Customer Reviews

The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times.

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Upfront I must confess that though I am very knowledgeable about history and science, I am neither a paleontologist nor an expert on Classical History. But I was intrigued by this book, and I found it fascinating.

The author begins the book with a slam-banger of an idea--The first chapter discusses the idea that the Greek legend of Griffons originated from Greek fossil observations in Asia. The author has very convincing evidence for this, based on how Griffons were described and handled differently by ancient writers, specific details of ancient writing, and fossil evidence still in place in modern times. I found it fascinating.

The later chapters are still interesting, though don't have the novel impact of the first chapter. The ancient attitude towards fossils is discussed, including quarrels between city-states over possession of fossils which were thought to be the remains of heroes and demigods.

I found the book interesting and convincing, but I cannot help wondering if maybe there is evidence being ignored when it would discredit the author's hypothesis. I lack enough expertise in either field to be sure. I fell for Von Daniken's Chariots of the Gods as a teen-ager, and the experience keeps me suspicious of revolutionary ideas in archeology and ancient history, even to this day!

This book presents the idea that ancients were well aware of fossils, and discusses their interpretations of them. It shows how different members of society tried to interpret them in different ways (most interpreted them as being signs of giants and monsters, but some took this to show divine origins, and others took it to be part of natural history). The ideas are very interesting, and the history of the importance of different fossilized bones in different cities is quite exciting. My only complaint is that the books seems to be quite repetitive. Not only are the points that the author is trying to make repetitive, but she even repeats some of the stories she tells several times. A good editor could have trimmed out 1/3 of the book. All in all, a good book. Interesting, thorough, and decently referenced. For anyone interested in classics or paleontology, this is a good buy.

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.

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]

....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.

The thoughtfully and thoroughly presented ideas in this book explain the prevalence of mythological creatures such as dragons, giants and composite beasts throughout ancient cultures all over the world. It is a breakthrough in interdisciplinary thinking. The compartmentalization of scholarly pursuits has kept scientists from realizing the seemingly obvious for over a century. Adrienne Mayor comes upon the truth by returning to the holistic approach of Greek scientists, hitting a scholarly gold mine.

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.

Adrienne Mayor makes a very plausible case noting the significance of fossils to ancient Greeks, Romans and other early peoples of the Near East and other parts of Asia, most notably the Central Asian Gobi Desert. She may sound repetitive, but she does an excellent job organizing her facts and making her case as persuasive as it is. Students of classical archaeology will have to consider her novel hypothesis in any future work on ancient mythology. It's a pity Princeton University Press hasn't done an excellent job marketing this fine book. Let's hope it earns the wide readership it deserves soon.

There was a TV documentary based on this book, which I found fascinating. I looked for the book, a textbook admittedly, and was happy to find it here. The author documents ancient references to fossils and includes extensive notes and appendices. These references are especially convincing in support of her ideas.

The fun part is that the ancients clearly recognized the bones as having come from a previous time and viewed them as possibly the bones of giants and heroes, quickly rearranging an elephant's bones into the remains of a giant man (with one eye). Voila! a cyclops. Recommended.

Don't be fooled by the gorgeous and provocative cover. Mayor has some really intriguing hypotheses to offer and has backed them up with apparently solid scholarship but Princeton University Press has done the author no favors. The book is unbelievably poorly designed - talk about widows and orphans - the maps are unreadable and the photographs rarely appear on the same page as the the relevent text. Mayor is not an especially accomplished writer but I feel sure a competent editor could have saved her from herself. At the very least they should had nixed the frequent paranthetical references to other chapters of the book which are deeply annoying. As eager as I am/was for the information contained here I have not been able to force myself past the third chapter. Mayor's theories are indeed exciting and worthy of discussion, one wishes her publisher had worked as hard at producing a worthwhile book as the author evidently did in researching it.