the 'Random Facts Thread' ... Random Facts Thread. | Page 8 | Alien Expanse
...In my opinion, it's a beauty and very much encapsulates the essence of this thread. ...If [like me] you were not familiar with this object, then please read the article and give your opinion ... or rational explanation for it's existence . .. 100,000-Year-Old Electrical Component Embedded In Stone (bichee.com) .. Enigmalith the 100,000-Year-Old Alien Plug | ARCHAEOLOGY WORLD (archaeology-world.com)
...... is it really proof of the reality of a previously unknown ancient technically-advanced civilization right here on Earth? ... or [as some commenters would have it] is it proof of 'visitation from our cosmological neighbours' ? [but... would E.T use and discard a three pronged plug?] ... or is it simply 'A Hoax' as the sceptics insist? [as in all things ETH related, a hoax by proclamation rather than evidentially proven] ... To be honest, ... i'm not really sure about the origin of this artefact , nor am I in any position to mentally vouch for this " electrical engineer John. J. Williams" who claimed to have found the object, .. and to be perfectly frank, I always get an uneasy feeling about the guys that swear that something is genuine, but then refuses to identify the exact location of that find for others perhaps more qualified to poke around the site? ... [just ... why?] ... I have no problems with his insistence of being present during any official testing of the object, bearing in mind the amount of disappearing negatives and cropped or even spoiled photographs that is on record from the ufological-photographic-proof cases over the years ... but the refusal to reveal the exact location of 'the find' does, I have to admit 'start a few alarm bells ringing' in my mind. :( ... Damned interesting proposition anyway, wouldn't you agree?

Cheers.
 
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pigfarmer

tall, thin, irritable
I never heard of that Nazi coin and it's cool !

I recently read about a salvage operation somewhere off the coast of Scotland (I think) for a number of U-boats that were surrendered during WW1. Apparently 'clean steel' is of great value - it's been protected by the water sice the first atomic explosions and is used in modern test equipment. Also read about salvage on the Graf Spee and the list of pretty dull reasons why that was desirable.

You'd think there would be a way to actually test that thing and find out what it's about - but it would probably destroy it
 

1963

Noble
Just a bit of fun... :p

Art gallery visitors spot 'Nike shoes' in 400-year-old painting.​


AA1btyRB.img



‘Portrait of Frederick Sluysken’, was painted by Dutch master Ferdinand Bol in the 17th century, and it appears little Frederick is wearing some very modern shoes'

Cheers.
 

Sheltie

Fratty and out of touch.
Hello, 1963! Interesting thread. This is a video link I felt compelled to share because it seems to have real legs as it is showing up in a lot of YouTube channels and forums as potential evidence of a time slip or a time traveler. I'm sure many on this forum have seen it already. A woman in a 1920s/30s documentary film is leaving a factory with her coworkers holding something to her face, allegedly a cell phone.
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vwy6gSs-ljA&ab_channel=scoopview
 

Sheltie

Fratty and out of touch.
Hi guys, been meaning to start a thread on "Ooparts" for a while now as it has been a real source of interest for me for a long time. And I know that most of us have ogled at these presentations with a sense of both wonderment and uncertainty over the years.
... Nothing is set in stone but by ooparts I mean are the 'out of place artifacts' that can be easily found in books , documentaries and especially nowadays on the web. I used to regard 'Ooparts' as being the ones that I grew up learning about ... the Antikythera Mechanism, the Bagdad Batteries, the Chrystal Skulls etc, but time and the advent of the internet has generally rolled interest on in this aspect of the 'Mysterious World' and indeed broadened it to include things like seemingly 'modern dress and technology' being spotted in old films and photographs. [that just shouldn't be there!] ... I've spent many a lazy hour gazing in puzzlement at these things and has human-nature dictates have personally dismissed quite a few of them to my own personal satisfaction, but on the other hand, there are plenty of these things that still leave me nonplussed? ... I would like to include a thing that might be considered as really being a different class of anomalous investigation, and that is the equally interesting field of study into the seemingly ubiquitous amount of alien/ufo's found in ancient paintings.

I'll start the thread with a couple of 'the biggies' , and invite everyone to post their own personal favourites to discuss....

The-Baghdad-Battery.jpg


Found in 1938 by a German archaeologist, the ‘Baghdad Battery’ could be 2,000 years old, and consists of a clay jar, a copper cylinder and an iron rod. If filled with a weak acid, like vinegar, the combination produces around 1 volt. Yet while even some experts refer to it as a battery, its true origin and purpose remains unclear. One idea is that it was used for electroplating objects with precious metals. ... could this be real? or could it just be a case of a jar intended to house papyrus manuscripts?


... The Aluminium wedge of Aiud

...
aiud2-tm.jpg


The Aluminium Wedge of Aiud, also known as the Object of Aiud, is a wedge-shaped object found 2 kilometres East of Aiud, Romania, on the banks of the Mures river in 1974. According to an article written by Boczor Iosif, a contributor to Hungarian paranormal magazines, it was found under 35 feet of sand and along side 2 mastodon bones. His article also claims it was found in 1973. For three reasons some claim the wedge is proof that aliens came to visit Earth in the past. An unnamed aeronautical engineer said it resembled the foot of landing gear not unlike the current space vehicles at the time, only smaller. This was corroborated by Florin Gheorghita, a known ufologist in Romania. The fact that it was found in the same layer as mastodon bones, and assuming it was found in original context, would make it at least 11,000 years old. The third reason people believed that this was from an alien ship was because aluminium was not even discovered until 1808 and could not be produced in mass until 1885. Therefore, because it looks like landing gear, it was found with mastodon bones and the oxide dated to at least 300 years old (before aluminium on earth), it was from an alien spaceship. Most scientists believe the wedge was made here on earth and its purpose is just not yet identified. Not much information is to be found on this subject. The lack of data can possibly be explained by the imposed restrictions on archaeology and history by the communist rule of the time. Aluminium requires 1,000 degrees of heat to be produced. The aluminium wedge of Aiud remains a mystery.



... The London Hammer.

1bd59668e42a88e4d2c3460e19fbb727--old-tools-london-hammer.jpg


In June 1936 (or 1934 by some accounts), Max Hahn (1897-1989) and his wife Emma were hiking along Red Creek near London, Texas. It was there that they discovered an artifact that seemed completely out of place. What they found was a unique piece of wood protruding from a rock concretion. When the rock was broken by their son in 1947, it revealed an iron hammer with a wooden handle. ... which is disputedly said to be 400-500 million years old.





... this is just three of the archaeological mystery finds that no one can currently fully resolve, and of course there are many more, as well as the other kind of ooparts that this thread is meant to showcase. :Thumbsup:

Cheers.

But would the battery generate enough electricity to power even a small lightbulb?
 

Rick Hunter

Celestial
One time, I did a presentation in which one of the exhibits was a late 1800's photo of a woman who appeared to be sending a text message. I don't know what it actually was, but I pointed this out to the audience and got a good laugh.
 

nivek

As Above So Below

300-million-years-old cast iron cup from Oklahoma

It’s a perfect piece of metal and it was discovered in 1912 in a mine in Wilburton, Oklahoma, its discoverer was Frank J. Kennard and according to him, it was found within a block of coal. But what makes this cup so mysterious? Well, as many other objects found across the world, the age of the artifact has caused debate.

Such objects are called out-of-place artifacts (OOPArt or oopart) because they were found in an archaeological layer in which their existence is simply impossible. In fact, there were many such artifacts in history, but rarely did any of them survive to the present day; most simply disappeared somewhere.

This history began in 1912 in a coal-fired power plant in the town of Thomas, Oklahoma, USA. One of the workers split a piece of coal that was too large for a wheelbarrow, and inside it was a small object that looked like a bowl or pot.

The bowl was further examined and it turned out to be made of cast iron (an alloy of iron and carbon). Inside the pieces of coal, a solid imprint of the bowl was preserved, that is, it turns out that it did not fall into the coal recently, but was in it for so long that the coal formed around it.

Then it was found out that the age of the coal seam from which this batch of coal was brought to the power plant was about 300 million years.


Imprint of a bowl in a piece of coal

To prove the authenticity of the find, there is a small note written by the same worker who found this bowl.

Kennard, who was in 1948 a Benton Co worker, said: “While I was working in the Municipal Electric Plant in Thomas, Oklahoma in 1912, I came upon a solid chunk of coal which was too large to use. I broke it with a sledge hammer.

“This iron pot fell from the centre leaving the impression mould of the pot in the piece of coal. Jim Stall (an employee of the company) witnessed the breaking of the coal, and saw the pot fall out. I traced the source of the coal, and found that it came from the Wilburton, Oklahoma, Mines.”

At the end of the note it was added that he was “Sworn in at Salpur Springs, Arkansas, November 27, 1948.”



The coal deposits of the Wilburton Mine have been studied several times and it is still confirmed that they are, in fact, about 295-300 million years old.

Regrettably, the only evidence comes from the testimony of a person and that does not have much scientific rigor. This object disappeared, like many others that had a similar history and the same age.

If the object was found today, it would provide much more insight into the discovery, the origin of the item, who created it and what was the purpose, but most importantly, it would shed light on its true age.

There is the theory regarding how an object like that might have ended up inside the coal, as the mines are filled with puddles of saturated water, eventually the water hardens and the object might have ended up inside the piece of coal.

As noted by Mark Isaac: “The cup appears to be cast iron, and cast iron technology began in the eighteenth century. Its design is much like pots used to hold molten metals and may have been used by a tinsmith, tinker, or person casting bullets.”

The usual problems are seen in the discovery of this item, anecdotal evidence is basically the only thing we have, yet that does not explain how the artifact ended up embedded in the coal which is around 300 million years old.


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