Archeologists Discover 800-Year-Old Cell Phone Tablet-Fiction!
Summary of eRumor:
A photo showing what appears to be an ancient cell phone table has sparked rumors that archeologists have unearthed an 800-year-old phone that may have been left behind by aliens.
The Truth:
Archeologists haven’t uncovered an ancient alien cell phone.
That rumor started with a report that appeared on a Spanish-language conspiracy website that translates to “Awakens the Future.” The website reported that a cell phone tablet had been found in Austria that dates back to the 13th century B.C. That version of the story reported that the language on the keypad was cuneiform, an ancient written language used in Mesopotamia:
Then, a YouTube video posted in March 2015 showed the same image of the phone with a narrator describing in Spanish the discovery of an ancient “tablet shaped phone.” The video had more than 650,000 views and triggered many reports about an ancient tablet phone that had been uncovered in Austria.
Finally, in December 2015, the tale of the ancient cell phone made its way into English-language media thanks to conspiracy websites like To the Death Media and UFO Sighting Daily. Here’s where the story changed from an “ancient cell phone tablet” to an “alien cell phone.” Those reports suggested that the cell phone could have been alien technology:
It is evident from this cell phone like device that someone with an advanced knowledge of the future created it. The language is said to go back tens of thousands of years, but I remember a drawing of it that looked similar to the writing here. I can no longer find the drawings of it, but they said it was millions of years old and found in a coal mine, but was destroyed by the tunneling later. Very cool discovery.
It’s not clear where the picture of the alien or ancient cell phone came from. The language used on the keypad is in fact cuneiform, a written language used by the Sumerians in Mesopotamia, which is modern-day Iraq.
But the phone appears to be made out of black plastic, not a stone tablet. In fact, the ancient cell phone appears to be a melted Ericsson S868 cell phone — not a Nokia, as has been reported — with cuneiform characters added to its keypad. Here’s the Ericsson S868:
This story started out on a Spanish-language website dedicated to conspiracy theories and slowly morphed over the course of the year from an ancient cell phone to alien cell phone. All along the way, there’s been nothing offered to make us believe that the image is anything more than a melted Ericsson S868 cell phone that had cunefirom characters added to its keypad with photo editing software. That’s why we’re calling this one fiction.