SECTOR // 10 // Out-of-Place Artefacts
Out-of-Place Artefacts
Manufactured objects whose existence, dating, or sophistication is anomalous within the archaeological record they were recovered from.
An out-of-place artefact — OOPArt — is a manufactured object recovered from an archaeological context in which, by the conventional chronology, it should not exist. The Antikythera Mechanism is a bronze geared computer recovered from a Roman-era shipwreck. The Baghdad Battery is a clay pot containing a copper cylinder and an iron rod, recovered from a context dated centuries before electrochemistry.
Most OOPArt claims, on examination, dissolve. Mis-dating, misidentification, hoaxes, modern objects accidentally introduced into older contexts. The handful that survive serious examination are the ones this file holds.
The evidential standard here is high. Provenance, stratigraphy, and dating must be demonstrable. A claim that an object is anomalous is only as strong as the documentary record of where it was found, how it was found, and who confirmed the dating.
SUB-CATEGORIES
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Antikythera Mechanism
Bronze geared astronomical computer recovered from a Roman-era shipwreck around 100 BCE off the Greek island of Antikythera in 1901.
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Baghdad Battery
Clay pot containing a copper cylinder and an iron rod, recovered near Baghdad. Disputed dating ranges from Parthian to Sassanid era.
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Coso Artefact
Geode-like concretion containing what appears to be a manufactured spark-plug-like object, recovered near Olancha, California in 1961.