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| Baghdad Battery and cut-away. Courtesy of MOCAOS |
The Baghdad Battery or Parthian Battery is a set of three artifacts
which were found together: a ceramic pot, a tube of copper, and a rod of
iron. It was discovered in modern Khujut Rabu, Iraq, close to the
metropolis of Ctesiphon, the capital of the Parthian (150 BC – 223 AD)
and Sasanian (224–650 AD) empires, and it is considered to date from
either of these periods.
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| Baghdad Battery and cut-away. Courtesy of MOCAOS |
Its origin and purpose remain unclear,
and further evidence is needed to explain its purpose. It was
hypothesized by some researchers that the object functioned as a
galvanic cell, possibly used for electroplating, or some kind of
electrotherapy, but there is no electrogilded object known from this
period. An alternative explanation is that it functioned as a storage
vessel for sacred scrolls.
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| Baghdad Battery and cut-away. Courtesy of MOCAOS |
