1 00:00:03,279 --> 00:00:05,640 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of 2 00:00:05,640 --> 00:00:10,920 Speaker 1: I Heart Radio. Hi, my name is Joe McCormick, and 3 00:00:11,039 --> 00:00:14,480 Speaker 1: this is the Artifact, a short form series from Stuff 4 00:00:14,520 --> 00:00:18,560 Speaker 1: to Blow Your Mind, focusing on particular objects, ideas, and 5 00:00:18,680 --> 00:00:24,000 Speaker 1: moments in time. There's a stone that looks like a tongue, 6 00:00:24,560 --> 00:00:27,720 Speaker 1: the tongue of a human, or a snake or a dragon, 7 00:00:27,880 --> 00:00:30,960 Speaker 1: depending on who you ask. It's roughly in the shape 8 00:00:30,960 --> 00:00:34,800 Speaker 1: of a triangle or even a heart, with rounded edges 9 00:00:34,840 --> 00:00:38,040 Speaker 1: and a rough textured bulge on one of its three sides. 10 00:00:38,920 --> 00:00:43,040 Speaker 1: In ancient Rome, these were known as glosso petrie, meaning 11 00:00:43,159 --> 00:00:46,879 Speaker 1: tongue stones. Our first written record of them comes from 12 00:00:46,960 --> 00:00:50,520 Speaker 1: the first century Roman author Pliny the Elder, who mentions 13 00:00:50,560 --> 00:00:53,840 Speaker 1: them in the mineralogy section of his surviving master work 14 00:00:54,080 --> 00:00:57,480 Speaker 1: The Natural History. He doesn't say a lot, but what 15 00:00:57,520 --> 00:01:01,080 Speaker 1: he does tell us is tantalizing. He writes that glossy 16 00:01:01,160 --> 00:01:05,120 Speaker 1: petrie are stones that resemble the human tongue. He records 17 00:01:05,160 --> 00:01:08,480 Speaker 1: a common folk belief that they are not created within 18 00:01:08,560 --> 00:01:12,560 Speaker 1: the earth like other stones. Instead, people say that they 19 00:01:12,640 --> 00:01:16,000 Speaker 1: fall from the sky when the moon goes into eclipse. 20 00:01:16,959 --> 00:01:19,840 Speaker 1: They're used for the purpose of selenimancy, which is a 21 00:01:19,880 --> 00:01:23,560 Speaker 1: form of divination that draws hidden knowledge from the appearance 22 00:01:23,600 --> 00:01:26,920 Speaker 1: of the phases of the moon. What roll the tongue 23 00:01:26,959 --> 00:01:29,920 Speaker 1: stone plays in this magic art is unclear. But from 24 00:01:29,959 --> 00:01:32,800 Speaker 1: here Plenty goes on to doubt the folk wisdom about 25 00:01:32,880 --> 00:01:35,600 Speaker 1: these rocks, since it's also said that they have the 26 00:01:35,640 --> 00:01:38,560 Speaker 1: power of quelling the winds of a storm, which in 27 00:01:38,680 --> 00:01:42,560 Speaker 1: his mind is clearly ridiculous. So what were these stones 28 00:01:42,840 --> 00:01:46,440 Speaker 1: and where did the belief in their powers come from? 29 00:01:46,520 --> 00:01:49,919 Speaker 1: Christopher J. Duffin of the Natural History Museum in London 30 00:01:50,000 --> 00:01:53,360 Speaker 1: writes a chapter on the tongue stones for a book 31 00:01:53,600 --> 00:01:58,320 Speaker 1: called Toxicology in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. According 32 00:01:58,360 --> 00:02:02,080 Speaker 1: to Duffin, apart from a you reproductions of Plenty's comments, 33 00:02:02,120 --> 00:02:05,240 Speaker 1: written references to gloss of Petrie mostly vanish in the 34 00:02:05,320 --> 00:02:10,000 Speaker 1: following centuries. However, the stones returned with a vengeance in 35 00:02:10,080 --> 00:02:13,760 Speaker 1: late Middle Aged Europe as a regular entry in lapidaries 36 00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:17,720 Speaker 1: or gimstone reference manuals of the time, where it seems 37 00:02:17,760 --> 00:02:21,400 Speaker 1: they were believed to have power over the snakelike domains 38 00:02:21,480 --> 00:02:27,120 Speaker 1: of magic, poison and venom. The fourteenth century lapidary of 39 00:02:27,240 --> 00:02:31,200 Speaker 1: Jehan Mandeville claims that gloss of petrie are alexi far mix, 40 00:02:31,639 --> 00:02:34,960 Speaker 1: meaning they work as antidotes to poison, in this case 41 00:02:35,080 --> 00:02:38,560 Speaker 1: changing color in the presence of a deadly draft. During 42 00:02:38,560 --> 00:02:42,280 Speaker 1: this period in history, many rich and powerful Europeans seemed 43 00:02:42,320 --> 00:02:46,040 Speaker 1: to be terrified of poisoning, especially due to the widespread 44 00:02:46,080 --> 00:02:49,680 Speaker 1: knowledge and use of arsenic based compounds, which could be 45 00:02:49,720 --> 00:02:52,440 Speaker 1: dissolved into a glass of wine or a ladle of 46 00:02:52,480 --> 00:02:55,079 Speaker 1: gravy without a hint of smell or taste to give 47 00:02:55,120 --> 00:02:59,399 Speaker 1: them away. Remedies for this sphere included everything from goblets 48 00:02:59,480 --> 00:03:02,760 Speaker 1: made of was believed to be unicorn horn, often in 49 00:03:02,840 --> 00:03:07,680 Speaker 1: reality sourced from a narwhall or rhinoceros, to bees or stones, 50 00:03:07,760 --> 00:03:11,040 Speaker 1: which are masses of undigested material from the guts of 51 00:03:11,080 --> 00:03:14,840 Speaker 1: an animal. Gloss of petrie appear to be interpreted firmly 52 00:03:14,919 --> 00:03:20,040 Speaker 1: within this tradition. The sixteenth century Sloan Lapidary, for instance, 53 00:03:20,320 --> 00:03:24,320 Speaker 1: advises that the tongues of adders should be set in silver, 54 00:03:24,760 --> 00:03:28,240 Speaker 1: both for kings and lords at their meat, so that 55 00:03:28,360 --> 00:03:31,679 Speaker 1: yet they may be kept safer from poison. So how 56 00:03:31,720 --> 00:03:34,760 Speaker 1: will they keep the kings and lords safe? If your 57 00:03:34,840 --> 00:03:38,320 Speaker 1: rival mixes arsenic into your quail pie. The Sloane texts 58 00:03:38,360 --> 00:03:41,840 Speaker 1: suggests that rather than changing color, the stones will begin 59 00:03:42,000 --> 00:03:47,080 Speaker 1: to sweat. Sometimes these stones were worn as pendants and jewelry. 60 00:03:47,600 --> 00:03:51,600 Speaker 1: In other cases they were incorporated directly into the tableware. 61 00:03:52,360 --> 00:03:55,160 Speaker 1: One example of the latter approach is the elaborate dinner 62 00:03:55,160 --> 00:03:59,680 Speaker 1: table ornament known as that naturn Zungenbalm, meaning the adder's 63 00:03:59,720 --> 00:04:03,720 Speaker 1: tongue tree. This and other ornaments like it were commissioned 64 00:04:03,720 --> 00:04:06,640 Speaker 1: from gold or silversmiths of the day, and they were 65 00:04:06,680 --> 00:04:10,480 Speaker 1: a luxury available only to the upper echelons of society. 66 00:04:10,800 --> 00:04:15,400 Speaker 1: One explanation for this legendary alexipharmic power of Glossopetrie is 67 00:04:15,480 --> 00:04:19,839 Speaker 1: pure sympathetic magic, since they either looked like snakes tongues 68 00:04:20,080 --> 00:04:23,599 Speaker 1: or sometimes were in fact believed to be snakes tongues 69 00:04:23,720 --> 00:04:27,920 Speaker 1: turned into stone, and since snakes were associated with the venom, 70 00:04:27,960 --> 00:04:31,799 Speaker 1: the stones were believed to have power against chemical toxins 71 00:04:31,839 --> 00:04:35,040 Speaker 1: according to the broad like cures like logic of pre 72 00:04:35,160 --> 00:04:39,520 Speaker 1: scientific medicine and magic. However, by the Renaissance some authors 73 00:04:39,520 --> 00:04:43,000 Speaker 1: began to question the legendary and magical accounts of these stones. 74 00:04:43,600 --> 00:04:48,279 Speaker 1: In a separate article entitled Cochleodonts and caimeroids, Arthur Smith 75 00:04:48,320 --> 00:04:53,159 Speaker 1: Woodward and the hollow cephalians. Duffen traces the evolving scholarship 76 00:04:53,200 --> 00:04:55,680 Speaker 1: on these objects during the late Middle Ages to the 77 00:04:55,680 --> 00:04:59,560 Speaker 1: early Modern period, noting that Leonardo da Vinci argued in 78 00:04:59,640 --> 00:05:02,839 Speaker 1: his no books that Glosso petrie were likely the remains 79 00:05:02,839 --> 00:05:08,320 Speaker 1: of ordinary, once living organisms, in other words, fossils. In 80 00:05:08,360 --> 00:05:12,560 Speaker 1: the seventeenth century, the Danish scientist Nils Stenson, also known 81 00:05:12,640 --> 00:05:16,680 Speaker 1: as Nicholas Steno, mounted a persuasive argument that these stones 82 00:05:16,720 --> 00:05:21,480 Speaker 1: were not tongues at all, but teeth, the fossilized teeth 83 00:05:21,720 --> 00:05:25,200 Speaker 1: of ancient sharks. This was based in part on his 84 00:05:25,240 --> 00:05:28,320 Speaker 1: studies of the cranial musculature of a living great white 85 00:05:28,360 --> 00:05:33,440 Speaker 1: shark captured at Lavorno in sixteen sixty seven. Duffin notes 86 00:05:33,520 --> 00:05:36,920 Speaker 1: that the Sicilian painter Augustino Scilla came to the same 87 00:05:36,960 --> 00:05:40,840 Speaker 1: conclusion around the same time, and that the Swiss naturalist 88 00:05:40,920 --> 00:05:44,960 Speaker 1: Conrad Gessner had suggested the possibility a hundred years earlier, 89 00:05:45,160 --> 00:05:47,680 Speaker 1: though he had been unable to prove it. So think 90 00:05:47,680 --> 00:05:50,440 Speaker 1: back to the naturn Zungenbaum. Now that we know what 91 00:05:50,520 --> 00:05:54,680 Speaker 1: these stones were, Nobles and clergymen were decorating their fine 92 00:05:54,720 --> 00:05:59,480 Speaker 1: dinner tables with what looked like leafless, withered elms dangling 93 00:05:59,600 --> 00:06:04,120 Speaker 1: with the fossilized teeth of extinct sea monsters. To read 94 00:06:04,160 --> 00:06:08,080 Speaker 1: from duffin quote, the mounted shark's teeth were suspended from 95 00:06:08,080 --> 00:06:12,040 Speaker 1: a central tree like structure, ready for picking and dipping 96 00:06:12,080 --> 00:06:15,359 Speaker 1: into the wine before it was drunk. If the tooth 97 00:06:15,400 --> 00:06:18,520 Speaker 1: did not undergo a color change on being extracted from 98 00:06:18,520 --> 00:06:22,039 Speaker 1: the wine, the beverage was deemed safe to drink. One 99 00:06:22,080 --> 00:06:24,440 Speaker 1: description of a tree like this mentions as many as 100 00:06:24,480 --> 00:06:28,599 Speaker 1: eleven sharks teeth suspended from eight branches made of red coral. 101 00:06:29,200 --> 00:06:32,040 Speaker 1: Records indicate that a major consumer of these snake tong 102 00:06:32,200 --> 00:06:35,839 Speaker 1: trees was the papacy, especially during the Avignon period of 103 00:06:35,880 --> 00:06:39,760 Speaker 1: the fourteenth century. According to Duffen, there are at least 104 00:06:39,839 --> 00:06:43,960 Speaker 1: four surviving examples of these trees. One he describes in 105 00:06:44,080 --> 00:06:47,440 Speaker 1: some detail is truly difficult to imagine without seeing, so 106 00:06:47,480 --> 00:06:51,119 Speaker 1: it's worth looking up. Quote. A specimen in the green 107 00:06:51,240 --> 00:06:55,280 Speaker 1: room of the stat Lika Kunst sam Lungen in Dresden 108 00:06:55,760 --> 00:06:59,440 Speaker 1: consists of a silver base with Jesse, the father of David, 109 00:07:00,040 --> 00:07:02,800 Speaker 1: lanked by a snake and reclining at the base of 110 00:07:02,800 --> 00:07:07,560 Speaker 1: a tree. Six long pedicels then emerge through a canopy 111 00:07:07,560 --> 00:07:12,080 Speaker 1: of serrated silver leaves, each terminating in a drooping flower, 112 00:07:12,400 --> 00:07:15,360 Speaker 1: from which a tooth of issyrus or a mako shark 113 00:07:15,720 --> 00:07:19,880 Speaker 1: is suspended in the crown of the tree. Mary with 114 00:07:19,960 --> 00:07:23,240 Speaker 1: the baby Jesus in her lap, leans against a large 115 00:07:23,280 --> 00:07:28,640 Speaker 1: specimen of otodous megalodon. This was new to me, our 116 00:07:28,720 --> 00:07:32,600 Speaker 1: Lady of the Megalodon. Another example cited by Duffin as 117 00:07:32,640 --> 00:07:35,680 Speaker 1: a thirty two centimeter piece held by the Treasury of 118 00:07:35,720 --> 00:07:38,920 Speaker 1: the German Order in Vienna, consisting of a coral tree 119 00:07:38,960 --> 00:07:43,440 Speaker 1: on a silver gilt base with fourteen megalodon teeth dangling 120 00:07:43,480 --> 00:07:47,560 Speaker 1: like peaches from its red limbs. The Megalodon, whose name 121 00:07:47,680 --> 00:07:51,520 Speaker 1: just happens to mean giant tooth, is an extinct species 122 00:07:51,560 --> 00:07:55,360 Speaker 1: of enormous shark that lived from roughly twenty three million 123 00:07:55,440 --> 00:07:58,360 Speaker 1: years ago until about two and a half million years ago. 124 00:07:59,080 --> 00:08:01,720 Speaker 1: This amazing shark ark is one of the largest predators 125 00:08:01,760 --> 00:08:04,040 Speaker 1: that ever lived, though its body size has to be 126 00:08:04,200 --> 00:08:08,440 Speaker 1: estimated from incomplete data due to the poor fossilization potential 127 00:08:08,680 --> 00:08:12,400 Speaker 1: of its cartilaginous skeleton. It may have grown up to 128 00:08:12,440 --> 00:08:15,920 Speaker 1: around twenty meters or over sixty feet in length. What 129 00:08:16,040 --> 00:08:18,880 Speaker 1: we know for sure is how big its teeth got, 130 00:08:19,120 --> 00:08:23,720 Speaker 1: with the largest examples measuring almost seven inches or eighteen centimeters, 131 00:08:24,000 --> 00:08:26,800 Speaker 1: which is probably too big to fit into a wine glass. 132 00:08:27,800 --> 00:08:30,880 Speaker 1: While Renaissance popes and nobles may not have known exactly 133 00:08:31,000 --> 00:08:35,240 Speaker 1: what the serpent's tongues were, they knew what kind they wanted. 134 00:08:35,640 --> 00:08:38,520 Speaker 1: While it seems any shark's teeth were at least sometimes 135 00:08:38,559 --> 00:08:42,680 Speaker 1: believed to have alexipharmic effects, the most prized specimens were 136 00:08:42,720 --> 00:08:47,800 Speaker 1: Miocene fossils of Otodus megalodon from Malta. It appears Malta 137 00:08:47,880 --> 00:08:51,280 Speaker 1: was a significant exporter of fossil shark teeth during this period. 138 00:08:51,679 --> 00:08:55,280 Speaker 1: Malta is an island composed of sedimentary rock formed from 139 00:08:55,280 --> 00:08:58,720 Speaker 1: ancient sea floors, which is a perfect place for serpent's 140 00:08:58,800 --> 00:09:02,920 Speaker 1: tongues to leak out of eroding cliffs and hillsides. Also 141 00:09:03,000 --> 00:09:06,400 Speaker 1: tying into Malta are some legendary explanations for the origin 142 00:09:06,440 --> 00:09:09,080 Speaker 1: of gloss of Petrie, which traced back to a story 143 00:09:09,120 --> 00:09:11,880 Speaker 1: in the New Testament in the Book of Acts where St. 144 00:09:11,920 --> 00:09:15,600 Speaker 1: Paul is bitten by a viper but miraculously left unharmed 145 00:09:16,120 --> 00:09:18,640 Speaker 1: to read from Acts chapter twenty eight in the n R. 146 00:09:18,800 --> 00:09:22,199 Speaker 1: S V. After we had reached safety, we then learned 147 00:09:22,240 --> 00:09:25,200 Speaker 1: that the island was called Malta. The natives showed us 148 00:09:25,280 --> 00:09:28,920 Speaker 1: unusual kindness, since it had begun to reign and was cold. 149 00:09:28,960 --> 00:09:31,720 Speaker 1: They kindled a fire and welcomed all of us around it. 150 00:09:32,200 --> 00:09:34,959 Speaker 1: Paul had gathered a bundle of brushwood and was putting 151 00:09:34,960 --> 00:09:37,200 Speaker 1: it on the fire when a viper, driven out by 152 00:09:37,240 --> 00:09:40,720 Speaker 1: the heat, fastened itself on his hand. When the natives 153 00:09:40,720 --> 00:09:43,280 Speaker 1: saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to 154 00:09:43,320 --> 00:09:46,000 Speaker 1: one another, this man must be a murderer. Though he 155 00:09:46,040 --> 00:09:49,280 Speaker 1: has escaped from the sea, justice has not allowed him 156 00:09:49,280 --> 00:09:52,760 Speaker 1: to live. He, however, shook off the creature into the 157 00:09:52,840 --> 00:09:56,240 Speaker 1: fire and suffered no harm. They were expecting him to 158 00:09:56,240 --> 00:09:59,080 Speaker 1: swell up or drop debt. But after they had waited 159 00:09:59,080 --> 00:10:01,800 Speaker 1: a long time and saw that nothing unusual had happened 160 00:10:01,840 --> 00:10:04,760 Speaker 1: to him, they changed their minds and began to say 161 00:10:04,840 --> 00:10:07,880 Speaker 1: that he was a god. Over time, this story was 162 00:10:07,920 --> 00:10:11,040 Speaker 1: embellished to include details not mentioned in the Bible, such 163 00:10:11,080 --> 00:10:14,720 Speaker 1: as Paul turning the poison tongues of all of Malta's 164 00:10:14,720 --> 00:10:18,880 Speaker 1: snakes into stone, or the idea that Paul's sermons were 165 00:10:18,920 --> 00:10:22,720 Speaker 1: so righteous and commanding that they left physical impressions of 166 00:10:22,800 --> 00:10:26,480 Speaker 1: his tongue in the rock strata of the island itself, which, 167 00:10:26,480 --> 00:10:29,600 Speaker 1: of course, hundreds of years later would be dug up, collected, 168 00:10:29,640 --> 00:10:32,600 Speaker 1: and sold as serpents tongues so they could be used 169 00:10:32,600 --> 00:10:36,160 Speaker 1: to detect poison in a drink, or for Mary and 170 00:10:36,240 --> 00:10:44,200 Speaker 1: baby Jesus to recline against them in a centerpiece. That 171 00:10:44,240 --> 00:10:46,880 Speaker 1: does it for this edition of The Artifact. Tune in 172 00:10:46,960 --> 00:10:49,960 Speaker 1: each week for new episodes of The Artifact, hosted by 173 00:10:50,080 --> 00:10:53,840 Speaker 1: Robert or myself. Huge thanks as always to our excellent 174 00:10:53,880 --> 00:10:56,880 Speaker 1: audio producer Seth Nicholas Johnson, and if you'd like to 175 00:10:56,880 --> 00:10:59,320 Speaker 1: get into contact with us, you can always email us 176 00:10:59,360 --> 00:11:10,439 Speaker 1: at cont act at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. 177 00:11:10,520 --> 00:11:13,040 Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of I Heart Radio. 178 00:11:13,360 --> 00:11:15,720 Speaker 1: For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the iHeart 179 00:11:15,760 --> 00:11:18,480 Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your 180 00:11:18,520 --> 00:11:19,200 Speaker 1: favorite shows.