Archeology has done wonders in finding answers to countless questions about our history. However, there are times when some archeological discoveries end up raising more questions about our past rather than answering them. One of our time's most mysterious and controversial archeological finds is the Aluminum Wedge of Aiud.
What is the Aluminum Wedge of Aiud?
In 1974, a group of construction workers made a strange discovery in central Romania. While working on the shores of the Mures River near the town of Aiud, they stumbled upon three objects 33 feet (10 meters) deep in a sand trench. Two of them were identified as the fossilized bones of a prehistoric elephant, while the third object looked like a wedge made of very light man-made metal.
The mysterious metal wedge measures 7.8 inches (20 centimeters) long, 4.9 inches (12 centimeters) wide, and 2.8 inches (7 centimeters) thick. It was initially assumed to be the end of an aluminum axe.
When Romanian authorities examined the items, they revealed that the bone fossils were 2.5 million years old while the aluminum piece was 250,000 years old. What makes it puzzling is the fact that aluminum was hard to create even by the 19th century.
The experts were even more surprised when they investigated the sharp concavities and edges of the wedge. Further tests revealed that the Aluminum Wedge of Aiud comprised 12 different metals and was about 90% aluminum.
The exact composition of the strange artifact includes 89% aluminum, 6.2% copper, 1.81% zinc, 2.84% silicon, 1.81% zinc, 0.41% lead, 0.11% cadmium, 0.0024% nickel, 0.0023% cobalt, 0,0003% bismuth, 0.0002% silver and gallium in tiny amounts. It looks like it was made as part of a more complex mechanical system.
Theories Surrounding the Mysterious Wedge
The fact that this strange metal object was found together with animal bones caused the people to wonder and raise many questions. It did not surprise scientists, though, because aluminum in pure state is not present in nature, and the technology needed to achieve a considerable degree of purity was only completed in the middle of the 19th century.
The chemical composition of the object and its odd structure have led to the emergence of different theories regarding its true origin. Some people believe that it could be the piece of a tool made by modern man, while others have compared it with a reduced version of the point of support of a space exploration module, like the Lunar module or the leg of the Viking probe.
The second theory suggests that the object could have belonged to a non-terrestrial spacecraft or a piece of terrestrial spacecraft that fell into the river. However, the antiquity dated by the investigation of the oxide layer and the one assumed by the geological stratum in which it was found cannot explain the function of an object of such modern technology in such a remote period.
After analyzing the test result, authorities sent the wedge to the Museum of History in Transylvania, Romania, where it was placed on a shelf for two decades. In 1995, the artifact was visited at the museum base by Romanian researcher Florian Gheorghita. It was tested again in two different laboratories: the Archeological Institute of Cluj-Napoca and an independent Swiss laboratory.
Gheorghita consulted the result of the study with an aeronautical engineer who examined the configuration and hole drilled in the wedge. The engineer claimed that a pattern of abrasions and scratches on the metal led him to conclude that it was part of an airplane landing gear.
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