By James Donahue

An interesting article by an R. Randle in the Phenomena website offered an off-beat theory as to the source of the nails, gold necklaces, tools and other things found embedded in rock and coal deep in the Earth.

Randle suggests that Tubal Cain, the name of the first metalworker described in the Book of Genesis, was a secret Masonic reference and that there might be some link to Masonic mischief in the discovery of such items.

In making his case, Randle did a nice job of collecting and cataloging a list of anomalies, many of them known about by this writer. As a service to our readers we will utilize the data in the article and present the collection as Randle perceived it.

Among the oddities is a "bell-shaped vessel" made of zinc and silver" allegedly blown out of a Massachusetts quarry in the mid-19th Century. Randle builds his case from a June 5, 1852 edition of Scientific American, under the headline: "A Relic of a By-Gone Age" The artifact, made of zinc and silver, was broken into two parts. It measured about four and a quarter inches high, and widened to about six inches at the top. The metal was no more than an eighth of an inch thick throughout. There was silver inlay with what Randal described as "exquisite" carving done by a skilled craftsman.

Randle also tells about a report by Sir David Brewster, from the British Association for the Advancement of Science, of a nail found embedded in solid rock. The report stated that about an inch of the nail was protruding and the rest was lying along the stone and projecting into a layer of ground so it was rusted. The nail was partially embedded in the stone and clearly was not driven into it. He believes the nail was part of the material that congealed into granite and became part of the rock, thus it may have been manufactured millions of years earlier. Our question is what protected the exposed metal in the nail from complete oxidation before its discovery?

Then there was a story by Brad Steiger in his book “Mysteries of Time & Space" that reported the discovery of an iron pot encased in a lump of coal by a fireman at a Municipal Electric plant in Thomas, Oklahoma, in 1912. Steiger wrote that he traced the source of the coal and learned that it came from mines at Wilburton, Oklahoma.

Randle quoted from the Morrisonville, Illinois Times, of June 11, 1891, a story about a chain discovered in a lump of coal by Mrs. S. W. Culp. The woman discovered the chain after breaking the coal to toss in her stove. She said she first thought the chain had been dropped accidentally in the coal, but discovered that both ends remained embedded.

Among the more well-known mystery artifacts from the ancient past is the so-called "Coso Artifact," thought to be an ancient spark plug found by rock hounds near Olancha, California, in 1961. While cutting through one rock, thought to be a geode, the rock hounds who found it cut through a round metallic object that had a shaft of bright metal encased. They said from the cross section they could study, the object appeared to be a porcelain cylinder. The metal shaft responded to a magnet. This object has been carefully X-rayed and studied, and the conclusion is that it may be an ancient spark plug.

In a museum in Mexico is a small solid gold replica of a modern jet aircraft, complete with wings, tail and cockpit. The museum has marked it among insect shaped jewelry from a period estimated to be thousands of years in the past. Since it is made of gold, its age is impossible to determine. Even its origin is somewhat of a mystery.

We seriously doubt if one man, the Biblical Tubal Cain, manufactured all of this interesting stuff turning up from deep in the earth. But we believe its existence presents a strong argument for ancient advanced civilizations that existed here long before our own, and before we began recording the history of our own deeds.

We have massive evidence staring us right in the face every day that great civilizations, even more advanced than our own, preceded us in the ancient of days. The great stone works like the pyramids of Egypt and South America, the massive earthworks found throughout North America, and the ever mysterious Stonehenge stand as mute testimony to builders who were here long before us.

Historians, archaeologists and philosophers have only guessed at why these colossal stone works were erected, when it happened, and who and how it all came about.