I have just been asked to audition for an American series that hunts down ancient relics in an Indiana Jones style global adventure. ‘This is not serious science,’ I say to myself with a humph.  But after climbing down from my academic high horse, I start to have a bit of a think about it. 

Excalibur is a legendary story of a mystical relic.  It’s a story from our past with King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table.  It was my favourite story as a child and I had a very dog-eared copy of The Man Who Would Be King and would watch The Sword in the Stone pretty much on repeat. 

For those of you not familiar with this mystical tale, it is a ripping adventure of Excalibur, the sword that could only be drawn from its stone by a man destined to be King.  Mildly cheesy in tone, the King must have a strong and humble heart who would lead England back to greatness.  As with all great stories, he would have to battle the baddies, in this case wizards and witches and eventually be betrayed by his Queen and Sir Lancelot, the most talented and loyal of his Knights.  Which rather ruins our fairy tale ending. 

I suspect however, that this particular tale is not of the fairy variety.  This legend may be grounded in truth or more accurately the magic of technological developments.  It has become a myth because the story has been passed down by word of mouth from generation to generation.  Before 1066, there weren’t many scribes and no historical evidence was written down.  Cromwell rampaged through ancient religions burning down their houses of worship and crushing their relics.  Any evidence about the Sword in the Stone would have been lost. 

In the Iron Age, the way they made swords was a very new technology at the time.  They would create a stone mould by chiselling out the exact shape they wanted and pour molten iron into the stone.  When they split the stone open a perfect(ish) sword would emerge. 

This strikes me as something spectacular; Excalibur was the Sword in the Stone.  And at the time anybody who saw Excalibur must have been absolutely mystified because it would have been so perfectly made.  In comparison to other clunky weapons of the time, Excalibur must have looked like it was made by magic and crafted with supernatural powers.   In my version of the story, Merlin was no Wizard but just quite a talented blacksmith. 

This technological advancement may have been the birthplace of a legend that has passed down through the centuries and is ingrained in the British culture.  Which proves my point exactly that technology is most definitely magic.