Tools
Artifacts discovered since 1936 in and around Baghdad and at the Baghdad Museum are possibly the oldest known electric batteries, apparently used for electroplating about this time. These discoveries of pottery jars lined with copper, closed with an asphalt plug, and containing remains of iron rods, could explain the production of extremely thin layers of silver and gold on certain objects from Antiquity. Further evidence that electroplating was the intended use of the jars is that similar apparatuses are used today by local silversmiths in the Baghdad region, suggesting that the tradition has persisted since Roman times.
