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The 11,000-Year-Old Aluminium Wedge of Aiud

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Oakenwulf

Oakenwulf

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The 11,000-Year-Old Aluminium Wedge of Aiud | Paranormal

The 11,000-Year-Old Aluminium Wedge of Aiud

The Aluminum Wedge of Aiud is a wedge-shaped object found two kilometers east of Aiud, Romania, on the banks of the Mures River in 1974.
The object was reported to be unearthed 35 feet underground and alongside two mastodon bones. A mastodon is an extinct large tusked mammal species.
Physically, the artifact looked similar to the head of a hammer. The wedge was taken to the Archeological Institute of Cluj-Napoca to be examined, where it was found to be made of an alloy of aluminum encased in a thin layer of oxide.


The alloy of the wedge is composed of 12 different elements. This artifact is considered strange because aluminum was not discovered until 1808 and not produced in quantity until 1885.
Aluminium requires 1,000 degrees of heat to be made. The fact that the wedge was found in the same layer of earth as mastodon bones would make it at least 11,000 years old.
Many people have claimed that the artifact is proof that aliens visited Earth. Engineers have reported that the object resembles the foot of landing gear, not unlike the technology used on spaceships.
The scientific community believes the wedge was made on earth and its purpose is not yet identified. Due to the limited amount of information that exists on the subject, the antiquity and origin of the artifact is unclear.
The Aluminium Wedge of Aiud is not on display to the public and remains in an undisclosed location.
The object was allegedly taken to the Archeological Institute of Cluj-Napoca to be examined, where it was found to be made of an alloy of aluminum.
The wedge was also encased in a layer of oxide no less than a millimeter thick, which is said to indicate an age of at least 300 to 400 years old. It is not mentioned what dating technique was used.


According to the article mentioned above, by Boczor Iosif, it was examined a second time in Lausanne, Switzerland, with the same results. It was not mentioned which establishment carried out this second analysis.
Florin Gheorghita, for one, had the opportunity to examine the report, and the analysis performed under the direction of Dr. Niederkorn of the institute for the study of metals and of non-metallic minerals (ICPMMN), located in Magurele, Romania, emphasized that it is composed of a alloy of extremely complex metal.
Gheorghita affirms that the alloy is composed of 12 different elements, of which he has succeeded to establish also the volumetric percentage of the aluminum (89%).
He identified the presence of Copper (6,2%), silicon (2,84%),zinc (1,81%), lead (0,41%), pond (0,33%), zirconium(0,2%), cadmium (0,11%), nickel (0,0024%), cobalt (0,0023%), bismuth (0,0003%), silver (0,0002%), and gallium (in trace amounts).
 
That's crazy. If you told me it was a machined part from a locomotive or something that had been left on a scrap heap for 40 years it'd be plausible.

By that, I don't mean that I disbelieve what's written about it, I mean it would be completely within the realm of belief that it came from a modern piece of machinery but just left to decay
 
The oxide casing indicates an age of at least 300 yrs old. Interesting. I'm going to guess this wedge wasn't created to hold a door open.
 
That is a remarkable report. Even for the early 18th Century,(if 300 years old is its latest possible date) it's a remarkable manufacturing feat. The bore-holes in the "top?" look machine drilled. I was trying to read the tape measure (without much success), but would it be roughly 8 to 12 inches long?
I have no idea of what structure it would have been a part. If a rod passed through the holes, might the wedge have been some part of a mill or grinding mechanism? Curiouser and Curiouser.
 
It looks like an outrigger pad from some sort of machinery. It would not be from typical heavy equipment being it is made from aluminum.
 
Of course, you're right. It couldn't have been used in grinding anything, but as a peripheral part of the machine? But who was making aluminum alloys 300 years ago? And how did it get in with the mastodon bones? Or could it be a modern piece that broke off of some machine that was being used in a 35 foot hole? Occam's Razor?
 
What I find most interesting is that the artefact was taken to an institute that is next to Romania's high-strange forest that has a circular area where trees don't grow and people have reported spirits, ufos and strange biological effects for decades. Photos exist of many strange things and the TV show 'Ghost Advetntures' were there last year and in addition to experiencing some strange field, they managed to film a strange bright red light that hovered about in the middle of the dark forest in the middle of the night. Well worth a watch!
I was in Romania in 2009 but at the time I had not heard of this place or I would have visited it. It is absolutely 100% on my list of places to visit.
 
Thanks very much for that information, Goggs. I have never heard of this place and it certainly lends more credence to the object having a less-than-ordinary origin. It certainly bears more research and is food for that. I'm generally a bit skeptical of evidence presented on tv shows like "Ghost Adventures", but the fact that there have been decades of local testimonies about the place and that their are botanical anomalies truly does make you wonder.
 
More importantly is that there are no real references in the world for this object, or the investigators - it's one of those stories about a story, this one thinner than most. Where is it? Is it only a hoaxed story? Why do we not see it in the museum of the bizarre or being repeatedly subject to scrutiny? Working with metals is a very old human event, but how old? Does this object point to that fact or does it work to create myths like hammers found in ancient coal?
 
My first thought is if you were in possession of the technology and know how, to smelt Aluminum, why would you make a small hammer? as opposed to a more advanced form of weapon? Given the choice of hunting a mastodon with either a small Aluminum Hammer or a Aluminum tipped spear I know which I would chose.

It also to my eye: resembles part of a "Tank" Tread/track or some other Heavy vehicle or Machinery part as Pixel pointed out.


control-arm-chassis.jpg
*


((source)) Tamor SMR Ltd - Military Suppliers - Copybook
 
Yes, it does rather look like that, doesn't it? But why is it with the mastodon bones?
(Actually, when I first saw it, I wasn't thinking in terms of heavy machinery. I thought it was a hoe.)
Are we waltzing around the idea of an earlier super-culture of which we have no knowledge? Or are we back to Occam's Razor? Still a puzzle.
 
I would like to see the dig site photos or drawings showing its location in reference to the bones.
 
If I had to dig a hole 35 feet deep, I would prefer to do so using "machinery", it would take quite an effort using a spade... maybe a bit fell off into the hole whilst they were digging or maybe its a bit of discarded or destroyed tank or farm equip.
Maybe it was part of a crashed Aeroplane.

My opinion is that there is as much chance of the "Hammer" being forged by the Mastodons, as there is it being made by peoples contemporary with them. After all there were no human bones found in close proximity to the artifact itself, just Mastodon ones.
Maybe Humans wiped them out because they were jealous of their metal working abilities?

Sorry for my sarcasm, but my understanding is that to be able to cast aluminium, you must first understand a whole gamut of "advanced" processes first, you also need a specialised set of tools and equipment just knowing how is not enough.
Which brings me round about to: why make a "hammer"?

Don't get me wrong I have a lot of time for the idea of Atlantis etc, I don't however think that they possessed anything that we did not surpass in the ancient (to us) world, to be more specific I believe that their technology seemed advanced to those that first told the story but by the time of homer, things had moved on, we had caught up, and today an Atlantian would be over awed buy technology which seems mundane to most of us.

Here is how Aluminum is extracted from its "Ore":


Crushed bauxite is treated with moderately concentrated sodium hydroxide solution. The concentration, temperature and pressure used depend on the source of the bauxite and exactly what form of aluminium oxide it contains. Temperatures are typically from 140°C to 240°C; pressures can be up to about 35 atmospheres.


High pressures are necessary to keep the water in the sodium hydroxide solution liquid at temperatures above 100°C. The higher the temperature, the higher the pressure needed.*


With hot concentrated sodium hydroxide solution, aluminium oxide reacts to give a solution of sodium tetrahydroxoaluminate.

*In other words you need a pressurized equipment just to get the Aluminium out, if this artifact is what it is being alleged then where is the correlating evidence?

Maybe I am wrong and the Aluminium age was before the Bronze or Iron ages.
 
Crazy Old Lady said:
Yes, it does rather look like that, doesn't it? But why is it with the mastodon bones?
(Actually, when I first saw it, I wasn't thinking in terms of heavy machinery. I thought it was a hoe.)
Are we waltzing around the idea of an earlier super-culture of which we have no knowledge? Or are we back to Occam's Razor? Still a puzzle.
Click to expand...
No one has to believe the story that it was found with mastodon bones in the first place, nor do you have to believe that it was tested and that the alloy composition is unlike any known alloys we are aware of. It's really just a story and doesn't carry any of the weight that other out of place anomalous findings do. Unfortunately, almost all of them that we do have documentation of come with some fairly reasonable explanations, even those weird spheres from South Africa.
 
I agree. I don't really think the Aluminum Age happened at all. I'm still leaning toward Occam's Razor. (Though a super age long before our own is a romantic notion. Even if I don't actually believe it based upon current evidence. But then, there is the manufactured shoe print in two million year old strata...)
 
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