# Man made artifacts found in bedrock, coal beds.... **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 26, 2014, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-made-artifacts-found-in-bedrock-coal-beds/691704 "2014-06-26T16:16:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![zoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/71c47a/32.png) [@zoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoo)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-made-artifacts-found-in-bedrock-coal-beds/691704/1 "2014-06-26T16:16:27Z")
What is the truth about these facebook postings that feature man-made objects found in “100 million year old” coal beds and other places not consistent with actual natural history. Are they all fakes? I’m not buying the conclusions offered by the authors of these articles. [http://www.realfarmacy.com/everything-we-have-been-taught-about-our-origins-is-a-lie/](http://www.realfarmacy.com/everything-we-have-been-taught-about-our-origins-is-a-lie/) ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-made-artifacts-found-in-bedrock-coal-beds/691704/2 "2014-06-26T16:27:46Z")
The hammer was estimated to be 500 million years old? I call BS on that. The part they might be able to date for manufacture is the handle, and there’s no dating technique that would would be able to give you a 500 million year old age on organic material like that. And that’s just the first example in the post. I also notice that despite all the “archaeologists have dated” and “scientists have measured” statements, there’s a distinct lack of citations or even simple links to the sources for these findings. Big old red flags all over the place. The items themselves might not be fakes, but the dates given certain are as are any claims they are anywhere near as old as claimed. The claims that reputable scientists have dated them as such is also suspect. ETA: also, the handle should be fossilized or not. “Partially” turning to coal makes no sense. It’s pseudo-scientific. The author obviously knows that coal mostly comes from organic plant life. But the concept that a portion of a bit of wood would turn the coal while the rest doesn’t makes no sense, either. It’s a “just-so” story that only makes sense if you know just enough science facts to make up the story but not know enough to realize how silly it is. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-made-artifacts-found-in-bedrock-coal-beds/691704/3 "2014-06-26T16:29:50Z")
The whole site is horseshit: > **[realfarmacy.com - Real or Satire?](https://realorsatire.com/realfarmacy-com/)** > > Real Farmacy is difficult to categorize. They’re not satire, but they’re not exactly real, either. Or, should I say, they’re not exactly factual. Oh, they’ll post mostly-real; or real stories, but it’ll be a story that’s 10 years old (see below); or... ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-made-artifacts-found-in-bedrock-coal-beds/691704/4 "2014-06-26T16:39:43Z")
Oh geez, I didn’t even realize it was on realfarmacy. :smack: I remember a thread where somebody posted a link from there about the flu vaccine being worse than the flu itself. There’s something deeply wrong with all the people involved in that site. Also with anybody who regularly reads it. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-made-artifacts-found-in-bedrock-coal-beds/691704/5 "2014-06-26T16:43:55Z")
**[Man Made Artifacts Found in Bedrock](http://hdfons.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/The-Flintstones-background-desktop-wallpaper.jpg)** ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-made-artifacts-found-in-bedrock-coal-beds/691704/6 "2014-06-26T16:57:46Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > The hammer was estimated to be 500 million years old? I call BS on that. The part they might be able to date for manufacture is the handle, and there’s no dating technique that would would be able to give you a 500 million year old age on organic material like that. You are saying the warranty kept safe by my family for 499,999,998 years is now valueless ? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-made-artifacts-found-in-bedrock-coal-beds/691704/7 "2014-06-26T16:57:47Z")
Charles Fort is smiling, somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![blindboyard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blindboyard/32/2833_2.png) [@blindboyard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blindboyard)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-made-artifacts-found-in-bedrock-coal-beds/691704/8 "2014-06-26T18:20:40Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Charles Fort is smiling, somewhere. Presumably the Super Sargasso Sea. ---
**Author:** ![Qwakkeddup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/90ced4/32.png) [@Qwakkeddup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qwakkeddup)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-made-artifacts-found-in-bedrock-coal-beds/691704/9 "2014-06-26T20:41:56Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > **[Man Made Artifacts Found in Bedrock](http://hdfons.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/The-Flintstones-background-desktop-wallpaper.jpg)** Oh, my ribs… how they ache! I have no idea what I expected, but this was definitely better. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2014, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-made-artifacts-found-in-bedrock-coal-beds/691704/10 "2014-06-26T21:07:33Z")
These OOPARTs (out of place artifacts) are found occasionally; they tend to occur in clusters, as might be expected from hoaxes. My favourite was the 500,000-year-old spark plug > **[Coso artifact](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coso_artifact)** > > The Coso artifact is an object claimed by its discoverers to be a spark plug encased in a geode. Discovered on February 13, 1961, by Wallace Lane, Virginia Maxey and Mike Mikesell while they were prospecting for geodes near the town of Olancha, California, it has long been claimed as an example of an out-of-place artifact. The artifact has been identified as a 1920s-era Champion spark plug. > A spark plug encased in a 500,000-year-old "geode" would represent a substantial scientific and historic... ---
**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2014, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-made-artifacts-found-in-bedrock-coal-beds/691704/11 "2014-06-27T00:12:47Z")
With the hammer “they noticed a rock with wood protruding from its core. They decided to take the oddity home and later cracked it open with a hammer and a chisel.” Why was wood protuding ? Because its the iron that promoted concretion. There is no way to date when the concretion occurred, but it does occur very quick eg decades. The story goes on to contradict science by saying that the hammer is 500 million years old, but the conversion to coal had only just begun… and the photo clearly shows ordinary word. Carbiniforous period coal, which is basically all coal, is 300 million years old… By the time the artifact in coal is found its a bit late to note down the structure of the lump. Its too hard to reassemble the lump to be sure it was not a recent construction. Coal breaks up into cubic blocks, and so there may be a lump that is cup shaped… The ‘artifact’ goes in there. Then another lump of coal, or a concretion of coal dust, covers up over the object. Brass was made everywhere - a pioneer may have made brass from his own mine… its not possible to say “no one made brass this way”. The composition is whatever they dug up… ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2014, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-made-artifacts-found-in-bedrock-coal-beds/691704/12 "2014-06-27T01:05:42Z")
Um, how did you make iron ore into iron 500,000 years ago? Was coal being mined or gathered then? Was there coal? And my understanding is the iron age didn’t start until around 1,200 BCE? For that matter, what creatures were living 500,000 years ago to make tools anyway? ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2014, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-made-artifacts-found-in-bedrock-coal-beds/691704/13 "2014-06-27T01:36:56Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > The hammer was estimated to be 500 million years old? I call BS on that. The part they might be able to date for manufacture is the handle, and there’s no dating technique that would would be able to give you a 500 million year old age on organic material like that. First of all, the [London Hammer](http://paleo.cc/paluxy/hammer.htm) was found in an area where the rocks are Late Cretaceous, about 110-115 million years old. Second, the hammer and the surrounding concretion were not found embedded in the rock, but were loose. Such concretions can form in sediments in only a few decades. Basically, as is usual with such claims, everything the article in the OP says about the artifact is either blatantly false, misleading, or unconfirmed. ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2014, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-made-artifacts-found-in-bedrock-coal-beds/691704/14 "2014-06-27T02:01:25Z")
As far as that hammer goes, you could pretty easily carve a hammer head shaped groove into a chunk of rock with fossilized seashells in it and then carve another hole for the handle part. Stick the hammer head into the groove and then jam the handle into the hole, and Bob’s your uncle. Hell, the concretion is not even tightly bound about the hammer head like the shell is. I call shenanigans! ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2014, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-made-artifacts-found-in-bedrock-coal-beds/691704/15 "2014-06-27T02:15:20Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Charles Fort is smiling, somewhere. [Ed Conrad is right there with him](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=194564) and still [expecting people to believe that random rocks prove MAN AS OLD AS COAL.](http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/homs/conrad.html) ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2014, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-made-artifacts-found-in-bedrock-coal-beds/691704/16 "2014-06-27T02:30:58Z")
♫ [In Bedrock. Twist Twist](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5haMVR5my-s&feature=kp).♫ ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2014, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-made-artifacts-found-in-bedrock-coal-beds/691704/17 "2014-06-27T18:03:47Z")
The [Coso artifact](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coso_artifact) is an example of a c1920 spark plug found in a concretion in 1961 looking like an OOPART. Assuming that the discovery report is remotely true (which they frequently aren’t).