Human beings have been walking the Earth since the cradle of civilisations, be it the Indus Valley, Mesopotamia, Egypt, and all the first on the planet.And questions like how they survived at night and how they performed daily tasks like cleaning and medicine without electricity often cross our minds.But what if even the earliest of civilisations had batteries producing electric volts even before Volta did in the 1800s?Well, this might shake you a little and lead to the inevitable questions of how they did it. How was it even made possible, without any wires or required materials?Let’s dig in to find out.
Photo: @HistContent/ X/ archeaologist.org
Mesopotamians invented the first battery of its kind: The Baghdad Battery
Workers found an object in 1936 at Khujut Rabu, near Baghdad, not far from the ruins of Ctesiphon, capital of the Parthian and later Sasanian empires. It consisted of an unglazed clay jar holding a copper cylinder sealed with bitumen, which is a byproduct of crude oil, with an iron rod suspended inside.According to a History.com report, Iraq Museum director Wilhelm König proposed it was a galvanic cell. However, the pieces were later lost during the 2003 looting of the Iraq Museum, leaving only photographs and König’s own reconstruction drawing behind.
Going forward, replicas were made using the battery’s sketch
Since König’s time, researchers have built reconstructions using his sketch, and many have measured real voltage from them. And surprisingly, the readings have typically ranged between roughly 0.8 and 2 volts, depending on the electrolyte used, which bring sus to conclude that ancient human beings were quite smarter than we would anticipate. In 2005, the television show MythBusters wired ten replicas together with lemon juice and produced about 4.5 volts, proving that the design could work, even if it doesn’t prove that was its purpose.
So, what was it really used as a battery?
Archaeologist William B. Hafford, a research associate at the Penn Museum who’s studied the artifact closely, says, “People like to believe in oddities.” He explains that the Partho-Sasanian civilizations, which ruled much of the Middle East when these vessels were made, somewhere between the third century B.C. and the third century A.D., were clearly capable of complex technology. But in his view, the evidence just doesn’t back up the idea that the Baghdad Battery was ever built to work as a battery.
New research gives a new theory
Earlier this year, independent researcher Alexander Bazes published a reconstruction arguing the jar itself was functional, not just a container. His theory treats the clay as a porous separator for a second, “outer” cell, or essentially a tin-air battery, wired in series with the copper-and-iron “inner” cell. Combined, the two produced roughly 1.4 volts, enough to drive electrolysis and visible reactions on metal surfaces, more than earlier replicas achieved on their own.
Archaeologists are still ambiguous
Despite the improved voltage readings, few specialists have changed their minds. History.com report states, Penn Museum researcher William Hafford says that the vessels show no wires and no practical way to connect an external circuit to the sealed metal core. Some examples even contain several copper cylinders instead of one, so it fits poorly with a working electrical design. Archaeologist Elizabeth Stone has said flatly that she knows of no one in the field who accepts the battery theory.
Battery or a ritual jar to trap evil spirits?
The vessels were found near incantation bowls with documented ritual uses, leading him to suggest they held written prayers or curses, sealed and buried as offerings, with the iron rods functioning as nails rather than electrodes. He compares them to later “witch bottles,” or used to trap evil spirits.” used across different cultures for similar protective purposes. It’s a less thrilling story than a 2,000-year-old power source, but one that the evidence supports more consistently.
