Upon reading Mark Levine's Jazz Theory Book, on the chapter of the diminished scale, there a footnote that says:

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> The diminished scale **is artificial in the sense that it is not derived from the overtone series**, as is the major scale, and has no particular ethnic origin, as does the melodic minor scale, which has an Eastern European ancestry.
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> footnote #68, page 77
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But I cannot understand what the overtone series are. How is a major scale derived from it? If a scale is not derived from this, is it always an artificial one?