3.1.3 - Extraterrestrial Artifacts and Manifestations

Xenology: An Introduction to the Scientific Study of Extraterrestrial Life, Intelligence, and Civilization

First Edition

Robert A. Freitas Jr., Xenology: An Introduction to the Scientific Study of Extraterrestrial Life, Intelligence, and Civilization, First Edition, Xenology Research Institute, Sacramento, CA, 1979; http://www.xenology.info/Xeno.htm

From time to time peculiar artifacts have turned up, often touted as remains of alien technology here on Earth. At best most of the finds are unauthenticated, unverifiable, and frequently irrelevant.

Perhaps the oldest known artifact is the so-called Salzburg Cube. This object was found in 1885 in a Tertiary Period coal seam by a Dr. Gurlt. It measured 67 x 67 x 47 millimeters (with a deep groove running around its middle), weighed about 785 grams, and was said to resemble in composition a hard nickel-carbon steel.⁶⁰⁰ However, mere steel should not have been able to survive 12-70 million years of the successive acid/alkaline reactions found in the decaying vegetation in a coal bed.¹⁰⁰¹ The Cube reposed in the Salzburg Museum in Austria until 1910, when it apparently was lost.⁴⁵

Bullet holes in prehistoric bison,³¹⁰ remains of screws,¹³²⁷ nails,⁴⁹ and sparkplugs (the "Coso Artifact")⁸³ have been unearthed, as well as handprints³¹⁰ and footprints¹³²⁷ molded in solidified sandstone, instruments,¹³²⁶ small gem statuettes,¹²⁶⁹ and peculiar coins.^49,1001 A diffraction grating etched on a polished copper mirror was found in an early Egyptian (3rd or 4th Dynasty) tomb.⁴⁹ And about 700 strange granite disks were rumored recovered from caves in the mountains of Payenk Ara Ulaa in China, in 1938. These disks bore engraved symbols telling of creatures landing a craft and meeting the local natives.⁷⁴⁶ However, the lack of corroborating artifacts is suspicious.

The Baghdad Batteries are small ovoid jars capable of producing a weak current when filled with vinegar. About a dozen such objects turned up during heavy construction work near the capital of Iraq. Ronald Story has suggested that they might have been used for primitive electroplating of silver onto copper, certainly a far cry from advanced extraterrestrial technology.¹⁸⁷⁰

Another technological "gift from the gods" appears in the Bible. In Exodus 25:10-22 God tells Moses how to erect the Ark of the Covenant, which serves as a transceiver to heaven. The construction details of the Ark are such that when completed, Moses should have had a giant capacitor charged to a hundred volts or so.^{1915,778,1326} While it is true that an arch of acacia wood with gold leaf trimmings can hardly be considered advanced technology,¹⁸⁷⁰ the ability of ovens, cars and other metallic objects to audibly receive modulated radio broadcasts (on rare occasions) is a documented fact. If laboratory tests with models of the Ark can demonstrate this ability, a good case could be made in favor of alien influence: The ETs would simply have been ordering the manufacture of the simplest radio device manageable with the limited tools available to humans millennia ago.

Another Biblical tale often attributed to extraterrestrial activities is the "nuclear explosion" that destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah around 2000 B.C.^1915,1326 As related in Genesis 19:24-28, "the Lord poured down on Sodom and Gomorrah sulphur and fire from out of heaven." Later that morning there was "smoke rising from the earth as though from a furnace."

But there are excellent grounds for believing that the cataclysm was the result of a great earthquake¹⁹¹⁸ followed by explosions of natural gas.¹⁸⁷⁰

Excavations at the site in 1928 revealed large burned out regions of oil, sulphur and asphalt overlying a subterranean salt dome 50 meters thick. There is clear geological evidence that "a great rupture in the strata took place centuries ago. "¹⁸⁷⁰

There are countless other artifacts which could and have been attributed to space visitors, including the following: The construction of the pyramids and mummification technology,^1326,1915 the Baalbek terraces as launching platforms,^746,1326 the rustproof iron pillar in India,¹³²⁶ the Nazca desert "spaceport" in Peru,^1326,1915 the subterranean tunnels and golden tablets of Juan Moricz in Ecuador,¹⁹¹⁶ the giant cement cylinders of New Caledonia,⁸³ the peculiar statues on Easter Island,¹³²⁶ and the "catastrophic results of a landing attempt" in Tungus, Siberia in 1908,^600,2202 Unfortunately, more prosaic explanations exist in all cases.^{80,1758,1870,1917,2008}