Abstract
Many conceptions of history are based on an original loss, a constitutive flaw in things. It's no coincidence that Saint Augustine, who took advantage of the sack of Rome to preach conversion, was also the most ardent promoter of the idea of original sin, i.e. of an initial loss that would have permanently marked human nature : a loss symbolized by the exit from Eden. The first human work mentioned in the Bible was the fig-leaf loincloth made by Adam and Eve after the Fall. In part of Christian tradition, the work of art is linked to guilt and human destiny.
Classical antiquity, notably in Hesiod's " myth of the races ", also shows that the cosmos can be conceived as subject to natural decay (the gods wear themselves out), starting from an initial golden age. But the Age of Bronze is both the age of man-made works and the age of death (thanatos). While the Golden Age is the age of natural products, all of which are interchangeable (nothing is more like an apple than another apple), the Bronze Age is the age of the unique, non-interchangeable, precious object, which can and must be fought over, with all the harmful consequences that the loss of this object, or the fear of this loss, can entail.
