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Chargement... The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times (2000)par Adrienne MAYOR
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Inscrivez-vous à LibraryThing pour découvrir si vous aimerez ce livre Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre. https://tamaranth.blogspot.com/2024/03/2024046-first-fossil-hunters-adrienne.htm... ( ) I really enjoyed reading this book about the reactions of ancient Mediterranean peoples (especially the Greeks) to the large mammalian fossils that apparently littered the landscape. Many of these fossils were collected, measured, and often displayed in the temples and other public buildings. Explanations for them were incorporated into myths and hero tales with the ancient heroes being of larger stature than modern humans and fighting giants and monsters of all kinds. A fascinating look at how the Greeks and their neighbors explained the mysterious fossils from prehistoric times. The first chapter explores how the origins of Greek and Roman stories of griffins might lie in common exposed fossils in Central Asian deserts, interpreted as remains of still extant animals. After a brief survey of the geological and palaeontological history of the Mediterranean and its surroundings, Mayor then goes on to discuss more generally how the Greeks and Romans made sense of fossil bones they found, and why given the popular interest in fossils the big names such as Aristotle didn't say much about them. She concludes with a brief discussion of the impulse to fake remains and what the faked remains can tell us about what people were hoping to find. A fascinating book, full of insights which seem so obvious once you've read it and yet which nobody thought of or at least nobody said loud and clear. This was a really cool book. The author examined various Greek and Roman myths to look for a fossil-based explanation. For example, Mayor takes the gigantic bones worshipped by the Greeks as those of ancient heroes, compares them to the fossil record of the place the bones were found, and deduces that some of the bones were actually most likely fossilized mammoth bones. It's an intriguing way of looking at early natural history. A good read, and not too technical, though I did find the later chapters a bit repetitive. aucune critique | ajouter une critique
Griffins, Cyclopes, Monsters, 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. Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
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Google Books — Chargement... GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)560.938Natural sciences and mathematics Fossils & prehistoric life Paleontology Biography And HistoryClassification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne:
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