The article analyses a cognitive culture of Krzysztof Pomian, the well-known Polish (and also European) historian, philosopher, and anthropologist of culture. Thanks to Pomian we have recognized two fundamental metaphors of our historical thinking: abrasion and sedimentation. Thinking on the Past by abrasion is the same as to assume that history does not acting in the Present – there is only a collection of dead historical facts. In contrary, where we are thinking on the Past using the sedimentation metaphor - History is alive, works in Contemporaneity, changing our world. Pomian applies a two-variant model of metaphoric thinking in his main historiographic research studies, especially in Orde du Temps, and Sur l’histoire.