Wedge of Aiud

[[File:Wedge.JPG|thumb|right|165px|The opportunity to name it the "Atomic Wedgie of Aiud" was sadly lost.]]{{pseudohistorynav}}
{{hatnote|Not to be confused with [[wedge issue]]s (divisive political topics) or with the [[Wedge Strategy]], which itself may be a wedge issue.}}
The '''Wedge of Aiud''' (Romanian: ''călcâiul din aluminiu de la Aiud'' or ''obiectul din aluminiu de la Aiud'') is one of those supposedly "mysterious" [[out-of-place artifact]]s. It was found in Aiud, [[Romania]] in 1974.<ref name=EPOCH/>

Details are hard to verify, but the 4-to-5-pound wedge-shaped aluminum object was allegedly found during digging on a construction project, along with two mastodon bones in 35 feet of sand. Someone gave it to the Museum of History of Transylvania, where it lay ignored in a storeroom for 20 years, before editors from a [[Romania|Romanian]] [[UFO]] magazine found it in 1995.<ref name=EPOCH>{{cite web|author=Leonardo Vintini (credited as "Epoch Times staff")|url=https://www.theepochtimes.com/article/aiud-aliens-ancient-culture-aluminum-romania-1525319|title=The Aluminum Artifact of Aiud, Romania|work=Epoch Times|date=March 2009}}</ref> (It is not clear why UFO enthusiasts were poking around a national museum storeroom. Maybe that is just how they do things in Transylvania.)

Based on it being found in the same layer as the mastodon bones, the wedge is claimed to be at least 11,000 years old, if not millions.<ref>{{cite web|author=Unexplained Mysteries|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130321023623/http://coolinterestingstuff.com/aluminium-wedge-of-aiud-mystery|title=When looking for proof of ancient aliens look no further than the Wedge of Aiud!|work=coolinterestingstuff.com}}</ref>

==Aluminum==
The fact that this wedge-shaped thing is made from [[aluminum]] gets [[crank|some people]] very excited because, prior to 1825, metallic aluminum effectively did not exist.<ref name=BLAIRIOUS0/> And the first exciting explanation they come up with is (you guessed it) [[aliensdidit|aliens]].

Yes, according to [[Engineers_and_woo|some unnamed engineer]], the wedge is a piece of the landing gear from a VTOL-type (Vertical Take-Off and Landing) craft. This, of course, delights UFOlogists, who say an alien starship must have lost it when they blasted off after a visit to Earth thousands of years ago.<ref name=BLAIRIOUS2>{{cite web|url=http://hilblairious.blogspot.com/2014/12/aluminum-aliens-and-bbc.html|title=Aluminum, Aliens (2): The BBC|work=Hil Blairious}}</ref>

Fantasy buffs speculate that it is something left behind by a [[time travel]]er making a hasty retreat from attacking mastodons, or partying with a band of early humans at the barbecue where the mastodon dropped.<ref name=BLAIRIOUS0/><ref>{{cite web|author=John Lear|url=http://www.thelivingmoon.com/46ats_members/Lisa2012/03files/Object_Made_of_Aluminum_from_Aiud.html|title=Object Made of Aluminum from Aiud|work=thelivingmoon.com}}</ref>

==Spoil-sport skepticism==
[[File:Excavator bucket.JPG|thumb|left|150px|Check your bucket.]]
[[File:clamshell-excavator-tooth.jpg|thumb|right|150px|Easier than a root canal.]]
Yet, there is a much more rational (albeit boring) explanation. The wedge is simply a tooth from a modern-day excavator bucket, the kind used by workers digging foundations for construction projects.<ref name=BLAIRIOUS1>{{cite web|url=http://hilblairious.blogspot.com/2014/12/aluminum-aliens-explanation-example-in.html|title=Aluminum, Aliens (3):An Example For Debunkers|work=Hil Blairious}}</ref>

The results of metallurgical tests made on the wedge are somewhat consistent with modern 2000 series {{wpl|duralumin}} which oxidizes fairly rapidly, accounting for the aged appearance of the wedge, and which can be {{wpl|Precipitation hardening|hardened}} to a degree similar to mild steel.   

Aluminum will not strike sparks as steel might, which makes the alloy desirable for service in environments with combustible gases or vapors, such as the [[coal]] mines that flourished for a while in Romania.<ref name=BLAIRIOUS0>{{cite web|url=http://hilblairious.blogspot.com/2014/12/aluminum-aliens-and-gear-they-left.html|title=Debunking Wedge of Aiud and other random aluminum from the past: Aluminum, Aliens (1): What "THEY" left Behind in Aiud|work=Hil Blairious}}</ref>

With a decline in coal mining, the excavators may be reasonably supposed to have been turned to other uses. It is extremely likely that one of these excavators lost a tooth while digging the hole in Aiud; someone unfamiliar with the machine found it in the sand near the mastodon bones, and assumed it to be an anachronism.<ref name=BLAIRIOUS0/>

See many examples of excavator teeth, [https://www.google.com/search?q=aluminum+excavator+tooth&tbm=isch here], a number of which closely resemble the so-called "out-of-place" artifact.<ref name=BLAIRIOUS0/>

==See also==
*[[Out-of-place artifact]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Out-of-place artifact]]
[[Category:Pseudoarchaeology]]
[[Category:Romania]]
[[Category:Ufology]]

Categories: Out-of-place artifact, Pseudoarchaeology, Romania, Ufology