''Babylonokia'' (also ''Babylon-Nokia'', ''Alien-Mobile'', and ''Cuneiform Mobile Phone'') is a 2012 artwork by Karl Weingärtner in the form of a clay tablet shaped like a

mobile phone A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whi ...

, its keys and screen showing cuneiform script. Weingärtner created the work to represent the evolution of information transfer from the ancient world to the present. Fringe scientists and

pseudoarchaeology Pseudoarchaeology—also known as alternative archaeology, fringe archaeology, fantastic archaeology, cult archaeology, and spooky archaeology—is the interpretation of the past from outside the archaeological science community, which rejects ...

proponents subsequently misrepresented a photograph of the artwork as showing an 800-year-old archaeological find; that story was popularised in a video on the YouTube channel ''Paranormal Crucible'' and led to the object being reported by some press sources as a mystery.

Artwork

Weingärtner created the phone-styled clay tablet with cuneiform signs as a reaction to an exhibition at the Museum for Communication in Berlin titled ''From the Cuneiform to the SMS: Communication Once and Today'', as well as the negative, global effects of information technology.

Cuneiform Cuneiform is a logo-syllabic script that was used to write several languages of the Ancient Middle East. The script was in active use from the early Bronze Age until the beginning of the Common Era. It is named for the characteristic wedge-sh ...

signals the beginning of written records of information. The fact that it is a clay copy of what appears to be an

Ericsson (lit. "Telephone Stock Company of LM Ericsson"), commonly known as Ericsson, is a Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company headquartered in Stockholm. The company sells infrastructure, software, and services in informa ...

S868 mobile phone, a model from the 1990s, had no meaning for the artist, who was using it as a metaphor for mobile devices in general. The work of art is unique and is kept by the artist in a special depot. It is available on request as a loan for museums and exhibitions. It is made from clay, weighs 91 grams (3¼ oz), and measures approximately .

Misrepresentation

Weingärtner posted a photo of the image on

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...

as part of a sale of his work, and a Facebook commenter coined the name "BabyloNokia". Three years later, the image was posted to the Conspiracy Club website with the headline "800-Year-Old Mobile Phone Found In Austria? Check This Out." ''The Express'' reposted Weingärtner's photo without attribution and claimed that the artifact had been dated to the 13th century

BCE Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar (and its predecessor, the Julian calendar), the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the or ...

. Speaking about the image's use by fringe websites and the press, Weingärtner said "The photo was used without my knowledge and without my consent. ..It’s not what I wanted. I do not believe in UFOs and I do not believe in aliens."

References

{{Use dmy dates, date=May 2019 Pseudoarchaeology 2012 sculptures Works about mobile phones Ancient astronaut speculation Internet memes Cuneiform