The First Fossil Hunters

Posted on 04 September 2017 by Adrienne Mayor

Griffins, Centaurs, Cyclopes, and Giants these fabulous creatures of classical mythology continue to live in the modern imagination through the vivid accounts that have come down to us from the ancient Greeks and Romans But what if these beings were than merely fictions What if monstrous creatures once roamed the earth in the very places where their legends first arose This is the arresting and original thesis that Adrienne Mayor explores in The First Fossil Hunters Through careful research and meticulous documentation, she convincingly shows that many of the giants and monsters of myth did have a basis in fact in the enormous bones of long extinct species that were once abundant in the lands of the Greeks and Romans.As Mayor shows, the Greeks and Romans were well aware that a different breed of creatures once inhabited their lands They frequently encountered the fossilized bones of these primeval beings, and they developed sophisticated concepts to explain the fossil evidence, concepts that were expressed in mythological stories The legend of the gold guarding griffin, for example, sprang from tales first told by Scythian gold miners, who, passing through the Gobi Desert at the foot of the Altai Mountains, encountered the skeletons of Protoceratops and other dinosaurs that littered the ground.Like their modern counterparts, the ancient fossil hunters collected and measured impressive petrified remains and displayed them in temples and museums they attempted to reconstruct the appearance of these prehistoric creatures and to explain their extinction Long thought to be fantasy, the remarkably detailed and perceptive Greek and Roman accounts of giant bone finds were actually based on solid paleontological facts By reading these neglected narratives for the first time in the light of modern scientific discoveries, Adrienne Mayor illuminates a lost world of ancient paleontology As Peter Dodson writes in his Foreword, Paleontologists, classicists, and historians as well as natural history buffs will read this book with the greatest of delight surprises abound. New Download [ The First Fossil Hunters ] author [ Adrienne Mayor ] – kino-fada.fr 4.5 stars.Mayor writes an incredibly easy to read, well researched, and very convincing thesis in this book I was already passively interested in this subject, but now that I ve read this, I m very much interested in learning about how other ancient and indigenous cultures interpreted the fossils and other prehistoric evidence.Greeks and Romans were excavating fossil remains of prehistoric creatures long before archaeology and paleontology as sciences ever existed However, modern archaeology h 4.5 stars.Mayor writes an incredibly easy to read, well researched, and very convincing thesis in this book I was already passively interested in this subject, but now that I ve read this, I m very much interested in learning about how other ancient and indigenous cultures interpreted the fossils and other prehistoric evidence.Greeks and Romans were excavating fossil remains of prehistoric creatures long before archaeology and paleontology as sciences ever existed However, modern archaeology has discarded or ignored many of these ancient findings because they were framed in an unscientific way through myths and legends The fossils of mega fauna that these people were finding were interpreted as the bones of legendary heros a...Palaeontology seems like such a modern academic discipline, one that relies very much on advances in modern scientific knowledge We know now how and why fossils are created, what they are and where they came from but I suspect many people, like myself, have rarely stopped to think about how our ancestors may have viewed these massive bones and relics In the modern era we go looking for such things, but hundreds and thousands of years ago people often just stumbled across them, via agricultur Palaeontology seems like such a modern academic discipline, one that relies very much on advances in modern scientific knowledge We know now how and why ...In 2006, Chinese farmers digging in Chongquing province found a skeleton of a head and long spine Since they couldn t find any other bones, the locals made the completely rational conclusion that it must have been a dragon Paleontologists came to the less satisfying conclusion that it was the neck of a dinosaur from 160 million years ago, a dinosaur known for its extremely long neck If modern Chinese farmers could come upon dinosaur bones, it makes sense that ancient farmers must have made si In 2006, Chinese farmers digging in Chongquing province found a skeleton of a head and long spine Since they couldn t find any other bon...I have finished the book itself and am working my way through the Appendices and footnotes This book is very dense it has only 5 chapters, and the rest of the book is taken up by appendices and footnotes but it has been not only enjoyable but enlightening I m finding the footnotes almost as interesting as the text itself was.I first read something about the linkage between fossils and folklore mythology many years ago, and never saw anything further about it but it always made sense to m I have finished the book itself and am working my way through the Appendices and footnotes This book is very dense it has only 5 chapters, and the rest of the book is t...FascinatedThe First Fossil Hunters is a work that stands out in many ways It is, first of all, an interesting, highly original take on the history of fossil interpretation Mayor has done an admirable job in conveying her love for the subject and the joys of hypothesising about the historical record Occasionally...I love this book I do, absolutely She breaks down Greek myths into scientific explanations involved in paleontology e.g the griffin as Gobi desert fossils of the protoceratops Very well researched and incredi...a great read for anyone who is interested in science, history and mythology.The basic premise of this book is fascinating.Sometimes repetative, but fascinating and well documented A good merging of scientific and historical disciplines into a very interesting set of theories.

English
04 September 2017

Adrienne Mayor