The REAL History of the Baghdad Battery

The Baghdad Battery is the name given to a set of three artifacts which were found together: a ceramic pot, a tube of copper, and a rod of iron

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[oldeskul]

Miniminuteman did a video on the Baghdad battery. There wasn't one, but at least 3 of these jars that were excavated during a rail line expansion in central Iraq in the(I believe) 1930's. He concluded that while they weren't used as batteries, they were probably used for something mundane. Unfortunately the objects known as the Baghdad batteries were stolen by looters during the American invasion of Iraq during the Global War on Terror.

An archaeologist who specializes in Middle Eastern history made a response video. It turns out that for decades archaeologists have known what they are. They were ceremonial jars that held spell scrolls meant to ward off evil spirits and then placed in the foundations of buildings. Apparently many similar jars were found in the foundations of buildings from the Parthian period. Your statement of them being scroll jars wasn't too far off the mark.

I suggest you go check out those two videos, you'll find them entertaining and educational.

[panqueque]

Another thing to point out is how big that "COULD" is. When you see people test it out and get that 1 volt, the modifications they need to do to this device are such, that's it's literally a different thing entirely.

[baroquerookbr]

I would imagine that actually given its construction. It's likely an iron age oil lamp with a fuel gauge built in via mechanical forces. We're talking petroleum. It hasn't been refined to the point where it's as highly combustible and the casing allows for expansion of gases assuming it's filled minimally.

[kristopherpotts]

Love the mythology types of videos more please 🥺

[hitekalchemy]

I loved this one. I hope you do more giving the history of stuff that has popular misinterpretations like this one. You should do the history of one of those UFO paintings next.

[jonasarnesen]

It could just have been something a person was playing around with. Like a little bit of bits and pieces and a little bit of vinegar or wine.
Whola... now you have intriguing zapping. Now you've made a toy like a Greek steamy thingy.
I mean if there were many of such vessels then of course the one or other person would do something with one of them. Like tinkering a bit and see what happens.
...
Or it could be that we lost a lot more records than we thought. I mean we have a decent amount of literature, only a couple hundred years ago, of which we only have fragments of.
On top of that we have literature we never thought of being so or never found until kow.
Like Rongorongo. The history of Rapa Nui's (or maybe even other Polynesian origin) writing is quite interesting. Together with other records we have found over the years we should approach literature from a different perspective.
...
Like the knots which were used as writing in South America.

[pandaTactical]

The Mini minute man on YouTube has 2 videos on this particular subject. He is an archeology graduate and had help from a professional archeologist. And apparently they know exactly what the so called "Baghdad battery's" are. The full info is actually really interesting and I think you would really enjoy his content, and I think ya'll would have a lot of fun and interesting stuff to share and discuss. I strongly recommend you watch the video's. The video title is "Awful archeology ep #6". P.S. I don't know how to link videos in the comments, sorry.

[taylorsims]

Great vid Stak 👌. Could you do one on the history of tools sometime?
P.S.
Have you heard of the theory that some apes have reached the stone age?

[TheStarTrekApologist]

If it was used for electro plating the maker may have never told anyone

[mattt]

It’s an ancient space heater, they’d use salt water instead of wine or vinegar due to its higher electrolyte content

[patwick]

It makes me wonder maybe Wilhelm König stole the "battery" from someone else maybe that's why he had no story of where it came from.

[danser_theplayer]

My teach once gave us a practical homework - make a condensator (battery). And I was like shit how am I supposed to do it? Well turns out two coins of different metals and a little bit of wet paper is technically a condensator (battery) and will give _some charge_

Hold on...
So if it was a scroll battery it would be an actual complete condensator, two different metals separated by a wet paper to create potential. Though no idea where you would use such a weak one time only condensator but if you made tons of them they could be used to do stuff.

[MaxanArchyRandomXenic]

Y'know this could be a really neat idea for like a fantasy safeguard storage. Like it produces a shock to anyone who isn't supposed to touch it

[bluerain]

What if it was a palimpsest machine? Like an ancient paper shredder for erasing text off ancient leather papers or whatnot. If there was metal in the ink, could it be softened by the vinegar and then electolysisted off?

[HowlandGreywolfe]

I have two ideas about it.
1) its a scroll carrier, so why the acidic liquid? That may destroy the scroll right? Well maybe thats the point. Its for carrying secret messages around, and if someone carrying it was about to be captured, you would throw it on the ground, breaking the pot, spilling the liquid over the scroll and making it, illegable.

or 2) It is for making a small amount of electrical buzz, but isnt really used for anything. Its just a neat trick they figured out to do and holds no more significance than a baking soda+vinigar volcano.

[AkaedatheLogtoad]

Thanks for this. I never knew the truth about that.

[Raymond.Butler]

It may have 3 parts, it is only 1 object, thus IS. There are 3 parts, it is a battery.

[unknownfromadam]

The fact that this object didn't become famous until charlatans like von Daniken made it so speaks more to the gullibility of people than anything else.

[brownstonecustomcabinetry]

The argument that the Baghdad battery only produced One volt isn't really a sound one. AAA, AA, , and C modern batteries only produce 1.5 volts. Two thousand years later we don't really make high volt batteries, we just daisy chain them together.

[atrumluminarium]

Imagine they just filled it with vinegar and then were fascinated that it made the metals taste sour lol