Image by Irony, via Wikimedia Commons
The average Open Culture reader may be well aware that there is such a thing as Archeology YouTube. What’s even more surprising is how much back and forth there is within that world. Below is a video from the channel speak artificially in which Brad Huffordan archaeologist at the University of Pennsylvania, said the so-called bagdad batteryan ancient artifact discovered in modern-day Iraq. He does so in response to it. Previous video about Baghdad Battery From another channel hosted by a young archeology educator called Milo Rossi. Hufford agrees on some points, and there are others that need revision, but there’s no doubt that both YouTubers can agree on the appeal of the object in question. After all, an ancient battery?
Even those of us who aren’t particularly invested in archeology may be intrigued by the idea that a long-vanished civilization managed to harness electricity. The name Baghdad Battery was originally given by Wilhelm König, the head of the laboratory at the National Museum of Iraq in the 1930s, when the object was first discovered.
Given that it was not just a ceramic pot, but consisted of copper tubes and iron rods, all attached to each other with bitumen (a substance found in crude oil, which is used in asphalt today), the idea of ​​using it for power storage was in a sense logical, if fanciful and anachronistic. Koenig was not suggesting that the Baghdad battery would be used to power a street light grid, for example. Rather, he thought it might involve some kind of electroplating system.
httppv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZBsNGPVK2s
Unfortunately for Koenig’s hypothesis, other gold-plated artifacts recovered from ancient Iraq, no matter how elaborate, were not actually electroplated. More realistically, the Baghdad battery has no way to connect to any circuitry, so it doesn’t need to be charged in the first place. Currently, the expert consensus is that it must have been ceremonial. As Rossi says, the default for archaeologists is to throw up their hands when they don’t have conclusive evidence about an artifact’s original purpose. Hufford acknowledges this trend, but also explains why he believes the mystery is not as deep as popularizers tend to assume. Like any good YouTuber, archeology or otherwise, Rossi responded: another video of himselfIn it, he addresses Hufford’s criticisms, and also continues to stir our imaginations a bit more with the Baghdad Battery and its newly created cocktail of the same name.
Related content:
Behold the world’s oldest document: the Tablets of Kish, circa 3500 BC.
20 new lines from epic of gilgamesh Discovered in Iraq adds new details to story
How the Ancient Greeks Invented the First Computer: Introduction to the Antikythera Machine (c. 87 BC)
Advanced technology in ancient Rome: automatic doors, water clocks, vending machines, etc.
Visualizing the history of technology: 1,889 innovations over 3 million years
Based in Seoul,ColinMbemustwrite and broadcastIt’s about cities, languages ​​and cultures. His projects include the Substack newsletter books about citiesand a bookStateless City: A Stroll Through Los Angeles in the 21st Century.Follow him on the social network formerly known as Twitter.@Colinbemust.
Source: Open Culture – www.openculture.com
