Our planet keeps many mysteries in its depths, for example, fossilized objects found in coal beds that are millions of years old. However, some stones and minerals that are quite familiar to us sometimes cause no less surprise.
Stone sketches
Many of us have seen amazing agates, jasper, marble, which seem to contain a certain pattern. There is even the term "landscape agate" or "landscape chalcedony", which appeared precisely because of this strange property of stones. Geologists consider these formations to be the result of various natural phenomena, but even for them these incredible stones are surprising.
This stone landscape resembles paintings by Roerich.
Recently the author of this article (Natalia Trubinovskaya) had a chance to visit the Museum of the Research Institute of Geology in St. Petersburg. One of the most popular in it is the exhibition "Stone Studies", which, as stated in its description, "presents compositions from natural stones and images of natural or man-made objects associated with them." Simply put, it compares works of art created by people and works of nature very similar to them. At the exhibition you can see stones that seem to depict sea views, sunsets, mountains, trees, animals and even people.
Photo of the author of the article Natalia Trubinovskaya from the Museum of the Research Institute of Geology.
Promotional video:
Pyrrhic agate
Such miracles, frozen in stone, have amazed people since ancient times. Ancient authors talked about some incredible stones that contained the most real paintings.
In the treatise of the beginning of our era "On the Rivers", written by the False Plutarch, the Sagaris River is mentioned, which is located in Thrace, a state on the territory of modern Turkey. Here is what he writes about this river: “In Sagaris a stone will be born, which is called a self-tapping screw; because he is found with the image of the Mother of the Gods already carved on it. It is difficult to find him, and if one of the carvers finds him, he is not surprised, but looks with joy at the wonderful find."
Pliny the Elder, who lived in the 1st century AD, wrote the following in his famous work "Natural History":
"About the Parian marble they say an amazing thing, as if in a block of solid stone, when it was split with a crowbar, there was a figure of Silenus inside." (Silenus is the son of Hermes, educator of Dionysus, a popular antique character).
In addition, Pliny spoke about the amazing property of Indian agates, which "reproduce the appearance of rivers, forests, beasts of burden, as well as chariots, figurines and decoration of horses." (I will add that ancient legends have survived about the magical property of agate - that divers for pearls tied a piece of agate to a rope and threw it into the sea. Agate “walked” directly to the pearl. Divers could only follow the rope and collect pearls).
Agate is an amazing stone.
Do you also see people, houses and roads here?
The ancient historian also mentioned the absolutely amazing stone of King Pyrrhus: “They say that Pyrrhus had an agate on which nine Muses were visible and Apollo holding a lyre; not artificially drawn by man, but by nature created drawings, in which were visible signs characteristic of every muse."
Later authors also mention the mysterious properties of stones and the amazing stone of King Pyrrhus. This is what Marbod of Rennes, a French poet and bishop who lived in the 11th century, wrote in the poem Lapidarium:
“The agate stone is said to have been first discovered
On the banks of that river, which has the same name.
He, such a precious one, reaches the shores of Sicily.
It may be black, but surrounded by white stripes;
The stone, it is believed, from birth contains various types:
For its surface is naturally streaked, Either the outlines of kings, then the gods representing the guises.
Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, wore agate, they say, on his finger, -
Its plane represented all the muses in nine outlines, And Apollo stood in the middle, playing on the cithara:
It is wonderful to say that nature is a creation here, not art."
A castle frozen in stone.
Miracles of Saint Sophia
References to paintings in various stones are found in sources from different countries and times. In 1403, ambassadors from Spain arrived in Constantinople, who, of course, visited the famous church of St. Sophia.
Here is what Ambassador Rui Gonzalez de Clavijo wrote about him: “The upper choirs and their vaults are covered with mosaics, very beautiful and skillful. On one of the walls of these passages, as you go upstairs, directly to the left, a huge white slab is embedded in the wall between the others, on which, by themselves, without the participation of a painter or sculptor, images of the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared with our Lord Jesus Christ in holy hands and with on the other hand, his most glorious Forerunner, St. John the Baptist; and these images, as I said, were neither drawn, nor painted with any paint, nor carved, but became by themselves, since the stone itself was born this way, with signs and veins that are clearly visible, and formed by themselves on it these images.
It is said that when this stone was processed and brought to be placed in this sacred place, then these amazing holy images were noticed on it. And having seen this mysterious and great miracle, they brought this stone here, since this church was supposed to be the main one in the city."
And in our time, you can see the marble walls of St. Sophia. Interestingly, the multi-colored marble creates the impression of expensive carpets, and on some of the slabs you can see drawings that surprisingly resemble clouds after a nuclear explosion.
Bas-relief in flint
Not only agates, jasper or marble contain mysterious paintings, but also many other stones that we see in nature all the time. However, not all people gaze intently at the pebbles literally lying under their feet, but only people with artistic imagination.
The French artist Jules-Antoine Lecomte (1842-1923) had an unusual hobby - he picked up flints on the roads, washed them and polished them. At the same time, he found amazing images there and was very surprised that others did not notice them. He argued that each flint contains some kind of secret. I will add that we all know about another amazing property of flint - it is capable of striking sparks and was used to kindle fire. In addition, there is a belief that if you put flint in water, then it becomes sterile, stops spoiling and does not bloom.
Lecomte described one of these amazing flints: “In the mass of flint, the slightly convex outlines of a human head appear. The eye has a reddish tint, which I have seen in relief images of the head, but there is no general pattern here. This head - a bas-relief - is painted in pale colors, rather typical for anatomical atlas. It seemed to me that inside the skull, where the brain is located, the landscape is vaguely distinguishable. Everything else, on the other hand, can be seen extremely clearly. An extremely strange shallow high relief stands out above the skull: first, a dwarf or a girl, with her head wrapped in a long veil that falls down to her heels like a dress; behind is another character in fluffy pantaloons, looking like an old man or, perhaps, a duenna with curly hair."
Take a closer look and you - maybe in the stones that you see around, a piece of the past has also been preserved.
Flint is an amazing stone.
BC technology
Of course, many thinkers and researchers of the past have tried to understand and explain the phenomenon of images in stone. The Persian scientist Al-Biruni, who lived at the turn of the 10th and 11th centuries, wrote the following in his work "Mineralogy":
“Vein agate serves as a substitute for onyx. Its veins are thin as hair; they are of mixed colors - black, red and white; sometimes there are drawings of trees and animals on them. This mixing of colors occurs because the stones of this variety are composed of a homogeneous substance of various colors. Its layers are connected in various ways, as if they were arranged in rows, but then did not remain in this position. They seemed to be crushed and stretched until they took shape and shape; and it happens that during splitting and grinding, surprising and unexpected images are found in them."
The 16th century mathematician and inventor Jeromo Cardano (the cardan shaft is named after him) was thinking about the secret of the paintings in stone. He put forward a version that some ancient artists first painted a picture with paints on marble. Then this piece of marble, by chance or by virtue of cunning intent, was buried "in the place of origin of agate stones, as a result of which the marble turned into agate", retaining the contours and colors of the picture.
This photo clearly shows why the ruin marble got its name.
Of course, at that time even the most advanced scientists could not have put forward other versions. However, nowadays science and technology are very advanced, and various interesting technologies have appeared that allow you to do amazing things. For example, 3-D printers that can print any shape of product. And we can already come up with a more or less acceptable explanation for the stone of King Pyrrhus or the figure of Silenus in the stone.
Maybe in the past there were some printers that could print three-dimensional color drawings from a certain chemical composition, which included quartz, silicon, etc. We do not know how and why the volumetric stone paintings were used - perhaps they were works of art, or even just volumetric drawings of children who lived thousands or even millions of years ago.
We do not know anything about pracivilization, about their technologies, the way of life of very ancient people. If savages live on the ruins of our civilization, they will not be able to understand the purpose of the remaining spaceships, observatories, factories and concert halls. So we still cannot unravel all the secrets of the past of our planet, which keeps in itself a lot of amazing things.
In the photo below, you can admire the amazing stone landscapes. Even if they were created by Mother Nature, this does not make them less mysterious and amazing …
Natalia Trubinovskaya