Page 9 - J. C. Turner - History and Science of Knots

viii History and Science of Knots

Nevertheless, the eighteen essays in the book cover a very wide range
of knot topics, and each deals with historical aspects of its own topic. The
remote history of our subject is generally shrouded in mystery and mythology;
for example, the art of making fish nets is said to have begun with Aphrodite
(a Greek goddess of love and beauty), who rose from the sea each morning and
gathered women around her to teach them how to make nets and to weave
and spin*. Our book begins with a search for less imaginative explanations of
how mankind began to make and use knots. Our desire has been to establish
the subject as much as possible on a scientific base. In truth, real evidence
on which to base the story of knots only arises when archaeological finds are
made, of artifacts which either still have rope and knots attached to them,
or which can reasonably be said to have been associated with use of rope,
twine or knots. Our first four Chapters deal with matters of this kind; many
archaeological discoveries pertaining to knots are described, and speculations
made about them.
Other sources of knot-history are the occasional references to the subject
matter which have been found in early writings of the ancients; and knowledge
gleaned from wall paintings in caves, heiroglyphs (for example, see Fig. 1), clay
tablets, papyri, quipus, tomb finds, pottery, carvings, and so on. However, it
has been noted that clear depictions of knots are extremely rare on ancient
paintings or earthenware; a reason mooted for this is that knots bore magical
or religious significance, and artists were afraid to portray them too faithfully.

A& I

Fig. 1. The ancient Egyptian hieroglyph for the word `tjeset' = knot
Indeed, the oldest written source on the subject (containing the only known
descriptions of knots before the 18th century) is the Iatrikon Synagogus, a
medical treatise compiled by a Greek physician, Oribasius of Pergamum, in
the 4th century A.D. He states that he derives his information from Heraklas,
who is believed to have been a physician who flourished about A.D. 100. The
knots recorded in this book were those used by physicians for slings, or as
parts of slings, during operations or in the treatment of bone fractures. They
are carefully described by C. L. Day in The Art of Knotting and Splicing (U.S.
Naval Institute, Annapolis, Maryland, 1970).
*In Norse mythology it is said to have been Loki, the god of mischief and destruction, who
taught mankind the art of netting.