"THE DACIAN NAIL" OR "THE TROUBLE MAKER NAIL"
On September 4, 1997 I arrived in Chisinau to meet a friend, Tudor
Pantiru - the former United Nations Moldavian Ambassador - and visit
Orheii Vechi for family and sentimental reasons. I encountered there a lot
of interesting people but the story one of them told me held my attention.
I met Andrei Vartic, a spectroscopist-physician, passionate about the
history of the Dacians, who told me: "It makes me sad when I speak with
"university professors of archaeology" whose only tool is a 20-40-100-year
old shovel, and whose approach to the archaeological
research work in Romania is still considered from Paukerist positions, as
they deny or will not see the extraordinary roots that the Romanians have
in the world's civilization."
To carry out research nowadays without field labs, capable of offering the
researcher information about the rock he is digging into, about the
composition of this brick or that shiver, without having free access to
the Internet information and the most reliable and solid data bank, without a satellite survey of
what goes on in the Carpathians (as, for instance, the case was with the
mysterious "burns"), without an efficient multi-disciplinary team that
should include sociologists, ethnologists, historians, doctors,
economists, is, according to the modern archaeological research, like
dancing on a rocket launching pad and seeing nothing but the ?tuiul?.
I asked Andrei how he had become so passionately fond of the Dacians, and
his answer was:
"In 1966, when I was a freshman in Physics, in Leningrad, my uncle,
Grigore Constantinescu, - a Sorbone graduate - gave me Daicoviciu's book,
"The Dacians", as a gift. The book was banned at the time in the Moldavian Soviet Socialist
Republic. I fell so strongly in love with the Dacians, that after the
break-up of the Soviet Empire, I ran back "home," to the Orastie
Mountains, to meet the Dacians
or their descendants."
What Andrei Vartic accomplished in his expedition is amazing. He deciphers
the Dacian topography, re-discovers the Dacian metallurgy - the most
advanced in the
ancient world - describes the Dacian building materials(especially the
Dacian concrete), speaks about the Dacian cosmogony and morality and, what
is most important, re-discovers the Dacians in his books: "Eternity's
Guest", "The Enigmas of
the Dacian Civilisation", "The Iron - the Stone, the Dacians - the Time",
"The Technological Lines of the Dacian Civilisation" and speaks about his
research work in NATO conferences.
This man takes the veil of indifference off our Dacian past. 7-8 years
ago, as he was walking around the Sona Cyclopean Knolls, he unearthed a
genuine sphinx claw. An honest man, he contacted the Institute of
Archaeology in Cluj and the latter sent somebody who arrived overnight,
picked the discovery up, and vanished.
"Well, this must be the law around here," Andrei said to himself, feeling
frustrated for having been left out.
It was summer, the weather was splendid, dandelions were raising their
little yellow heads everywhere, when Andrei found Dacian iron moulds
weighing more than 40kg. Again, he informed his "fellow" archaeologists
about this, they came, took whatever was to be taken, and ... were gone.
Later, it was him who discovered Dacian nails in the Racos Dacian
sanctuary. Once more, the "team of the brave Romanian archaeologists made
their appearance, led by the PhD Professor Ioan Glodaru, congratulated him
and took the Dacian nails, not before offering Andrei a "gift" (or a
homework) ... a Dacian nail, with the request that he study it.
Andrei crossed the border, taking his nail home, on the other bank of the
Prut, to the other Romanians, descendants of the same Dacian people. A people
divided by a bunch of politicians who have talked the Moldavian historians into
believing that the latter descended from a different people and that they
spoke a different language, Moldavian, which indeed bore some resemblance
to the Romanian language, but the similarities seemed to be too
unimportant to be taken into account.
However, the politicians living on both banks of the river Prut, seem to
have forgotten that they do not need an interpreter when they meet.
Sometimes they are even cousins or brothers-in-law or bear the same name.
Anyway, let us go back to Andrei Vartic. Winter days in Chisinau: snow,
rain, and the whole stock. One rainy day, Andrei looked at the 2000-year
old Dacian nail, his "homework," and realised that it was neither eaten
away with rust nor covered with it. Incredible. The story of the Dacian
nail (or "Pepelea 's nail," as
I put it), "thanks to" the Romanian archaeology professor living on the
right bank of the Prut.
Andrei grabs the nail and takes it to the Institute of Metallurgy in Balti
where, to everyone's surprise, the X-ray examination showed that the over
2000-year old Dacian nail which would not get rusty, had in its
composition no more no less than 99,97% pure alpha-iron; no trace of
impurities, that is compounds of carbon, ordinary processing leavings.
An "ancient wonder", which, I repeat, can be obtained only in laboratory conditions or in the
cosmic space! So far only two such examples of ancient iron have been
known: the iron pillar at Delhi and a Mongolian disk, dating back to the
9th century, investigated in the NASA labs and at Harvard University.
Specialists hold that the process of moulding an object made of pure iron
is a lot more complicated even than its processing, as the probability of
"catching" (or introducing) certain impurities is indeed very high.
The Mongolian disk - according to the NASA specialists - could be moulded
only in the outer space. The researchers in Chisinau had the same opinion
about the Dacian nail. Andrei, practical and suspicious as he is, took the
nail to Leningrad, to the Institute of Metallurgy, thinking that despite
its pure composition, the nail could have been covered with some special
Dacian paint, especially devised to make it rust-proof. In Leningrad, the
researchers discovered another marvellous fact, about which we will speak
a bit later. Once more, with a view to "searching " some more into this
wonder, Andrei took "Pepelea's nail" to Moscow. Here he was given the same
diagnosis: the Dacian nail which had not got rusty for more than 2000
years, with 99,97% of its composition pure alpha-iron, was indeed
covered, but not with paint. Three perpendicular strata or layers were
protecting it perfectly, preserving its purity. These three layers were
... hold your breath:
1. on the surface - Magnetite "Fe 304"
2. Iron Oxide "FeO"
3. Alumo-Silicates
The research work carried out by Prof. Kiosse and Doc. Galina Volodin,
consisting of irradiations and X-ray examinations of the thin layers of
semi-conductors (the so-called acute angles), made possible the
observation of the above-mentioned protective films. Prof. Daria Grabco
examined the special microstructure of the Dacian iron under the
microscope and noticed that this type of iron had two ?
DOMENE ? strata: a central one, and a surface one. Strangely enough, the ?
DOMENELE ? are oriented or placed perpendicularly, this meaning that the
inner stratum solidified first (affected by the magnetic field of the
Earth), and then was covered with a liquid layer (!), which solidified as
well, but ... taking a different position from the magnetic field of the
Earth!!!
Well, when you think this was happening over 2000 years ago, in a backward
country, inhabited by primitive and wild Dacian peasants! The Dacian
people, later conquered by the Romans (only 14% of the Dacian territory)
who arrived with a "small" army made up of 150,000 legionaries. However,
it took them more than 6 years to conquer ... several km of the Dacian
space. I wonder, has anyone been curious to know how a simple peasant (or
rural) civilisation could hold out against Rome? Why were the Romans
afraid of the Dacians?
Why did Caesar and Burebista die at the same time?
Why, since Caesar's death (who had wanted to wage war against the Dacians)
and until the conquest of only 14% of Dacia, by Trajan, other 150 years
had to elapse?
During these 150 years, how did it happen that the Romans and the Dacians
did not come into direct conflicts?
Why would any Roman army refuse to go to war without at least one Dacian
doctor joining them?
What had been at stake in the Daco-Roman war that made the Romans, after
conquering such a small strip of the Dacian territory, celebrate the event
by the longest feast known so far, that lasted no more no less than 123
days, during which the Romans could eat and drink for free? 123 days...
What was it that the Romans were celebrating?
The evidence left by the Dacians proved more enduring than that of the
Greeks or of the Romans. Only the Dacians did not do it in writing or
speaking, but in a
different kind of language. Anyway, languages are subject to destruction
too, and so are the alphabets.
The Dacians left behind samples of "civilisation" such as:
* perfect concrete, undamaged by time, water, or bad weather, over
2000 years old
* a metallurgy more advanced than that of our days - nails that
have not got rusty for 2000 years, iron moulds weighing 40 kg, (when the
Romans could not smelt in their furnaces pieces weighing more than 25 kg)
* the mathematical patterns at Gradistea Muscelului and of course the
topographical ones that arranged the so-called
"fortress" in the Sureanu, Cindrelu, and Persian (Racos) Mountains, in a
perfectly geometrical structure, enviable to this day.
However, the professional researchers do not seem to care too much about
the Dacians, considering the way Andrei Vartic was greeted by his fellow
countrymen; it was not understanding, that he expected from them, but an
ardent desire to search into these mysteries.
Finally, Andrei took his "nail" to Russia, because the Romanian
Metallurgic Institute did not offer to examine it, not even out of
patriotism or scientific interest. Even the then Romanian president, Ion
Iliescu, invited Andrei Vartic for a 15-minute meeting which eventually
lasted 1 hour and a half, and which was followed by promises. But now that
the government has been changed...
The history of our Carpatho-Danubian people has not been written yet;
Sarmisegetuza is still a mystery covered or maybe protected by earth. Some
say that its name derives from Sarmis e (and) Getuza; some others, more
initiated in the Vedic
mysteries, read it as Sarmi Seget Usa, this meaning in Sanskrit "I am in a
hurry (or about) to flow" or "I am thinking about flowing."
Unfortunately, today even the goats grazing in the Orastie Mountains pity
the "Sacred Zone" of Sarmisegetuza, seeing it invaded by garbage.
Bulldozer excavations, indifference, even ill will have replaced what
should have been the reservation of the Dacian fortresses from the Sureanu
Mountains. Speaking about the name
Sureanu, I wonder if our archaeologists, historians, and linguists know
anything about its meaning.
I can't help quoting my friend Andrei who used to say that "the lack of
idols in the Dacian settlements in the Suryanu Mountains" (Surya, the god
of the Sun for the ancient Indians, descending from the Carpatho-Danubian
Aryans - this is my
opinion) "makes one think of Daksha, the Great Divine Creator of the
Dacian people." Daksha is said to have fallen in love with his own
creation, which was engaged (continually and irreversibly) in discovering
the "Beautiful Road." That's why when the Daco-Romans say "buna ziua"
(good day) they mean in fact "Bun e Dyaus." Dyaus Pitar (pita=bread and
pitar=the one who brings the bread, in Sanskrit) was the first great god
of the Aryans (also called Indo-Europeans). Zeus and Saturn descended from
him. Going back to the possibly oldest story of the Genesis
we see that the Supreme God liked the Earth and so gave birth, by his
breath, to the 7 gods of the world's genesis, led by the Great God
Dak-Sha. The same god,
after surveying the Earth, noticed a place where blue waters sprang from
the mountains surrounded by gently sloping hills carpeted with green
grass. Its climate was mild and ... overnight the god populated this
sacred place with his first 10,000 sons - the Dacians, or "the chosen
people."
"Bun e Dyaus," Daco-Romans. Wake up and re-discover your past before
others steal it from you or destroy it. Unless you want to do it
yourselves.