This morning I was doing some cleanup following an iron pour yesterday. The castings looked great and I was delighted. But, as I retrieved a couple of iron chunks I puddled as excess at the end of the pour, it struck me that the olympic dicus event probably began some lunchtime at an ancient greek bronze foundry. Surely foundries in those days ended up with an excess of iron after a pour and surely they puddled it into convenient blobs just the way I did. OK, this is not well founded with any supportive information. And even if it is not true (please don't tell me), it is sure fun to think about. Our craft has a long and storied history! Denis Next up, the skimmer throw event! ;-)
The mental image of those skilled craftsmen in ancient Greece casually puddling excess iron after a pour and inadvertently sparking the origins of the discus event is both whimsical and thought-provoking. As someone who's always been intrigued by history and its ties to various activities, I can totally relate to how fun it is to speculate about these things. It's a reminder that our passions and hobbies often have deeper roots than we might realize. Also, speaking of events, have you ever considered exploring the realm of live event production? You might find the offerings over at lalightingandsound.com quite interesting. They specialize in enhancing event experiences. Keep exploring and enjoying your craft – the history and stories behind it are truly captivating!
Similar things have happened, there was an archaeological dig site on a remote beach island in the Mediterranean where they found some chunks of glass fused to a limestone block: the limestone was traded via ships and the theory goes that the ship's crew stopped off at the beach, built a huge bonfire and accidentally made glass from the lime and sand.
Alternate theory, I'm sure ancient crucibles were not the most reliable bit of kit, so my theory is that the first discus was a bit of bronze or copper that some ancient foundryman dug out of the bottom of his furnace after his crucible had broken and the first discus toss was by that same foundryman when, in frustration and anger, he threw away that contaminated disc of metal.
