Have aliens ever visited Earth?
And if they have, did they leave anything
behind?
This is Unveiled, and today we’re uncovering
the most mysterious, allegedly extraterrestrial
objects and artefacts ever found on this planet!
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In archaeological circles, an out-of-place
artefact is something which is discovered
in an unusual or unexplained setting or context.
This could mean that it’s an object which
hints that a past civilization was more technologically
advanced than previously thought… as with
the Antikythera mechanism which revealed that
the ancient Greeks had analogue computers.
Or, it could be that something’s found in
an unexpected location on the world map, suggesting
that past civilizations and cultures previously
thought to be separate were actually linked…
as with the Maine penny, which ties the east
coast of America to eleventh century Norse
Vikings.
There are some out-of-place artefacts, though,
which are difficult to account for even if
we revise what we thought we knew about history
to explain them…
leading some to claim that they could be not
of this world at all.
One of the most famous (and contested) examples
is the Roswell Rock.
Found in 2004, the Roswell Rock is said (by
believers) to be directly linked to the famous
Roswell UFO incident back
in 1947.
It was actually found about twenty-five miles
from the Roswell crash site, but this smooth
stone has captured worldwide attention, mostly
because of 1) the fact it’s magnetic, and
2) the perfect, astronomical markings on one
side of it… showing what appears to be a
couple crescent moons and some stars or planets.
This same symbol has reportedly appeared in
previous crop circles in the UK, too, and
there are various claims of other rocks or
objects found with the same or a similar design
etched onto them.
For many, the Roswell Rock could be a hoax,
and just one of many copycat instances designed
to fool the world… but some have labelled
it smoking gun evidence that aliens are among
us.
Another item which continues to spark debate
with ufologists is the Wedge of Aiud.
It was found in Romania in 1974, and because
it was discovered buried close to some mastodon
bones - and because the mastodon went extinct
around 11,000 years ago - it was originally
dated to be extremely old.
But its apparent age didn’t make a whole
lot of sense, because the wedge was also found
to be made mostly 
of aluminium… and we only developed aluminium
in the 1820s - long, long after the mastodons
had died off!
The general consensus, then, is that the wedge
was actually dated incorrectly to begin with,
and that it’s really a product of modern
history rather than ancient times… but there
remain some unanswered questions about how
it could have come to be lodged so far beneath
the ground so as to appear alongside millennia-old
bones?
For those more inclined to an “ancient aliens”
line of argument, the wedge could actually
be part of a landing apparatus on a long-lost
alien ship.
The Wedge of Aiud isn’t on its own, either…
as there have been countless, apparently inexplicable,
usually metallic objects unearthed all over
the world map.
There’s what’s been called the UFO Tooth
Wheel, for example, a small piece of (again)
aluminium allegedly found embedded in a 300-million-year-old
lump of coal in Vladivostok, Russia, in 2013.
Quite how the relatively recent metal (seemingly
from a relatively recent machine) came to
be encased in a prehistoric rock formation
is anyone’s guess... although the validity
of this particular artifact has continually
been called into question!
From far-eastern Russia to South America,
though, where the so-called golden airplanes
were discovered - as part of the Quimbaya
artefacts haul, found in Colombia and dating
back around 1,000 years.
Most of the Quimbaya artefacts are small models
depicting everyday things like animals, people
and birds… but a few of them are seemingly
of airplane-like machines, leading ancient
alien theorists to claim that the Quimbaya
civilization must have at one time encountered
an extraterrestrial ship.
Why else would they create these designs?
For many, though, the alleged alien artefacts
only get really worthy of attention once there’s
biological material involved.
And perhaps the most famous example of this
came via the Polonnaruwa meteorite - a space
rock which allegedly fell in Sri Lanka, in
December 2012.
According to the astrobiologist Chandra Wickramasinghe,
who recovered the apparent meteorite, it carried
inside it fossilized and living microorganisms,
known as diatoms… and it could therefore
be considered proof of panspermia (the passing
of alien life across the universe) in action.
Once again, though, Wickramsinghe’s claims
aren’t widely supported in the scientific
community… in fact, they’ve been widely
criticised.
The main argument against them is that the
biological material found on the Polonnaruwa
meteorite is too remarkably similar to what’s
already common on Earth… leading various
other scientists to conclude that, in reality,
it’s either a space rock contaminated with
water from this planet, or it isn’t a space
rock at all.
Of course, plain and simple bits of meteorite,
ones which aren’t allegedly teeming with
alien microbes, are reasonably common on Earth,
given that our planet has endured its fair
share of large impacts in the past.
Perhaps the most famous are the Canyon Diablo
meteorites, which are fragments of a large
asteroid that struck Earth around 50,000 years
ago.
These massive shards of rock have been dated
back billions of years, to a time when the
entire solar system was only just beginning
to form… but, even with all that history
behind them, even they haven’t been found
to be hosting any type of alien material.
The day that an asteroid arrives actually
carrying something like the Roswell Rock or
the Wedge of Aiud, though… that will be
a red-letter day in the search for alien life!
Until then, humankind is sure to keep searching;
sifting through the potential false alarms
and possible hoaxes until a genuine, bona
fide alien artefact reveals itself.
And, despite all of the doubt and suspicion
which usually circulates an alien artefact
claim, it is a field of research which SETI
groups and even NASA itself takes increasingly
seriously.
Space archaeology and artefact SETI are two
strands of space exploration which don’t
usually make the headlines, but there are
a growing number of scientists and astronomers
tasked with scanning the skies for signs of
alien technology.
They’re usually looking for big signs, like
whole cities on distant planets, or advanced
megastructures like a Dyson Sphere… but
the search for alien life inside the solar
system goes on, too.
We’re confident that there aren’t cities
on Mars, for example, but we’re still on
the lookout for something smaller.
For many, though, so much of Earth remains
unexplored - at least in detail - that we
could really do a lot worse than looking right
under our noses.
Most out-of-place artefacts can be at least
partly explained without the suggestion that
they’re extraterrestrial, and many ultimately
play a key role in shaping what we understand
about human history and the history of Earth…
but, every so often, something turns up which
really turns heads.
And, although no single item has ever constituted
absolute proof that aliens exist… the debate
continues, and the search goes on.
What do you think?
Is there anything we missed?
Let us know in the comments, check out these
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