The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times

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The First Fossil Hunters: Dinosaurs, Mammoths, and Myth in Greek and Roman Times (New in Paper) (eBook) Pub. Date: 7/27/2011 Publisher: Princeton University Press
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The First Fossil Hunters: Dinosaurs, Mammoths, and Myth in Greek and Roman Times (New in Paper) (Reissue) Pub. Date: 3/27/2011 Publisher: Princeton University Press

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The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times (REPRINT) Pub. Date: 8/6/2001 Publisher: Princeton University Press
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The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times Pub. Date: 4/4/2000 Publisher: Princeton University Press

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Overview

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."

What People Are Saying

Jack Horner

In this wonderful book, Adrienne Mayor successfully convinces us that some of our most treasured mythical creatures really were based on the skeletons of extinct animals. It is the best account ever concerning the real meaning of mythical creatures. And Mayor has succeeded in setting the history of paleontology on its ear: the art of skeletal restoration was not invented in the western world.
— Jack Horner, Museum of the Rockies, author of "Dinosaur Lives"

John Boardman

The Greeks were not the only peoples of antiquity to exploit the past in the interests of devising myth and history, but they were among the most ingenious about it, and recorded their views. Adrienne Mayor has uncovered a barely noticed source for many of the myths of the Old World, and for the first time has assembled in an orderly way the evidence for early man's discovery of and explanations for fossil remains. This is a skillful blend of science, history and imagination which adds a chapter to the history of man's ingenuity, from Central Asia to Greece, to Egypt. Many texts, sites, and pictures will never seem quite the same again, after this very thorough and very lively scholarly excursion into a disregarded source of myth-making.
— John Boardman, Oxford University

Michael Novacek

Adrienne Mayor's sometimes provocative and always fascinating blend of history, mythology, and science offers a uniquely enriched dimension to the quest for fossils.
— Michael Novacek, American Museum of Natural History

William Hansen

Mayor catches one's attention with her first sentence and doesn't let go until the end . . . In addition to being lively and intelligent, the writing is honest and persuasive. Bringing together classics, archaeology, and paleontology in an original synthesis, Mayor exemplifies in her own research her plea that these fields should profitably confer with one another much more than they do.
— William Hansen, Indiana University, Bloomington

Jack Horner

This is a fantastic book! Adrienne Mayor convinces us that some of our most treasured mythical creatures really were based on the skeletons of extinct animals. It is the best account ever concerning the real meaning of mythical creatures. And mayor has succeeded in setting the history of Paleontology on its ear: the art of skeletal restoration was not invented in the western world.
—Jack Horner, Museum of the Rockies, author of Dinosaur Lives

John Boardman

The Greeks were not the only people's of antiquity to exploit the past in the interests of devising myth and history, but they were among the most ingenious about it, and recorded their views. Adrienne Mayor has uncovered a barely noticed source for many of the myths of the Old World, and for the first time have assembled in an orderly way the evidence for early man's discovery of and explanations for fossil remains. This is a skillful blend of science, history and imagination, which adds a chapter to the mystery of man's ingenuity, from central Asia to Greece, to Egypt. Many texts, sights, and pictures will never seem quite the same again, after this very thorough and very lively scholarly excursion…
—John Boardman, Oxford University

Michael Novacek

Adrienne Mayor's sometimes provocative and always fascinating blend of history, mythology, in science offers a uniquely enriched dimension to the quest for fossils.
—Michael Novacek, American Museum of Natural History

William Hanson

Mayor catches one's attention with her first sentence and doesn't let go until the end…In addition to being lively and intelligent, the writing is honest and persuasive. Bringing together Classics, Archeology, and Paleontology in an original synthesis, Mayor exemplifies in her own research her plea that these fields should profitably confer with one another much more than they do.
—William Hanson, Indiana University, Bloomington

Editorial Reviews

American Journal of Archaeology

This book is a pleasure to read. . . . The insight into human behavior is enough to attract anthropologists and laypeople to read this fascinating account of paleontology in ancient times.
— Deborah Ruscillo

More Reviews (1) Fewer Reviews

From The Critics

The First Fossil Hunters brings together mythology, art geology and paleontology in a convincing matter. . . . In times long past, others had the same fascination we do today with the sight, feel and sense of something once living and now extinct.
— Tim Tokaryk

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780691089775
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Publication date: 8/6/2001
Edition description: REPRINT
Pages: 384
Product dimensions: 6.16 (w) x 9.24 (h) x 0.93 (d)

List of Illustrations ix Foreword: Stones, Bones, and Exotic Creatures of the Past by Peter Dodson xiii Acknowledgments xix Geological Time Scale 2
Introduction 3
Historical Time Line 11
CHAPTER 1. The Gold-Guarding Griffin: A Paleontological Legend 15
CHAPTER 2. Earthquakes and Elephants: Prehistoric Remains in Mediterranean Lands 54
CHAPTER 3. Ancient Discoveries of Giant Bones 104
CHAPTER 4. Artistic and Archaeological Evidence for Fossil Discoveries 157
CHAPTER 5. Mythology, Natural Philosophy, and Fossils 192
CHAPTER 6. Centaur Bones: Paleontological Fictions 228
APPENDIX 1. Large Vertebrate Fossil Species in the Ancient World 255
APPENDIX 2. Ancient Testimonia 260
Notes 283
Works Cited 333
Index 351

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Anonymous

Posted January 14, 2012

Itz okay

Pretty ok
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Anonymous

Posted February 21, 2008

A reviewer

This is one of the best nonfiction books I've ever read. It suggests that many imaginative monsters had a real-life origin - fossils of dinosaurs that were discovered by ancient peoples. A wonderful read. I could not put it down. An amazing subject and a superb author.
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The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times

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Overview

Editorial Reviews

American Journal of Archaeology

From The Critics

Product Details

Table of Contents

Rating Distribution

Itz okay

A reviewer