Review by Choice Review
Virtually all histories of paleontology either fail to mention the ancient Greeks and Romans or simply nod approvingly at the few philosophers who recognized that fossil shells on land represent once-living animals from vanished seas. Mayor delightfully corrects the record to show that fossils of all types were avidly collected and pondered in antiquity, and that the ancients had some surprisingly modern observations and ideas about them. Beginning with the popular legend of the griffin, a mythical beast with a lion's body, sharp talons, and an eagle-like beak, Mayor makes a convincing case that the legend grew from direct observations of exposed dinosaur skeletons (especially Protoceratops and Psittacosaurus) along trade routes in central Asia. Far from ignoring these bones, the Greeks and others explained them as the remains of fantastic beasts still living, plausible enough in their world. The Greeks and Romans considered many other vertebrate fossils as the remains of ancient heroes, often placing them in reliquaries and shrines. Fossils were used as talismans, decorations, and even as natural curiosities deposited in the equivalent of museums. The roots of paleontology are definitively extended into antiquity in this well-written, exquisitely referenced book. General readers; undergraduates through professionals. M. A. Wilson; College of Wooster
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Heraclides explained the rotation of the earth two millennia ago, but what did the ancients ever accomplish in paleontology? Nothing, say most historians of science, misled by Aristotle's silence on the subject. Mayor dispels this prevalent error by combining the skills of the literary scholar with those of the dinosaur hunter. Under her perceptive scrutiny, long-neglected Greek and Roman stories about dying monsters become reliable maps for locating precisely those areas in which modern scientists find prodigious fossils. And though modern specialists might discount such tales as mere fantasies, Mayor views early myths about griffins and ogres as serious efforts to explain the bones of extinct creatures. Less laudable than the fascinating monster myths are the instances of ancient paleontological fraud, which Mayer uncovers as she recounts how Romans flocked to view faked fossils of centaurs and tritons. Indeed, although readers will learn a good deal here about the remains of mammoths and protoceratops, they will learn much more about the human imagination, that fertile source of science, of legend--and of fraud. --Bryce Christensen
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Scientific paleontology began in the 19th century, but the ever-curious Greeks were well aware of fossils. Here's a clear account of what they knew about them--and what they made of the strange bones they found. Mayor, an unaffiliated folklorist, begins with an examination of the griffin--a creature half-lion and half-bird, to which no particular mythological tales attach. Mayor argues that the creature is based on travelers' tales of the fossils of Protoceratops--a small, beaked dinosaur abundant in the Gobi Desert, exactly the region in which the ancients reported griffins to be found. More common in the Mediterranean region are the fossils of prehistoric mammals--in particular, mammoths, mastodons, and large rhinoceros-like creatures. These the Greeks interpreted as the bones of the Titans and Giants whom their gods and legendary heroes defeated in combat. Mayor explains the giant bones of ancient heroes displayed in Greek temples as those of prehistoric mammals. The prevalent ancient belief in the degeneration of the human race since heroic times was reinforced by the size of the bones unearthed. The Romans were also collectors of ancient bones, although they tended to look at them as curiosities rather than objects of veneration: Augustus and other emperors had bone collections. While such philosophers as Aristotle and Pliny ignored what we would consider irrefutable evidence of large ancient animals as anomalies inconsistent with their notion of unchanging nature, Herodotus, Pausanias, and others did describe them. Mayor connects these ancient accounts with areas in which fossils have been discovered in more recent times. While Mayor sometimes belabors her points, on the whole this is clear, readable, and convincing. A surprising account of material overlooked or misunderstood by both historians of science and interpreters of Greek myth. (83 b&w illustrations) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
