Facebook Users Identify Relic

© NY Daily News via ISRAEL ANTIQUITIES AUTHORITY/FACEBOOK

Experts turn to Facebook to identify mysterious artifact - Tracing the history of a gold object found in an Israeli cemetery left several experts puzzled — until they unlocked its secret on Facebook.

Amor Ganor — head of the the Israel Antiquities Authority's robbery prevention unit — told NBC News that his team had struggled for nearly six months to determine the origins of the object, which was shaped like a rolling pin of sorts.

"To tell you the truth I've never seen anything like this before," Ganor told the news station.

He later joked that the piece was such an oddity that it was as if "aliens landed from outer space and brought the object."

After ruling the device out as an explosive, they went to social media and posted a picture of the item — which was found by a maintenance worker at a burial site used during the Roman, Byzantine and Crusader periods.

And a short time later, they had a lead.

They zeroed in on a comment made by an Italian man, Micah Barak, who suggested the object was designed by naturopaths to deal with healing energy.

"The object, manufactured by a German company, is called an Isis Beamer, named after the Egyptian goddess Isis, which according to Egyptian mythology was the goddess of healing, magic and nature," the IAA said in a Facebook post.

It was clear that the item was modern because it was buried in a plastic pipe, insulated with cotton and left with an antioxidant, according to the Israeli news site Hareetz.

The IAA hopes Barak will pay them a visit, and that whoever put the item there will come forward to explain their intentions.