Out of Place Artifacts

So, maybe I'm not caught up on the terminology but while doing some research last night I discovered a new term (new to me at least). OOPA-- "Out of Place Artifacts"-- How cool is that? Very cool actually.

Now, many of these are explainable, either via natural phenomenon or some other human intervention, but there are a few that caught my eye.

1.) Mount Baigong Pipes

• Mount Baigong is located in China. It is described as an environment that is not suited for
  human life. Interesting so far, right? There are pipes laid throughout the mountainside that lead

  

  http://ancients-bg.com/mystery-of-the-baigong-pipes/

  to a nearby lake, Lake Tousu. If that weren't interesting enough, the pipes run in organized patterns along the shores of the lake, into the lake, and deep into the mountain--a mountain that has an arguably pyramidal shape to it with three distinct entrances. The largest of these pipes is 40cm in diameter. Samples were sent to a local smelter and determined to contain 30% ferric oxide and 30% silicon dioxide--a substance regularly used in the manufacture of cast iron. 8% of the pipe's materials were unidentifiable, and some of the pipes were classified as "highly radioactive." The nearby population has allegedly known about these pipes for hundreds of years and they even have legends going back through the centuries about Aliens. The popular theory concerning their formation is fossilized tree roots.
• The Map of Piri Reis belonged to a Turkish admiral who had access to the vast library of Constantinople. He allegedly assembled the map from documents found in said library in 1513.

  

  http://www.theepochtimes.com

  What's interesting about this map is the accurate depiction of South America, including interior composition elements like the Andes Mountain range. The map also had detailed depictions of Antarctica 300 years before it was discovered and an accurate depiction of Antarctica before it was covered in ice over 6000 years ago. Reportedly, this map used longitude and latitude to detail its contents--something that wouldn't be applied until much later in history.
• Antikythera Mechanism--Discovered in 1900 and allegedly manufactured in Ancient Greece,

  

  http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/antikythera-mechanism

  the mechanism simply shouldn't exist according to current understanding of history. The device was constructed of complex gears and comparable in operation to 18th-century clocks. It appears to have been used to accurately represent the positions of the five known planets at the time, along with the Sun--and the Sun was set as the center of the known solar system. The device has been dated at over 2100 years old, well before the invention of such sophisticated machinery or the idea of the Sun being the center of the Solar system.

Interesting finds, to say the least. Explainable? Maybe...but the questions raised are fun to contemplate from a science fiction point of view.

Royce Sears
www.roycesears.com