In Russia: Ancient artifact found inside lump of coal?

[pong]

Could it be true? The research of Michael Cremo would certainly suggest yes. Apparently, Russian scientists are taking a serious look at an unknown object that's composed of 98 percent aluminum and 2 percent magnesium.

Read more here: 300-million-year-old UFO tooth-wheel found in Russian city of Vladivostok

 

[Randall]

Here's a picture of it farther away:​

Do we add this to our collection of OOPARTS?​

It sure looks OOPART-ish​

 

[Muadib]

Correct me if I'm wrong but this isn't the first time I've heard of an OOPART coming out of a piece of coal. I seem to remember somebody claiming that they found a gold necklace or something like that inside a piece of coal?

Edit: Found it, here's a link to an e-how article that deals with gold artifacts found in coal mines: Gold Artifacts Found in Coal Mines | eHow.com

This part of the article is especially interesting:

Possible Explanations

• Despite the difficulty of explaining the phenomenon, there are some who have made the attempt. In his article "Out-of-Place Artifacts or Out-of-Whack Chronology," Philip Rife suggests that sometime before our present recorded history, perhaps another civilization advanced and was then obliterated. In his article "How Solid Matter Can Pass through Rock," Ted Twietmeyer promotes a theory about temporary altered states of objects, and "A Critical Presentation," Tim McGuinness contends that the finds are fantasy or fraud.

I find the idea of an advanced civilization that existed before ours and was completely obliterated with very little to no traces remaining fascinating, whether it has any basis in reality or not.

 

[Randall]

Correct me if I'm wrong but this isn't the first time I've heard of an OOPART coming out of a piece of coal.

Quite right ... I've seen plausible explanations for every OOPART claim that I've read about so far. Perhaps this "tooth" was something that broke off the mining equipment and embedded itself in a chunk of coal. Some types of mining equipment have cutting wheels with teeth on them. I used to operate landscaping machinery and the teeth on those buckets can break off and get embedded in asphalt, hard clay, or even cement, but aluminum seems like a fairly soft material to make a mining bit or bucket tooth from. It's still interesting though, and it's fun to think about the possibility that some ancient machinery may have come to Earth in the distant past.

 

[Muadib]

Quite right ... I've seen plausible explanations for every OOPART claim that I've read about so far. Perhaps this "tooth" was something that broke off the mining equipment and embedded itself in a chunk of coal. Some types of mining equipment have cutting wheels with teeth on them. I used to operate landscaping machinery and the teeth on those buckets can break off and get embedded in asphalt, hard clay, or even cement, but aluminum seems like a fairly soft material to make a mining bit or bucket tooth from. It's still interesting though, and it's fun to think about the possibility that some ancient machinery may have come to Earth in the distant past.

Yeah I think that's definitely a more plausible answer than it being a 300 million year old "UFO tooth-wheel" In fact, I don't see how it has anything to do with UFO's at all, other than it possibly being made of extraterrestrial aluminum. Still, as you pointed out, it is fun to speculate about things like aliens bringing us ancient machinery or an entire civilization that came before us and was completely wiped from the face of the Earth leaving almost no record of their existence.

 

[mike]

David Brin speculates on this in his "Uplift" series of fiction
Uplift Universe - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

One of the ideas he uses is that suitable planets are leased for a fixed period of time to a particular patron species, who in turn use it to raise,tweak and mature a client species on during the process of "uplift"

Brightness Reef is a new departure for the "Uplift" series. The focus shifts from Earth and Earth`s immediate allies to a remote world called Jijo. This world has been illegally colonized by no less than 7 different sapient races, of which at the time of the action 6 are allied in the "Commons" while one race has already devolved to a pre-sapient condition.
One of the prime foci of the novel is the "illegal" nature of the multiple colonization of Jijo. Jijo is a "fallow" world, one which was previously leased and developed (to quite an extensive level) by a Galactic race, the Buyur. Galactic law requires that such worlds, after their lease expires, be left fallow for an extensive period of time, to allow the world to heal itself environmentally, and hopefully to allow the development of new pre-sapient races

Once the lease expires, crews come in and wipe out all traces of the previous leaseholders, dumping stuff at a crustal plate convergence, where the material gets folded under and into the mantle.

The world is then left fallow for a long time

As with any cleanup project, some stuff gets missed

 

[exo_doc]

Huffington Post follows up on this story...with quotes from a skeptic........
300-Million-Year-Old Tooth Wheel Found In Russian Coal: Scientists

Here's an excerpt:
One scientist, geologist Sharon Hill, who goes by the name "idoubtit," says this entire story is "laughable." Writing in Doubtful News.com, Hill insists "there are so many red flags, you should discard it entirely."
Among the red flags Hill wonders about are, "Why is it not published in a journal? We have to accept the man's word for it, where he found it and how he discovered it? Why speculate on the alien origin of aluminum?"
Hill adds that "It's not part of a gear. It's a natural crystal formation I'd say.

Has she seen this object for herself? Has she performed any tests on it at all? Science by proclamation, not investigation, again I see.
She's already made her mind up and wants to get rid of the story.

 

[stonehart]

David Brin speculates on this in his "Uplift" series of fiction
Uplift Universe - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

One of the ideas he uses is that suitable planets are leased for a fixed period of time to a particular patron species, who in turn use it to raise,tweak and mature a client species on during the process of "uplift"



Once the lease expires, crews come in and wipe out all traces of the previous leaseholders, dumping stuff at a crustal plate convergence, where the material gets folded under and into the mantle.

The world is then left fallow for a long time

As with any cleanup project, some stuff gets missed

That is quite a cool SciFi explanation for the phenomenon, and could make the basis of a very cool book if not short story.

But I do think Ufology has a good explanation for such things, but yeah Aluminum? as part of light duty running gear yes, but as part of a cutting disk? hell no!

 

[mike]

Brin wrote at least 7 books in the uplift universe, And though SciFi it does reconcile the whole UFO/question very well

Startide rising is a great place to start

Startide Rising - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Why speculate on the alien origin of aluminum?"

It is known from the study of meteorites that there exists extra-terrestrial aluminum-26 which subsequently breaks down to magnesium-26. The presence of 2 percent of magnesium in the alloy might well point to the alien origin of the aluminum detail.