Editing Out-of-place artifact (section)

== Unusual artifacts ==
* [[Antikythera mechanism]]: A form of [[Analog computer|mechanical computer]] created between 150 and 100&nbsp;BCE based on theories of astronomy and mathematics believed to have been developed by the ancient Greeks. Its design and workmanship reflect a previously unknown degree of sophistication and [[engineering]].<ref name=":1">"[http://www.antikythera-mechanism.gr/project/general/the-project.html The Antikythera Mechanism Research Project] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080428070448/http://www.antikythera-mechanism.gr/project/general/the-project.html |date=2008-04-28 }}", The Antikythera Mechanism Research Project. Retrieved 2007-07-01 Quote: "The Antikythera Mechanism is now understood to be dedicated to astronomical phenomena and operates as a complex mechanical "computer" which tracks the cycles of the Solar System."</ref><ref name="Washington Post">{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/30/AR2006113001303.html|title=Experts: Fragments an Ancient Computer|last=Paphitis|first=Nicholas|date=December 1, 2006|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|location=Athens, Greece|quote=Imagine tossing a top-notch laptop into the sea, leaving scientists from a foreign culture to scratch their heads over its corroded remains centuries later. A Roman shipmaster inadvertently did something just like it 2,000 years ago off southern Greece, experts said late Thursday.}}</ref>
* [[Maine penny]]: An 11th-century [[Norway|Norwegian]] coin found in a [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] shell [[midden]] at the [[Goddard Site]] in [[Brooklin, Maine]], [[United States]], which some authors have argued is evidence of [[Norse visits to North America|direct contact between Vikings]] and Native Americans in Maine. The coin need not imply actual exploration of Maine by the Vikings, however; mainstream belief is that it was brought to Maine from [[Labrador]] or [[Newfoundland (island)|Newfoundland]] (where Vikings are known to have established colonies as early as the late 10th century) via an extensive northern trade network operated by indigenous peoples.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mnh.si.edu/vikings/voyage/subset/vinland/archeo.html |title=Vinland Archeology |publisher=Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History |access-date=2011-08-24 |archive-date=2003-12-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031209093906/http://www.mnh.si.edu/vikings/voyage/subset/vinland/archeo.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> If Vikings did indeed visit Maine, a much greater number and variety of Viking artifacts might be expected in the archaeological record there.<ref>{{Cite magazine |date=11 December 1978 |title='Bye, Columbus |url=https://time.com/archive/6853881/science-bye-columbus/ |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]}}</ref> Of the nearly 20,000 objects found over a 15-year period at the Goddard Site, the coin was the sole non-native artifact.{{cn|date=May 2024}}
[[File:Tamilbell1.JPG|thumbnail|The Tamil Bell is a broken bronze bell used as a cooking pot by Māori women of New Zealand.]]
* The [[Tamil bell]] is a broken bronze bell with an inscription of old [[Tamil language|Tamil]]. The bell is a mystery due to its discovery in [[New Zealand]] by a missionary. Although nobody knows for certain how the bell came to New Zealand, one possible theory suggests that it was left by Portuguese sailors who had acquired it from Tamil traders. Prior to being discovered by the missionary, local [[Māori people|Māori]] had used it as a cooking pot. Given that it was supposedly discovered generations earlier, the artifact's exact origins could not be identified. The bell is now located at the [[National Museum of New Zealand]].<ref name="TamilBellTheory">{{Cite journal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CHEVAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA58 |title=New Zealand Journal of Science |last=J. |first=Wilkie & Co. |journal=Technology |volume=1 |date=1918 |access-date=30 June 2021}}</ref>
* [[Marchinbar Island#Discovery of ancient coins|Coins]] from [[Marchinbar Island]]: Five coins from the [[Kilwa Sultanate]] on the [[Swahili coast]] discovered on Marchinbar Island in the [[Northern Territory]] of [[Australia]] in 1945 alongside four coins from 18th century [[Netherlands]]. The inscriptions on the coins identify a ruling Sultan of Kilwa, but it is unclear whether the ruler was from the 10th century or the 14th century. A similar coin, also thought to be from the Medieval Kilwa sultanate, was found in Australia in 2018 on [[Elcho Island]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Stevenson |first=Kylie |date=11 May 2019 |title='It could change everything': coin found off northern Australia may be from pre-1400 Africa |url=https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/may/12/it-could-change-everything-coin-found-off-northern-australia-may-be-from-pre-1400-africa |access-date=11 May 2019 |work=[[The Guardian]] |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>
* [[Pre-Columbian transoceanic contact theories#Claims of Egyptian coca and tobacco|Traces of cocaine and nicotine found in Egyptian mummies]], which have been variously interpreted as evidence of contact between Ancient Egypt and Pre-Columbian America or as the result of contamination.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.faculty.ucr.edu/~legneref/ethnic/mummy.htm |title=American Drugs in Egyptian Mummies |author=S. A. Wells |access-date=11 February 2024}}</ref>
* [[Nimrud lens]]; 8th-century BC piece of [[rock crystal]] which was unearthed in 1850 by [[Austen Henry Layard]] at the [[Assyria|Assyrian]] palace of [[Nimrud]] in modern-day [[Iraq]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Villiers |first1=Geoffrey de |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mCqLDQAAQBAJ&q=layard+lens+1850&pg=PT35 |title=The Limits of Resolution |last2=Pike |first2=E. Roy |date=2016-10-16 |publisher=CRC Press |isbn=9781315350806 |language=en}}</ref> which may have been used as a [[magnifying glass]] or as a [[burning-glass]] to start fires by concentrating sunlight, or it may have been a piece of decorative inlay.<ref name="bm2">{{cite web |title=The Nimrud lens / the Layard lens |url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/search_object_details.aspx?objectid=369215&partid=1 |accessdate=Oct 21, 2012 |work=Collection database |publisher=The British Museum}}</ref> The intricated engravings of the lens also led to speculation over the use of other magnifiying lens by Assyrian craftsmen.<ref name="BBC News">{{cite news |last=Whitehouse |first=David |date=1999-07-01 |title=World's oldest telescope? |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/380186.stm |accessdate=2008-05-10 |work=[[BBC News]] |quote=If one Italian scientist is correct then the telescope was not invented sometime in the 16th century by Dutch spectacle makers, but by ancient Assyrian astronomers nearly three thousand years earlier. According to Professor Giovanni Pettinato of the University of Rome, a rock crystal lens, currently on show in the British museum, could rewrite the history of science. He believes that it could explain why the ancient Assyrians knew so much about astronomy.}}</ref>
[[File:Turin shroud positive and negative displaying original color information 708 x 465 pixels 94 KB.jpg |thumb|300px |The [[Shroud of Turin]]: modern photo of the face, positive left, digitally processed negative image right]]
* The [[Shroud of Turin]] contains an image that resembles a sepia [[negative (photography)|photographic negative]], established by [[radiocarbon dating]] to have been produced between the years 1260 and 1390.<ref name="Radiocarbon Dating, Second Edition">{{Cite book |last1=Taylor |first1=R.E. |title=Radiocarbon Dating: An Archaeological Perspective |last2=Bar-Yosef |first2=Ofer |date=2014 |publisher=Left Coast Press |isbn=978-1-59874-590-0 |edition=2nd |pages=165–168 |doi=10.4324/9781315421216}}</ref> Mention of the shroud first appeared in historical records in 1357. The fact that the image on the shroud is much clearer when it is converted to a positive image was not discovered until [[Secondo Pia]] photographed it in 1898. The actual method that resulted in this image has not yet been conclusively identified; hypotheses about a medieval proto-photographic process, a rubbing technique, natural chemical processes or some kind of radiation have not convinced many researchers.<ref>{{Cite news |date=19 June 2015 |title=How did the Turin Shroud get its image? |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-33164668 |access-date=2024-06-16 |work=[[BBC News]] |language=en-GB}}</ref> All hypotheses put forward to challenge the radiocarbon dating have been scientifically refuted,<ref name="Radiocarbon Dating, Second Edition" /> including the medieval repair hypothesis,<ref name="R.A. Freer-Waters, A.J.T. Jull 2010">{{Cite journal |last1=Freer-Waters |first1=Rachel A. |last2=Jull |first2=A. J. Timothy |date=2010 |title=Investigating a Dated Piece of the Shroud of Turin |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/radiocarbon/article/investigating-a-dated-piece-of-the-shroud-of-turin/8CC26C322198300E051C49A0BA5B96D9 |journal=Radiocarbon |language=en |volume=52 |issue=4 |pages=1521–1527 |doi=10.1017/S0033822200056277 |bibcode=2010Radcb..52.1521F |issn=0033-8222}}</ref><ref name="freeinquiry1">{{Cite web |url=http://llanoestacado.org/freeinquiry/skeptic/shroud/articles/rogers-ta-response.htm |title=A Skeptical Response to ''Studies on the Radiocarbon Sample from the Shroud of Turin'' by Raymond N. Rogers |last=Schafersman |first=Steven D. |date=14 March 2005 |access-date=2 January 2016 |website=llanoestacado.org |archive-date=14 November 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151114044016/http://llanoestacado.org/freeinquiry/skeptic/shroud/articles/rogers-ta-response.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="jAsd9">{{Cite book |last=Wilson |first=Ian |title=The Shroud |date=2010 |publisher=Bantam Press |isbn=978-0-593-06359-0 |edition= |location=London |pages=130–131}}</ref> the bio-contamination hypothesis<ref name="Gove 1990">{{cite journal |title=Dating the Turin Shroud: An Assessment |first=H. E. |last=Gove |journal=Radiocarbon |volume=32 |issue=1 |date=1990 |pages=87–92 |url=https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/radiocarbon/article/viewFile/1254/1259 |doi=10.1017/S0033822200039990 |doi-access=free|bibcode=1990Radcb..32...87G }}</ref> and the carbon monoxide hypothesis.<ref name="c14.arch.ox.ac.uk">{{Cite web |last=Ramsey |first=Christopher |date=March 2008 |title=The Shroud of Turin |url=https://c14.arch.ox.ac.uk/shroud.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090425163916/http://c14.arch.ox.ac.uk/embed.php?File=shroud.html |archive-date=25 April 2009 |access-date=2024-08-24 |website=Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit}}</ref> It has traditionally been believed that the cloth is the [[burial shroud]] in which [[Jesus|Jesus of Nazareth]] was wrapped after crucifixion.