In 1936, workers near Baghdad, excavating the ruins of the 2000-year-old village of Kujut Rabu, discovered a strange artifact. The assignment and the work itself, it confuses scientists.
The artifact looked like a 13 centimeters earthen pot, with a cylinder embedded inside it, measuring about 5 inches by 1.5 inches, made of sheet copper. The top of the cylinder was secured to the neck of the pot by a lead-tin alloy, and the bottom edge of the copper cylinder was hermetically sealed with a copper disc. Inside this cylinder, an iron rod was placed in the center, hermetically sealed in the upper part with a resin similar to bitumen. In appearance, the rod was corroded by an acidic composition similar to electrolyte.
This artifact was very similar in structure to a conventional battery, and in 1940 the German historian Wilhelm Koenig publishes an article stating that these artifacts may have been used as sources of energy storage, and this is very difficult to believe, because this particular battery dates from between 248 BC and 226 AD, and for what it could have been created, remains a mystery.
Some scholars argue that the age of the batteries themselves is controversial, because at that time on the territory of Iraq, there was Parthian rule, and this people was famous for its warriors, but not for science. But many archaeologists are still sure that these artifacts are batteries, but the Parthians themselves were not used for their intended purpose, but inherited from the Sumerian civilization.
So we got to the main question, why did the ancient people need these batteries?
There are several versions: the first of them is purely scientific, in order to cover the thinnest layer of gold, this or that object, you can use electroplating. Successively layers of precious metal were deposited by means of electrolytic deposition. This method was in great demand in the arrangement of palaces, furniture and objects.
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The second version is to use current from batteries for medical purposes. So even the ancient Greeks reduced their pain by applying electric fish to the soles of their feet. Here, it is also possible that tension was used to disconnect the nerve endings of the diseased area and conduct an operation.
Well, the third version has a magical basis. The batteries could be hidden in statues or idols, and when anyone touched it, they received a small charge of a couple of volts. Thus convinced of the divine power of the statue and earnest faith in this religion.
Every year there are more and more versions of the use of the Baghdad battery, but its real secret, while there are military conflicts in the Middle East, remains unsolved.