Pattern Recognition

Guest Post by Hardscrabble Farmer

This is a labrys, or double bitted axe from the Minoan Culture from around 2,000 B.C. Also known as the bipennis, it was a symbolic rather than a tool or weapon, although it’s functional inspiration cannot be doubted. The Temple of Knossos was called the House of the Double Axe and the word labyrinth is derived from it. It was said that Zeus carried one and that it was also the symbol of the beginning and the end in their mythology with numerous attendant goddesses.

It’s importance and religious significance makes it a unique and easily recognized totem throughout the Bronze Age world. Some of them have pronounced tails at the end of each bit, like this one-

The Bronze Age was one of the first great technological advances of early human civilization. How it was discovered is still unknown as it required not only the concentration of great heat in order to smelt the copper, but the addition of tin, an element not found in the Aegean, nor readily available along any known trades routes.

Yet somehow despite our lack of knowledge, the indisputable fact is that bronze came into existence in that time frame and in that region and what followed was an explosion of both trade and the development of numerous complex tech spin-offs including my favorite, the written language. As it has been mentioned the primary component of bronze is copper. In that area most copper was obtained by the refinement of ore in the form of malachite and azurite. These refinement techniques were perfected and the cast ingots, known as oxhides, were produced for trade as well as use. They look like this-

They featured a quadra concave shape to make handling by a man easier to bear, like see in this sculpture from 1,300 B.C.

Of course the possession of not only the technology involved in creating this new commodity, but the supply line proved to be an economic boom for the Minoan Culture, in fact the first tech Boom in history. Their artwork and surviving palaces demonstrate a civilization with vast amounts of surplus wealth, and an appetite for luxury. They appear to have developed a vast- for that time- trade network made up of seagoing vessels that plied the warm waters of the Mediterranean and South Atlantic. Numerous artifacts found throughout Europe indicate that there were also overland trade routes, most of them focused on tin or copper, especially as readily available ore became scarce in their homelands.

Let’s recap. The Minoans were the tech giants of their day which created huge surpluses of capital, perhaps for the first time in human history. They established trade routes to facilitate their acquisition of key components in the manufacture of bronze and built large fleets of sea going vessels. Their written record, Linear Script A and B have never been deciphered. Their religious beliefs used the symbol of the labrys much in the way Christians view the cross, and it was so esteemed in their culture that they dedicated their greatest palace to it. The production of bronze involved the transportation of their most important trade good and they used a common form- the ox-hide- for easy handling.

In North America, at the same time the Minoan Culture was ascendant, in the Upper Peninsula of modern Michigan, someone began to mine huge veins of pure copper. From the Porcupine Mountains north along the Keweenah Peninsula are an almost endless strip of ancient mines, producing 99% copper veins. The metal excavated was clearly used for almost 3,500 hundred years in the manufacture of spear points, knives and personal adornment.

Examples of these artifacts have been found as far south as the Cahokia Cultural Sphere and as far East as the Algonquin Empire. Most of it, the vast majority in fact is concentrated along the Ohio River in any area dominated by the Hopewell Complex, mound builders with very high levels of sophistication in both lithic and metal working technologies. Nothing approaching their European counterpart of that era, but far above what was encountered when Europeans began settlement in the 16th Century.

Some of their artifacts are unusual in that no modern interpretation of their function has ever been found and no record exists in the modern era. They are simply anomalies, often given names that describe the item rather than suggest a function. Most of these are manufactured from a greenish material called banded slate.

Below is an example

They call those “banner stones” and the only suggested use I have seen mention is either as a decoration for the top of a staff, a ceremonial decoration, or as a counter weight for an atl atl, a throwing technology employed by the inhabitants of that region and time frame. There is no proof that either of these uses actually occurred so it remains anomalous.

These are “quadra concave gorgets” and again, they have no proven usage other than the possibility of personal adornment so they too remain a puzzle.

Note the two holes in the middle. Not all examples are found with perforations, maybe half. Just like the Ox-Hides.

I have no idea if these things are connected. Huge deposits of raw, 99% pure copper available in massive quantities being mined at exactly the same time in history as the Minoan Culture in North America. The sacred shape of the Labrys, symbol of their gods and goddesses, appearing at the same time as the bannerstone, in the same geographic sphere as the copper North American copper mine trade routes. The similarity of the Minoan copper ingot to the quadra concave gorget, a similarly mysterious highly valued lithic symbol with no known use also appearing at the exact same time frame and in the same region as the previously noted artifacts.

Anyone else see a pattern?

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