Debunking the Babylonokia: an 800-year-old Mobile Phone
We all love a good conspiracy. Whether it is strange lights in the sky, potential UFO sightings or out-of-place artifacts that leave us scratching our heads and rethinking our past and what think we know about our ancestors.
The world itself is already filled with real conspiracy theories that are true. Governments conspiring against their citizens, ancient buildings that should not exist, and bizarre ancient technology that we still don’t what it is or how it was used for.
The digital world itself is filled with conspiracy theories and unfortunately, very elaborate hoaxes. One of those hoaxes is the Babylonokia.
The Story of the Babylonokia
The story that circulated in the blogosphere was that an ancient mobile phone was found during archaeological excavations at Fuschl am See, (in Salzburg), Austria.
Researchers unearthed an 800-year-old Nokia mobile phone with cuneiform writing on it. Cuneiform is an ancient system of writing that emerged in the ancient Mesopotamian (modern Iraq and Iran) civilization of Sumer about 3500 BCE.
To many people, this was evidence of advanced human civilizations existing in the distant past. To others, was proof of ancient Aliens having visited Earth a very long-time ago. And to others, the Babylonokia was fool-proof evidence of time travel.
After the alleged ‘discovery’ of the mobile phone, the now-defunct Conspiracy Club website broke the story, quickly followed by MysteriousUniverse website. Soon, the Youtube Channel Paranormal Crucible posted a video of the ‘evidence’, asking its viewers if the alien mobile phone was evidence of advanced civilizations or time travel.
The video quickly spread like wildfire on the internet, and soon many other channels, bloggers and vloggers were reporting on the same story. Parroting what they have heard on the Internet, without doing any research on it at all.
Is The Babylonokia a Hoax?
However, further investigation revealed that the alien mobile phone was actually a hoax. It turned out that the device had been created by an artist named Karl Weingärtner, who had posted a video of the sculpture to his YouTube channel. The video showed the artist making the sculpture using a 3D printer, and it was clear that the device was not an ancient relic.
The German sculptor behind the Babylonokia, said that he created the sculpture as a commentary on the modern world’s obsession with technology. He wanted to show that even a primitive device could have a powerful impact on people.
Speaking about the incident, Karl Weingärtner said that he was selling items online and posted a photo of his sculpture on Facebook. “The photo was used without my knowledge and without my consent.It’s not what I wanted. I do not believe in UFOs and I do not believe in aliens.”
Despite the fact that the Babylonokia was a hoax, it still managed to capture the imagination of many people. The story of the ancient device quickly spread across the internet, and it even made its way into some mainstream news sources.