In 1938, the German archaeologist Wilhelm König found a clay jar at Khujut Rabu, just outside the Iraqi city of Baghdad. The jar was covered with an asphalt plug and is believed to be around 2,000 years old.
But the curious thing about the whole thing and what amazes the world is what they found inside: an iron bar inside a copper cylinder. This made some wonder: could it be an old battery?
König was the first to suggest that the vessel was used as a battery, 18 centuries before the first real battery was invented. Although the idea was certainly somewhat impossible, the jar would actually work as a battery.
After World War II, engineer Willard Gray took a replica of the Baghdad Battery, he filled it with grape juice and was capable of producing between 1.5 and 2 volts of electricity. In other words, in ancient Iraq they were capable of producing electricity, more than a thousand years ahead of other countries.
The flaws in the script that the Iraqis knew about electricity
Although the evidence that the vials could produce charge is intriguing, they do not mean that they were used that way 2,000 years agosince to begin with there are doubts about the dating of the jar, which some place around the year 225 of our era.
No similar objects have been found in the area. This suggests that if they did know about batteries, proponents of battery theory would have to explain why this knowledge did not spread to the rest of the population.
An alternative, and much more likely, explanation is that the jar was used to hold scrolls. and not like how many, since it is similar to the storage containers found in areas close to the excavation.
How much more likely is it? As Iraqi archeology expert Professor Elizabeth Stone said in 2012, no archaeologist she knows believes the jars were pilas. The battery itself was looted during the 2003 US invasion of Iraq.which made its further study impossible.
