The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times. | 
|  | | | Title: | The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times. | | Author: | Adrienne Mayor | | Publisher: | Princeton University Press | | Type: | Book / Paperback | | Publication Date: | 01 October, 2001 | | ISBN / ISBN-13: | 0691089779 / 9780691089775 | | List Price: | $24.95 | | You Save: | $2.50 | | Amazon Price: | $22.45 | |
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Product Description
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 more 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."
Amazon.com Review
Since fossils have presumably existed for millions of years, why don't we see much paleontological thought from ancient writers? Classics scholar Adrienne Mayor suggests that we can, in fact, learn much about the Greek and Roman attitudes toward fossils if we turn to a surprising source of data and theory: their myths. In The First Fossil Hunters, she explores likely connections between the rich fossil beds around the Mediterranean and tales of griffins and giants originating in the classical world. Striking similarities exist between the Protoceratops skeletons of the Gobi Desert and the legends of the gold-hoarding griffin told by nomadic people of the region, and the fossilized remains of giant Miocene mammals could be taken for the heroes and monsters of earlier times. Mayor makes her case well, but, as with all interpretive science, the arguments are inconclusive. Still, her novel reading of ancient myth--and her critique of the modern scientific mythology that seeks to explain the lack of classical paleontological thinking--is compelling and thought-provoking. The final chapter of The First Fossil Hunters is an engrossing and occasionally quite funny look at "Paleontological Fictions" dating back several thousand years; the false tritons and centaurs give P.T. Barnum and his successors a much longer genealogy than previously thought. Whether or not you accept Mayor's analysis of Greek and Roman thinking, The First Fossil Hunters should open your eyes to new possibilities about our distant past. --Rob Lightner
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Customer Reviews:
• The Cover Of This Book Is Mayor's Best Argument...... 31 October, 2004
....it shows a Greek vase painted with the image of the monster of Troy. The image, obviously, is that of a dinosaur skull. I have no doubt in my mind that many of the Greek monsters were based on fossilized bones of prehistoric animals. The Griffin based off of Protocerotops remains is almost conclusive evidence; and her research should definately be taken seriously for this matter alone.
My problem with the research lies in her conclusions of the 'hero-giants' of antiquity. Mayor obviously attributes Greece as the origin of giant-myths while she neglects the mythology that originates from every corner of the ancient world. And from every ancient civilization. Of course it's possible that all ancient cultures, at some time, had discovered fossil remains and attributed them to giant humans. But the mythology goes deeper than Mayor allows herself to see (or allows herself to write). Let's not forget that the giants presented in not only Greek, but Hebrew, Norse, Egyptian, Mesoamerican, North American, and South American myths were not only the heroes of old, but had turned wicked and were destroyed collectively.
Mayor has only taken a few steps into a larger world. Only by further research and branching out into other mythological cultures can she finally begin to piece EVERYTHING together. I'm convinced that the answers are not just found in Greece.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A3NQI2JLNPFOF8
• An Excellent Idea Poorly Edited 14 April, 2005
Some of the other reviewers have touched on the same topic - this book has some great ideas and some great scholarship, but the editor(s) for this book should be fired. Writing science for a general audience can be a delicate undertaking because you can't know how much background the reader has in the topic or how much referencing is required. A lay person doesn't particularly care about how many works you've cited while a student doesn't particularly care about explaining the basics.A great deal of the main portion of the book should have been moved to appendices; there is page after page going over each and (seemingly) every find.The first chapter on griffins is fairly lucid (perhaps due to there being fewer finds to go over) while the chapters dealing with giant heroes in Greece are turgid and monotonous. Not every detail has to be discussed in the main text.A good book for students of mythology, Classical archaeology and palaeontology, but not really suitable for general readers. Her _Greek Fire, Poison Arrows, and Scorpion Bombs_ is much more readable and entertaining while still being well enough referenced to be used in scholarly work.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A1T7TRGTV3QIW
• Those Clever, Curious Greeks 10 November, 2006
Today, when a spectacular fossil is unearthed, it ends up in a museum. Our ancestors must have found stone bones, too, but they didn't have museums. So they put them in temples.
And spun yarns about them. It should not have been surprising that, once someone thought to ransack the ancient world for evidence, so much of it remains. We have already seen, in other fields, how much can be reconstructed from even the scraps of inscriptions that have been accumulated so assiduously by, for the most part, German philologists. And we already knew that the Greeks, above all other premodern people, asked questions about what they found in the world around them.
It is a bit of a surprise, if Adrienne Mayor is correct, that the model of the griffin should be dinosaur fossils found as far away as Central Asia. That was a very, very long way from Greece. Less surprising, perhaps, that fake fossils were also in evidence.
Probably none of the fossils collected so long ago remains, but Adrienne Mayor finds a few representations of them. The most convincing is a skull painted on a vase.
Her treatment is very complete, with an appendix of apparent references to fossils in old texts, such as a passing reference in Cicero to theft of fossils from a temple.
There is room for much speculation in this scrappy material, and Mayor makes the most of it.
Altogether, 'The First Fossil Hunters' is a clever, entertaining, imaginative and curious book.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A24DTVSHSWZVR5
• Fabulous Fables Formed From Facts 19 May, 2005
Two millennia of condemnation of "pagan" mythology have obscured the value ancient legends contributed to knowledge. Being members of this world instead of longing for the next, our ancient ancestors were keen observers of Nature. Among their interests were "mythical monsters". The Griffin - a combination of lion and eagle; the Minotaur - a man with a bull's head; or the Cyclops - a man with but one eye. These familiar characters emerged from ancient Mediterranean societies and transmitted down to our own time. Lost in the transmission was the notion that there might be a factual basis for such creatures. Adrienne Mayor wants to clarify the origins of mythological creatures. In this excellent study, she challenges fixed thinking about myths' origins.
The Mediterranean is a dynamic place. Continental plates collide, pushing up mountains, diverting rivers and causing sea basins to flood or become dry. The constantly changing conditions reveal long buried fossil sites. Mayor builds a vivid picture of how the ancient Greeks, Egyptians and Romans might encounter these strange artefacts and attempt to make sense of them. What would these bizarre skulls, teeth or thigh bones mean to them? They were aware of anatomy and didn't mistake a leg bone for a vertebrae. Their reconstructions of the artefacts were reasonably accurate. They "knew" the fossils represented once-living creatures. Not having mastered the scientific discipline of today, they "interpreted" the exposed fossils in human terms - stories of mighty people, heroic deeds and lost worlds. Mayor argues that fossils led the ancients to understand life wasn't fixed. Creatures and humans alike had once lived in ancient times, then died out. Extinction was a real possibility - it had already happened.
Combining photographs and expressive line drawings to supplement her text, Mayor offers vivid evidence of the source for many mythical creatures. When bone assemblages of several species jumbled together were found, it was only logical to assume a single creature was once built around them. Hence, we are told of bull-headed men, or lions with an eagle's beak. We can see how the image of a bizarre creature emerging from a cave is actually a dinosaur fossil protruding from an eroding cliff. The view on a vase painting depicts this scene with superb clarity. With no idea of the Earth's true age, it was easy to make these judgements. Mythology is built from human experience, so it was fitting to give these creatures human characteristics.
Mayor's challenge to both classical scholars and paleontology permeates the book. The long history of dismissal of legendary creatures and the myths surrounding them blinds both scholars and the public alike, she contends. She suggests scientists and classicists enlarge their views of the information and evidence and reconsider how we perceive the past. As an example, Aristotle was long attributed as advocating fixity of species; a notion seized on by Christian scholars. Mayor demonstrates this is a limited reading of the philosopher. More such revelations might come to light if open-minded researchers seek further. Some documents have shown how the ancients measured and assessed fossil. They were clearly aware that fossils demonstrated that contemporary life and past life were similar but not identical. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
- Reviewed by customer ID: AJDYDG7YZY9QL
• Paleontology 18 April, 2008
At first very excited. Too much repetition and found some appelations peculiar. Would like to have seen some classics scholars consulted.
And not one American paleontologist cited - unless I just mised it. Not much talk about migration theories. the ancient Greeks understood even more than she gives them credit for - check out myths as well as legends - there's a reason for myth.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A3ELVZ6MUXSSBA
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