What is an Out of Place Artifact?

One day during a routine dig at the ancient Indian burialperfectly preserved cargos. Raising the question,
site, an archaeologist called Goddard, discovered onewhether ancient Rome traded with Imperial China.
of the most famous out of place artifacts currentlyMany of today's great thinkers, who are trying to
known, "a silver Norwegian coin," dating back to thebridge a link between our past, and present often
reign of Olaf Kyrre, who ruled Norway between 1067-search for out of place artifacts,- as a way to
1093 AD.re-evaluate our traditional view of history.
This to many people may not sound strange orOther less orthodox thinkers see out of place artifacts
improbable, but the Indian settlement was in the USA,as proof that we really do not know that much about
and is the only Norse pre-Columbian artifact found inour past, and consider some OPP-Art discoveries, like
the USA. Raising more questions, than answers,the "Baghdad Battery," as proof ancient civilizations
especially about speculation that Norsemen tradedwere more advanced than we thought.
with Indians, long before Columbus "discovered: theThe "Goddard Coin," may not be absolute proof that
Americas in 1492.Norsemen discovered the Americas before Columbus,
Out of place artifacts also have been found in thebut we can only imagine what the next mystery that
Dead Sea. When ancient Roman trading ships werechallenges our orthodox view of history is- once
discovered on the bottom of the sea, their cargos stillanother out of place artifact is discovered.
intact, Chinese-style vases were seen amongst the