Speaker 1: Welcome to brain stuff from how stuff works, Hey, brain
Speaker 1: Stuff lorn vogelbamb here. In the nineteen twenties, archaeologists in
Speaker 1: South Asia unearthed remnants of the Indus Valley civilization. It
Speaker 1: was a thriving advanced culture in present day Pakistan and
Speaker 1: India that disappeared around nine b c. E. Among its
Speaker 1: artifacts are seal stones, which are tablets inscribed with symbols
Speaker 1: and drawings. The Indus Script, which has yet to be cracked,
Speaker 1: but least one etching, is easily identified. A four legged
Speaker 1: animal with a single spiral horn protruding from its forehead,
Speaker 1: The Indus unicorn isn't the creature of modern fairy tales.
Speaker 1: It looks a lot like a single horned bulb that
Speaker 1: some suggest it's actually a regular two horned bull. Depicted
Speaker 1: in profile, the horn is usually curved to some degree,
Speaker 1: and the hoofs and tail are bovine. The carvings show
Speaker 1: folds of skin along the face and throat, and a
Speaker 1: snout that is sometimes shortened square and other times almost
Speaker 1: lama like, and it does slightly resemble an extinct bull
Speaker 1: like single horned creature called the Siberian unicorn, but whether
Speaker 1: it's based in myth or reality the last unicorn, it
Speaker 1: is not, but neither is it the least graceful unicorn
Speaker 1: in history. Around three, Italian explorer Marco Polo described seeing
Speaker 1: an animal with the head of a wild boar, the
Speaker 1: hair of a buffalo, the feet of an elephant, and
Speaker 1: a long black horn. A few early versions of the
Speaker 1: unicorn resemble the luminous horse like beings of modern myth.
Speaker 1: Descriptions of the creature go back thousands of years in folklore,
Speaker 1: both Asian and European, as well as in naturalist catalogs
Speaker 1: and by some Christian translations the Bible. All of these
Speaker 1: unicorns have a single horn, four legs, and a tail,
Speaker 1: and that's about it for universal characteristics or near universal.
Speaker 1: One Indian myth tells of a unicorn boy, the son
Speaker 1: of a human, and a one horned antelope, but that's
Speaker 1: now liar. The unicorn myth may have originated in sightings
Speaker 1: or reports of exotic animals like the rhinoceros or Narwall's,
Speaker 1: or of typically two horned animals that were just missing one.
Speaker 1: The American Museum of Natural History hypothesizes that Marco Polo's
Speaker 1: unicorn was a Sumatran rhinoceros native to Southeast Asia. A
Speaker 1: Roman naturalist planted the Elder who described unicorns around sev
Speaker 1: may have been describing the Indian rhinoceros. Early Asian unicorns
Speaker 1: varied widely in physical appearance. In Chinese and Japanese folklore,
Speaker 1: the unicorn often has a scaly or multicolored coat, a
Speaker 1: flesh covered horn, the body of a deer, and the
Speaker 1: tail of an ox. The head was sometimes dragon like.
Speaker 1: In some myths, it's a harmless, solitary creature whose presence
Speaker 1: portends good. In others, it portends death, and the Japanese
Speaker 1: unicorn has the mystical ability to detect evil doers, and
Speaker 1: upon detection, drives its horn through their hearts. Persian myths
Speaker 1: describe a unicorn with three hooves on each leg, varying legends,
Speaker 1: painted as a shape shifter, a ferocious warrior resembling a rhinoceros,
Speaker 1: or a peaceful deer like creature. It can purify water
Speaker 1: by dipping its horn into the liquid, at which point
Speaker 1: all female creatures in the vicinity become pregnant. Versions of
Speaker 1: European unicorns have a similar purification ability. Their horns were
Speaker 1: said to detect and counteract poisons by contact. The no
Speaker 1: resulting pregnancies are reported there. The horn was also thought
Speaker 1: to heal and protect from disease. Beliefs like this led
Speaker 1: to a strong European market for unicorn horns, and in
Speaker 1: the Middle Ages, opportunistic sailors started selling narwhal tusks as
Speaker 1: unicorn horns. Before that, according to the American Museum of
Speaker 1: Natural History, European unicorns often had stubby or colored horns,
Speaker 1: but after that the horns were long, white and spiraled
Speaker 1: like a narwhal tusk. Western unicorn mythology brings us somewhat
Speaker 1: closer to the modern myth. European unicorns often have white coats,
Speaker 1: a horse's body, the hoofs and beard of a goat,
Speaker 1: and the tail of a lion. These unicorns are nearly
Speaker 1: impossible to catch, a trait credited to strength or general lusiveness,
Speaker 1: but they do have a weakness. A virgin woman can
Speaker 1: lower the European unicorn into the open. She seems to
Speaker 1: entrance the creature, who may lay its head in her
Speaker 1: lap by some accounts, suckle at her breast, leaving itself
Speaker 1: vulnerable to capture by hunters waiting out of sight. This
Speaker 1: association with the Virgin, along with reported biblical mentions and
Speaker 1: the abilities to heal and counteract poison, led the medieval
Speaker 1: Christian Church to cast the unicorn as a christ figure.
Speaker 1: The creature thus increasingly came to represent purity and nobility,
Speaker 1: likely contributing to modern representations of the unicorn as benevolent, regal, graceful,
Speaker 1: and white. How it became the sparkly, smiling creature of
Speaker 1: popular culture, as seen in the works of Lisa Frank
Speaker 1: My Little Pony and the Whole Unicorns Farting Rainbows meme
Speaker 1: thing is not entirely clear, but it probably has to
Speaker 1: do with commercial value. Kids are drawn to unicorns, their
Speaker 1: parents buy them unicorns. Single horned cameras that impale bad
Speaker 1: people with their horns likely wouldn't fly with the six
Speaker 1: year old set, or at least their parents might object.
Speaker 1: Where the Indus Valley unicorn fits into known unicorn legend
Speaker 1: remains a mystery. That its image appears on more than
Speaker 1: a thousand seals recovered by archaeologists suggests that it was
Speaker 1: highly valued. It may have been sacred, It may have
Speaker 1: even been real, But the Indus unicorn will keep its
Speaker 1: secrets until science finds the key to this ancient code.
Speaker 1: Today's episode was written by Julia Layton and produced by
Speaker 1: Tyler Clang. For more on this and lots of other
Speaker 1: mythic topics, visit our home planet, has Stuff works dot com.