Babylonokia (also Babylon-Nokia, Alien-Mobile, and Cuneiform Mobile Phone) is a 2012 artwork[1] by Karl Weingärtner in the form of a clay tablet shaped like a mobile phone, its keys and screen showing cuneiform script.
Weingärtner created the work to represent the evolution of information transfer from the ancient world to the present.[2] Fringe scientists and pseudoarchaeology proponents[3] subsequently misrepresented a photograph of the artwork as showing an 800-year-old archaeological find;[1] that story was popularised in a video on the YouTube channel Paranormal Crucible[4] and led to the object being reported by some press sources as a mystery.[5]
- ^ a b Evon, Dan (4 January 2016). "FALSE: 800-Year-Old Alien Cellphone Found". snopes. Retrieved 3 January 2017.
- ^ "Angeblich "Alien-Handy" in Österreich entdeckt - news.ORF.at". 31 December 2015.
- ^ "Centuries Old Cell-Phone Artifact Presents Modern Day Mystery". 19 January 2017.
- ^ Moye, David (11 January 2016). "Ancient Babylonian Cellphone Isn't Ancient, Babylonian Or A Phone". HuffPost. Retrieved 3 January 2017.
- ^ "Is this an 800-year-old mobile phone? (Video) - Canada Journal - News of the World". January 2016.