A photograph purportedly taken in Reykjavik, Iceland, in 1943 during World War II has resurfaced online, igniting debate and speculation about time travel due to a detail that appears anachronistic.
The image, which depicts a bustling street scene with soldiers, features a man in civilian attire holding an object to his ear. This has led some viewers to claim he is using a cellphone, decades before the technology became publicly available. The first commercial mobile phone, the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X, went on sale in 1983, 40 years after the photo was taken.
Kristjan Hoffman, whose family has possessed the photograph for many years, shared it on Facebook in 2016. He pointed out the man's peculiar stance and attire, suggesting he stood out from the surrounding soldiers and was behaving in a manner characteristic of modern cellphone use. Hoffman further theorized that the man's unusual headdress and scarf distinguished him from others in the image.
While some Facebook users agreed with the time-travel interpretation, others proposed alternative explanations. These included the man scratching his ear, holding a portable radio, or checking a watch. However, the first small transistor radio was not released until the 1950s.
The image gained renewed attention this week after being shared on X, formerly Twitter. Among the various theories presented, some suggested the man might be using a small radio or even acting as a spy for the Axis powers. Iceland was occupied by Allied forces during World War II, with the British taking control in 1940 to prevent a German invasion, a role later assumed by the U.S.
A similar controversy emerged from footage of a 1995 Mike Tyson boxing match. A clip from the event appears to show a spectator holding a device resembling a smartphone to record the fight. Conspiracy theorists have cited this as evidence of a time traveler or an extraterrestrial visitor. Detractors, however, suggest the object could be an early digital camera or a camcorder, as such devices existed in the 1990s. The first QV-100 camera was released in 1995, though some argue its design does not fully match the object in the video.