The Baghdad battery, also known as the Parthian
battery is an ancient out of place artifact
that was discovered inside a tomb located
in an area southeast of Baghdad called Khujut
Rabu.
It is called the Baghdad battery as it is
actually a functioning voltaic chamber, albeit
one with a rather low output voltage.
The piece has fascinated the paranormal community
due to its age – believed to be over 2250
years old.
Because the Baghdad Battery displays a previously
unknown level of technology in our ancient
predecessors it is often cited as evidence
of ancient alien influence.
Scientists have placed the age of the batteries
around 250BC.
The batteries were discovered quite by accident
in 1936 by a group of workers who were excavating
an area in order to build a new railway track.
While the battery was unearthed in 1936, it
wasn’t until 1938 that a German scientist
by the name of Wilhelm Koing discovered what
the item really was.
At that time Mr. Koing was the director of
the “Baghdad Museum Research Lab”.
He found the item while looking through the
basement of the building.
Initially he believed it to be an ordinary
clay pot which was 14 cm in height and of
an egg like shape.
However it wasn’t until he opened it that
the really astonishing discovery happened.
Upon removing the vase’s asphalt bung he
saw long iron rod that was surrounded by a
copper cylinder.
He noticed that this set up could be used
for a battery.
In order to test his hypothesis he filled
the vase with an electrolyte, in this case
a mixture called acetum.
What he found is that the vase was able to
output a voltage of around 1.5V to 2V.
There are multiple theory’s regarding the
use of this object.
Koing originally thought that the item was
used to electroplate gold to silver.
The next and perhaps most likely theory is
that it was used for medicinal purposes, perhaps
an ancient version of electrotherapy.
The main piece of evidence which supported
this theory was that iron and bronze spikes
were found near the battery in the original
dig.
While this does seem like a good theory there
is one rather large problem – the output
voltage.
A voltage of 1.5V to 2V will serve no purpose
other than to cause mild pain and discomfort.
However one must consider that the people
at the time had a limited medical knowledge
and may have believed that the device had
medical benefits.
The last main theory is that they are actually
none of these things, and that they weren’t
even used for these electrical properties.
Cynics believe that these were special vases
that were used to store and preserve religious
scrolls.
These scrolls supposable contains information
relating to various religious rituals that
were used at the time were inscribed on natural
materials such as papyrus and parchment.
The last problem with the Baghdad batteries
is that they were an isolated find.
This suggests that they were not widely used
or understood at the time, and lends credence
to the theory that they were storage devices.
What we do know is that it couldn’t be a
part of anything that involved the elaborate
use of electricity since electricity had not
been discovered at the time, and there is
no evidence to suggest otherwise.
Unfortunately it is no longer possible for
scientists or archeologists to study the batteries.
During a raid during the Iraq was, the museum
was plundered.
The Baghdad batteries along with countless
other artifacts were stolen.
The location of these items is still unknown
as of the time of writing.
While we don’t know what this was used for,
it is still very exciting that technology
like this existed as long as 2500 years ago.
