Flint Cleaver/WIkimedia Commons
As Aristotle used to say, “nature abhors a vacuum”. We can add that the human consciousness as part of nature also abhors holes and vacuum. When we don’t know something and don’t understand it we usually plug that gaping hole to stop the unpleasant draft of the unknown. The unknown makes us feel uncomfortable, nervous and in danger. But this is cosy and liveable however strange it is.
Sometimes these made-up facts cement themselves within the public conscience so much that it is very difficult to remove the resulting stereotypes even with the solid facts. Unfortunately, myth is always more attractive than reality, although why unfortunately? Sometime a myth can be so entertaining that one may almost regret its demise. Just imagine how much more interesting living on our planet would be if the following information were correct.
Stone tools
Our belief that humankind’s fate is all about non-stop development, complication and progress seems natural and undeniable. However, one must not forget that this is a relatively new idea that formed closer to the Age of Enlightenment. Before this time the idea was contemplated only by the antient romans (and even they very soon realised its inadequacy looking at vandals, drying their trousers on the overturned statues of the Capitol). In general, the more common and traditional was the way of viewing history as gradual destruction and decline, movement from the high to the low and better to worse. These ideas were expressed rather categorically by ancient Indian authors, writers of the biblical texts and ancient philosophers. First there was the Golden age and then everything went downhill. Plato gave a logical explanation to this process in his work. According to his concept all the things in the world are just copies of the ideas of all things, and life itself is just endless paler, flawed, accumulating more and more errors copies of already not ideal originals.
This was the accepted view across pretty much all the ancient and Middle Ages cultures. The most beautiful people in the world were Adam and Eve, made by the Creator himself. The people of the ancient times were the noble giants living a thousand years, the earth bore fruit by itself without any need for torturing it with a plough etc. With time people were getting smaller and weaker and some even turning into real savages. What can one do, this is the destiny of the decaying world.
Now let us imagine that a person with such a view of the world digs out of the ground with his plough a mossy ancient stone axe or a rough bronze arrowhead, or an axe, it’s not really that important. Or, even better, comes across a whole collection of such axes and arrowheads which are clearly ancient. What is this person supposed to think?
Bronze Arrowheads/Alamy
He can’t even imagine that this pathetic monstrosity was made by his ancestors who were three meters tall and rode golden chariots. He is forced to find another explanation, more scientific and logical.
This is what historian Alexander Yurchenko says in his work “The book of stone: wonders of the world in eastern cosmography”: “Al-Biruni writes about copper arrowheads that are found in the land of the Oghuz Turks and used as children’s amulets, and copper darts and capstones found in the land of Tabaristan. According to Al-Biruni the magicians believe that they bring luck and consider both kinds of arrowheads to be sent from the sky with the help of lightning”.
Here is the testimonial of Mahmud ibn Vali:i
Махмұд ибн Уәли (17 ғасыр) – ортаазиялық ғалым, географ “Khuttal highlanders say: there is a mountain in that area and small stones often fall from its top. All those stones resemble metal arrowheads, are extremely sharp and always have the same appearance”.
AvicennaiИбн Сина (980–1037) парсы дәрігері, ғалым және философ also tells us about wonderful arrows from the sky “in the Turk country during thunderstorms copper objects that resemble arrowheads with an upward bent nib fall from the sky. Similar items fall in the country of Gilan and Daylam 2. When they fall they burrow into the ground. Their substance is copper and is dry. In Khwarazm I spent a lot of effort on trying to melt one of them, but it didn’t melt. It constantly emitted green smoke before turning into golden matter.” (Ibn Sina “The book of healing”).
The bronze Scythian arrowheads gave rise to plenty of legends. However even in other areas there existed ideas about the celestial origin of ancient arrows and axes. Here is a Chinese version belonging to Shen Kuo:iШэнь Ко (1031-1095) — қытай энциклопедия ғалымы “They are often found after big thunder in the place where the thunder god descends. However, I have never seen it myself… When I lived in Suizhou once in the summer a tremendous thunder broke a tree and an axe was found underneath it, that is when I believed those stories. The thunder axes were mostly made from copper or iron, and the stone axes were simply made of stone and resembled ordinary axes just without the holes.
Thanks to all the stubborn and persistent scientists that had to see, understand, touch and analyse everything we are now living in a boring world. In this world Phoenix birds and mice are not born in the flames in order to gift us head-dress, the arrowheads made from heavenly copper do not fall from the sky, and silk is now washed off the leaves in shiny threads, and pure white boranetz does not walk around it’s bush connected to it by its umbilical cord of a stem. Oh well, as one of the great minds of the ancient times once said, “with much wisdom comes much sorrow”.
Scythian arrowheads/ Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 2021
References
1. Al-Biruni “Collection of facts for learning about jewels (Mineralogy) USSR AC, 1963.
2. “Ajaib al Dunya”, “Nauka”, 1993.
3. A.G. Malyavkin “Tansk chronicles”, 1989.
4. “A tale of beautiful Atikubo. Ancient Japanese stories”, “Khudozhestvennaya Literatura”, 1988
5. Marco Polo “The diversity of the world”, “Palmyra”, 2018.
6. Jan Struys “Three journeys” “Alistorus”, 2009.
7. A.G. Yurchenko “The book of stones. Wonders of the world in eastern cosmographies”. “Eurasia”, 2007