Editing Out-of-place artifact (section)

== Questionable interpretations ==
[[File:Ironie pile Bagdad.jpg|thumb|The three components of the [[Baghdad Battery]]]]
* [[Baghdad Battery]]: A ceramic vase, a copper tube, and an iron rod made in [[Parthia]]n or [[Sassanid Persia]], discovered in 1936. Fringe theorists have hypothesized that it may have been used as a [[galvanic cell]] for [[electroplating]], though no electroplated artifacts from this era have been found.<ref name="vonHandorfOthers2002a">{{Cite journal |last=von Handorf |first=D.E. |date=May 2002 |title=The Baghdad Battery—Myth or Reality? |url=https://www.nmfrc.org/pdf/psf2002/050284.pdf |journal=Plating and Surface Finishing |volume=89 |issue=5 |pages=84–87}}</ref><ref name="Flatow2002a">Flatow, I (2012) [https://www.npr.org/2012/03/23/149231682/-archaeologists-revisit-iraq ''Archaeologists Revisit Iraq.'' interview with Elizabeth Stone], Talk of the Nation, National Public Radio. Washington, DC.</ref> The "battery" strongly resembles another type of object with a known purpose&nbsp;– storage vessels for sacred [[scroll]]s from nearby [[Seleucia on the Tigris]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.badarchaeology.com/out-of-place-artefacts/anomalously-old-technology/the-%E2%80%98batteries-of-babylon%E2%80%99/|title=The batteries of Babylon: evidence for ancient electricity?|work=Bad Archaeology|date=26 December 2009 | author= Keith Fitzpatrick-Matthews|access-date=17 December 2016}}</ref>
* [[Dorchester Pot]]: A metal pot claimed to have been blasted out of solid rock in 1852. Mainstream commentators identify it as a Victorian-era candlestick or pipe holder.<ref name="SteigerOthers1979a">Steiger, B. (1979) ''Worlds Before Our Own.'' New York, New York, Berkley Publishing Group. 236 pp. {{ISBN|978-1-933665-19-1}}</ref><ref name="FitzpatrickMOthers2007a">Fitzpatrick-Matthews, K, and J Doeser (2007) [http://www.badarchaeology.com/out-of-place-artefacts/very-ancient-artefacts/metallic-vase-from-dorchester-massachusetts/ ''Metallic vase from Dorchester, Massachusetts.''] [http://www.badarchaeology.com/ Bad Archaeology.]</ref>
* [[Kingoodie artifact]]: An object resembling a corroded nail, said to have been encased in solid rock. It was handled a number of times before being reported and there are no photographs of it.<ref name="David1854a">Sir David, B (1854) ''Queries and Statements concerning a Nail found imbedded in a Block of Sandstone obtained from Kingoodie (Mylnfield) Quarry, North Britain.'' Report of the Fourteenth Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science vol. 51, John Murray London.</ref><ref>Fitzpatrick-Matthews, K, and J Doeser (2007) [http://www.badarchaeology.com/out-of-place-artefacts/very-ancient-artefacts/nail-in-sandstone-from-kingoodie-uk/ ''A nail in Devonian sandstone from Kingoodie, Scotland.''] [http://www.badarchaeology.com/ Bad Archaeology.]</ref>
* [[Lake Winnipesaukee mystery stone]]: Originally thought to be a record of a treaty between tribes, subsequent analysis has called its authenticity into question.<ref name="anonymousnda">anonymous (nd) [http://www.nhhistory.org/museumexhibits/mysterystone/mysterystone.htm ''The Mystery Stone''.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100914204903/http://www.nhhistory.org/museumexhibits/mysterystone/mysterystone.htm |date=2010-09-14 }} [http://www.nhhistory.org/museum.html Museum Exhibits], New Hampshire Historical Society, Concord, New Hampshire.</ref><ref name="Klatell2006">Klatell, JM (July 23, 2006). [http://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-englands-mystery-stone/ ''New England's 'Mystery Stone': New Hampshire Displays Unexplained Artifact 134 Years Later.''] Associated Press. Retrieved March 8, 2014.</ref>
* ''[[Sivatherium]]'' of [[Kish (Sumer)|Kish]]: An ornamental [[war chariot]] figurine discovered in the [[Sumer]]ian ruins of Kish, in what is now central [[Iraq]], in 1928. The figurine, dated to the [[Early Dynastic Period (Mesopotamia)|Early Dynastic I period]] (2800–2750 BCE), depicts a quadrupedal mammal with branched horns, a [[nose ring (animals)|nose ring]], and a rope tied to the ring. Because of the shape of the horns, [[Edwin Colbert]] identified it in 1936 as a depiction of a late-surviving, possibly domesticated ''Sivatherium'', a vaguely [[moose]]-like relative of the [[giraffe]] that lived in [[North Africa]] and [[India]] during the [[Pleistocene]] but was believed to have become extinct early in the [[Holocene extinction event]].<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1525/aa.1936.38.4.02a00100|title=Was the Extinct Giraffe (Sivatherium) Known to the Early Sumerians?|year=1936|last1=Colbert|first1=Edwin H.|journal=American Anthropologist|volume=38|issue=4|pages=605–608|doi-access=free}}</ref> [[Henry Field (anthropologist)|Henry Field]] and [[Berthold Laufer]] instead argued that it represented a captive [[Persian fallow deer]] and that the [[antler]]s had broken over the years. The missing antlers were indeed found in the [[Field Museum of Natural History|Field Museum]]'s storeroom in 1977.<ref>Naish, D. (2007) [http://scienceblogs.com/tetrapodzoology/2011/04/25/sumerian-sivathere-figurine/ ''What happened with that Sumerian 'sivathere' figurine after Colbert's paper of 1936? Well, a lot.''] [http://scienceblogs.com/tetrapodzoology/ Tetrapod Zoology.]</ref> After restoration in 1985, it was conclusively identified as a depiction of a [[Caspian red deer]] (''Cervus elaphus maral'').<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Müller-Karpe |first1=Michael |year=1985 |title=Antlers of the Stag Rein Ring from Kish |journal=[[Journal of Near Eastern Studies]] |volume=44 |pages=57–58 |doi=10.1086/373105 |s2cid=161093625}}</ref>
* [[Tecaxic-Calixtlahuaca head]]: A [[terracotta]] offering head seemingly of [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] appearance found beneath three intact floors of a burial site in [[Mexico]] and dated between 1476 and 1510. There are disputed claims that its dating is older. Ancient Roman or Norse provenance has not been excluded.<ref name="HristovOthers2001">Hristov, RH, and S. Genoves (2001) [https://www.unm.edu/~rhristov/calixtlahuaca.html ''Tecaxic-Calixtlahuaca.''] Dept. of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico.</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Schaaf |first1=Peter |last2=Wagner |first2=Günther A. |date=2001 |title=Comments on 'Mesoamerican Evidence of Pre-Columbian Transoceanic Contacts,' by Hristov and Genovés. Ancient Mesoamerica. 10:207–213, 1999 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/ancient-mesoamerica/article/abs/comments-on-mesoamerican-evidence-of-precolumbian-transoceanic-contacts-by-hristov-and-genoves-in-ancient-mesoamerica-10207213-1999/F761F6E8E49AB26179F0B7C54951D0FD |journal=Ancient Mesoamerica |volume=12 |issue=1 |pages=79–81 |doi=10.1017/S0956536101121024|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
* The [[Westford Knight]]: A pattern, variously interpreted as a carving or a natural feature, or a combination of both, located on a glacial boulder in [[Westford, Massachusetts|Westford]], [[Massachusetts]] in the United States. Pseudohistorical interpretations have labeled it as evidence of pre-Columbian contact with [[Middle Ages|Medieval Europe]].