The London Hammer (also known as the "London Artifact") is a name given to a hammer made of iron and wood that was found in London, Texas in 1936. Part of the hammer is embedded in a limy rock concretion, leading to it being regarded by some as an anomalous artifact, asking how an obviously man-made tool could come to be encased in a 400 million year old rock.
Creationist Carl Baugh referred to the hammer in the 1980s, even using it as the basis of speculation of how the atmospheric quality of a pre-flood earth could have encouraged the growth of giants. The hammer is now an exhibit in Baugh's Creation Evidence Museum, which sells replicas of it to visitors.
The metal hammerhead is approximately 6 inches (15 centimeters) long and has a diameter of 1 in (25 mm), leading some to suggest that this hammer was not used for large projects, but rather for fine work or soft metal. The metal of the hammerhead has been confirmed to consist of 96.6% iron, 2.6% chlorine, and 0.74% sulfur. The hammerhead has not rusted since its discovery in the mid-1930s. The Hammer was bought by Carl Baugh in 1983, who claimed the artifact was a "...monumental 'pre-Flood' discovery."
Other observers have noted that the hammer is stylistically consistent with typical American tools manufactured in the region in the late 1800s. One possible explanation for the artifact is that the highly soluble minerals in the ancient limestone may have formed a concretion around the object, via a common process (like that of a petrifying well) which often creates similar encrustations around fossils and other nuclei. J.R. Cole states: "The stone is real, and it looks impressive to someone unfamiliar with geological processes. How could a modern artifact be stuck in Ordovician rock? The answer is that the concretion itself is not Ordovician. Minerals in solution can harden around an intrusive object dropped in a crack or simply left on the ground if the source rock (in this case, reportedly Ordovician) is chemically soluble."
History
Per subsequent accounts, the hammer was found by a local couple, Max Hahn and his wife, while out walking along the course of the Red Creek near the town of London. They spotted a curious piece of loose rock with a bit of wood apparently embedded in it and took it home with them. A decade later, their son Max broke open the rock to find the concealed hammer head within. It began to attract wider attention after Baugh obtained it in the 1980s.