Wolfsegg Iron

The Wolfsegg Iron, also known as The Salzburg Cube, is a small cuboid mass of iron that was found buried in Tertiary lignite in Wolfsegg am Hausruck, Austria, in 1885. It weighs 785 grams and measures 67 x 67 x 47mm. Four of its sides are roughly flat, while the two remaining sides (opposite each other) are convex. A fairly deep groove is incised all the way around the object, about mid-way up its height.

This otherwise unremarkable lump of metal became notable when it was claimed to be an out of place artifact: a worked iron cube found buried in a 20 million year old coal seam. It was originally identified by scientists as being of meteoric origin, a suggestion later ruled out by analysis. It seems most likely that it is a piece of cast iron used as ballast in mining machinery, deposited during mining efforts before it was found apparently within the seam.