I’m a few chapters into Josephine Quinn’s How the World Made the West, and it’s a solid reminder that most things we think of are constructs—especially anything tied to identity, whether personal, social, or cultural. In one passage (depicted here), it’s also a reminder that even the most fundamental tools of civilisation had to be built—literally.
I’d never given it much thought before, but swords, in films at least, are portrayed as failsafe instruments, more limited by the wielder’s skill than the blacksmith’s craft. We’re used to seeing mechanical failures in other weapons—guns jam, bombs don’t go off, and booby traps fail. But swords? Not so much. Maybe a weaker sword gets snapped by a stronger one, but that’s more a flex on the bearer than the weapon itself.
Turns out, before 2500 BCE, swords routinely broke. Once we humans sorted that, they dominated until arrows and guns joined the arms race.
Earlier in the chapter, Quinn mentions how the tips of spears had to be tied on with rope. Before that, spears were just pointy sticks. Before that? Just sticks. Makes you wonder how long it took us to “innovate” from nothing to sticks and stones.
I’ve been toying with the idea of writing a post on the invention of grammatological structures, but I’ll save that for another time.
Philosophics 