The First Fossil Hunters:
Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times
by Adrienne Mayor
foreword by Peter Dodson
Posted on 08/10/2004 10:57:41 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
The tusk, several teeth, and some bones of a Deinotherium giganteum, which, loosely translated means really huge terrible beast, have been found on the Greek island Crete. A distant relative to today's elephants, the giant mammal stood 15 feet (4.6 meters) tall at the shoulder, and had tusks that were 4.5 feet (1.3 meters) long. It was one of the largest mammals ever to walk the face of the Earth... To paleontologists today, the large hole in the center of the skull suggests a pronounced trunk. To the ancient Greeks, Deinotherium skulls could well be the foundation for their tales of the fearsome one-eyed Cyclops... A cousin to the elephant, deinotheres roamed Europe, Asia, and Africa during the Miocene (23 to 5 million years ago) and Pliocene (5 to 1.8 million years ago) eras before becoming extinct. Finding the remains on Crete suggests the mammal moved around larger areas of Europe than previously believed, Fassoulas said... He suggests that the animals reached Crete from Turkey, swimming and island hopping across the southern Aegean Sea during periods when sea levels were lower. Many herbivores, including the elephants of today, are exceptionally strong swimmers.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.nationalgeographic.com ...
The First Fossil Hunters:
Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times
by Adrienne Mayor
foreword by Peter Dodson
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In the Selincourt translation, the note for this passage is that it is unknown what Herodotus describes.The Histories (Book II)"I went once to a certain place in Arabia, almost exactly opposite the city of Buto, to make inquiries concerning the winged serpents. On my arrival I saw the back-bones and ribs of serpents in such numbers as it is impossible to describe: of the ribs there were a multitude of heaps, some great, some small, some middle-sized. The place where the bones lie is at the entrance of a narrow gorge between steep mountains, which there open upon a spacious plain communicating with the great plain of Egypt. The story goes that with the spring the winged snakes come flying from Arabia towards Egypt, but are met in this gorge by the birds called ibises, who forbid their entrance and destroy them all. The Arabians assert, and the Egyptians also admit, that it is on account of the service thus rendered that the Egyptians hold the ibis in so much reverence."
by Herodotus
tr by G Rawlinson
I don't think this theory is new. I remember hearing of this in high school more than 20 years ago.
That looks like a really interesting book, Civ.
I hadn't heard the theory before. Never thought much about cyclops, but now I have new nightmare material.
I read somewhere that the Cyclops myth referred to a tribe that tatooed a circle on every member's forehead.
Later (19th century) fossil hunters thought that they had found Cyclops skulls when they discovered ancient mammoth bones.
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The Mediterranean was completely dry 5 million years ago. It's been wet ever since, but, almost drying out at least 40 times since.
Years before they came up with the Black Sea Flood, Ryan and Pitman (or perhaps it was just one of them) came up with the Gibraltar waterfall as the method by which the Mediterranean got filled/refilled.
A New Jersey MastodonIn 1519 Bernal Diaz del Castillo, an officer in the army of Cortez, was given a large bone, probably part of a mastodon leg, by Indians from the village of Tlascala, near Mexico City, as evidence of the former presence there of giants. Diaz accepted this explanation, which continued to be a common belief for nearly two hundred years, and sent the bone to Spain "for his majesty's inspection." This was probably the first fossil to be noticed by Europeans in North America, and the first American fossil to be taken to Europe. Mastodon bones are still being exposed by erosion in the stream valleys near Tlascala and, a few years ago, I saw several teeth and dark brown bones of the "underground giants" in a glass case in the lobby of an inn in the village. Perhaps Diaz saw some of the same bones four and one-half centuries ago.
by Glenn L. Jepsen
1960
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Here's a picture of one. You can easily see how the idea got started.
Where? When?
Another possible origin for the Cyclops legend is that prehistoric proto-elephant skulls were found by the Greeks (some still exist today on Crete). Due to the large central nasal cavity (for the trunk) in the skull, it might have been believed that this was a large, single, eye-socket. The smaller, actual, eye-sockets are on the sides and much less impressive. Given the paucity of experience that the locals likely had with living elephants, they were unlikely to recognize the skull for what it actually was.
and another: http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~loxias/odyssey/cyclops02.htm
There's a new book (Spring 2000) from Princeton University Press by Adrienne Mayor, which advances the theory that tales of Griffins, Giants and Centaurs as well as Cyclopes arose from interpretation of the fossil evidence by the ancients. It's called Palaeontology in Greek and Roman Times. The dwarf elephant theory to explain the Cyclops was first thought of in 1914 by Othenio Abel.
but I think this is the one I'm remembering: http://www.calacademy.org/exhibits/skulls/diversity.html
SKULL FACT
In the 14th century, Giovanni Boccaccio claimed he had discovered a mighty Cyclops skull inside a Sicilian cave. This one-eyed monster may have been nothing more than a docile elephant. The hole that resembles a central eye in the elephant’s skull is actually its nasal cavity – it is surrounded by plentiful muscle attachment space for the animal’s massive trunk.
That includes the middle ages reference and I took several science, anthropology and archaeology classes in the University of California system while I lived out there.
Yup. That was Bill Ryan. There are salt deposits on the botton of the Med that are over a mile thick, it's a type of salt that forms only with the exposure to sunlight.
Further, The scowering(sp) marks found on the bottom near Gilbralter, I believe, occurred in the last 8-7,000 years.
Here is a map of the world's oceans reduced by a little over 300 ft.
During the Ice Age the world's oceans were reduced by 400-500 ft. Notice that the Med is closed off and divided in two, possibly three sections...and, this does not account for the drying that must have occurred.
I think when the water broke through at Gilbralter, it cascaded through each of the dams and climaxed with the flood of the Black Sea 7,600 years ago.
Actually, he said the Gibraltar waterfall event took place 5 million years ago. Interestingly enough, one of the more odd German plans for the postwar (had the Nazis won) was a hydroelectric project / bridge across the strait, to harness the slight current (I dunno if it goes in or out, but I suspect it's out). Another was to create a huge artificial lake (the old geography of Lake Tritonis, give or take) in order to irrigate the Sahara. ;'D
Ryan's work came from the engineering studies made by the Soviets leading up to the construction of the Aswan High Dam. That's described though in one of the early chapters of Noah's Flood. :')
Yup. I have it but it's been a while since I read it. There's also a one hour TV documentary.
I don't remember that this event/effect was dated. (I'll look back through the book later)
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