by Beverley Francis

Created on: August 06, 2009   Last Updated: August 12, 2009

Oopart meaning out-of-place-artifact was coined by zoologist Ivan T. Sanderson and is used to describe historical archaeological or palaeontological objects that are found in very unusual or impossible locations.

The term is mainly used by crypto-zoologists and paranormal enthusiasts and is rarely used by historians and scientists. Ooparts are used to question or challenge the conventional views of human history as evidence of their arguments. Creationists arguing against evolution, believers in time travel and alien visitations use ooparts to support their theories.

It is argued that ooparts exist because of mistaken interpretation, wishful thinking or because it is believed the culture in question couldn't have been responsible for creating the artifact because the materials and/or methods that were used to create the object were not available or even known at that time.

On June 22, 1844 in Rutherford-Mills, England the Times reported that a mechanically manufactured gold thread was found embedded in sandstone at a depth of eight feet. The sandstone was estimated to be about 60 million years old.

In 1891 a gold chain was found embedded in a chunk of coal in New England. The coal was estimated to be about 232-260 million years old and originated in Illinois. In 1968 at Antelope Springs, Utah a shoe print was found in split shale, it had trilobites (prehistoric organisms) embedded beneath it. The shale was estimated to be 213-248 million years old. In 1969 at the Paluxy River, Texas human footprints were found underwater in limestone. When they excavated the site dinosaur footprints were also found on the same level of strata.

These are all relatively recent discoveries and a plausible explanation would be that the artifact was lost among the rocks at some point in time and the sedimentary process caused it to become fused within the rock. It is also now believed that some coal beds form much faster than was once thought, taking only 3500 years to transition from organic material to coal.

Other explanations are that it could have been a practical joke or someone desperate to have their name associated with an important discovery planted the object, archaeology was all the rage in the 1800's. All these are rational explanations that can be argued to refute just about every oopart that has been discovered but the fact still remains that they are arguments of speculation and not fact.

The following ooparts are a little harder to explain.

The Temples of

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