DINOSAURS: From Cultural to Pop Culture - ~100 AD: Battle of the Amazonians

DINOSAURS! From Cultural to Pop Culture

Prehistoric Times 

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~100 AD
Battle of the Amazonians

For our next entry, we continue on the island of Samos with the last entry in the "Prehistoric Times" (at least for now).

A long time after Euphorion talked about the Neades (about 300 years), Plutarch came and also came up with a reason for the bones on the island. Plutarch talked about a tale where the god Dionysus tried to recruit the giant Amazon warriors, however they refused, and Dionysus pursued them to Samos. A great battle took place and the Amazonians were slaughtered in "fields of blood". 

The majority of Samos is covered with white and beige sediments and rocks, however there is a significant deposit of red sediments with many white fossil bones eroding out of them. The localities of these deposits coincide with the locations of battles depicted on ancient maps.

Samos red rock fossil beds (Soulinias, 2007)

The deposits of these fossils were found within a volcanic tuffa that was interbedded with sandy marls and gravels from the Early Miocene. The variety of mammals within the fossil beds is astounding, ranging from Mastodons, rhinos, and hyenas, to flightless birds (Forsyth Major, 1893).  

One of the most common fossils that are found on the island is that of the Prehistoric horse, Hippotherium. Coincidently (or perhaps not), the Amazonian's were known to have rode horses into battle.

Fossil of Hippotherium gracile (By Ghedoghedo - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11329565)

References

Mayor, Adrienne. 2000. The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ

Soulinias, N. (2007). Samos Island, Part II: ancient history of the Samos fossils and the record of earthquakes. Inside the Aegean Metamorphic Core Complexes: Journal of the virtual explorer, electronic edition.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6VLojsbAIQ

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippotherium
https://books.google.com/books?id=KEdSAQAAMAAJ

DINOSAURS: From Cultural to Pop Culture - ~400 BC: The Griffin

DINOSAURS! From Cultural to Pop Culture

Prehistoric Times 

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~400 BC
The Griffin

Apollo riding a griffin circa 380 BC (theoi.com).

Continuing along through Greek mythology we have the griffin. The griffin is a combination eagle head with a lion's body. I picked ~400 BC as the date for this stop because this is when the famous tale of Prometheus Bound was likely written by Aeschyles. In the story Prometheus is bound to a rock as torture for giving fire to humanity. While he is tied to this rock he is force to endure griffins repeatedly eating out his liver. Then, when they are done, the liver is allowed to grow back again, starting whole process over again. This isn't the first occurrence of griffins in history but it is one of the most prominent early examples so I figured this would be a good place to mark it. Within mythology, one of the principle traits of the griffin, other than its ability to fly, is that it is often found guarding treasure.

Protoceratops replica from Gaston Designs. 

One theory for the origin of the griffin is that the Greeks were trading with a group of people called the Scythian Nomads. The trade routes of these nomads traveled from Mongolia and down into Greece where they traded gold, among other things. The source location for their gold was likely at the base of some cliffs near the Gobi Desert. The gold would have likely eroded out of the Altai Mountains in Mongolia and settled on the fringes of the desert. Along side the gold deposits the traders found these bizarre looking skeletons, unlike what they have ever seen before. When coming across such things most people try to relate it to what they know. They recognized the beak, like that of a bird, and the bird-like-talons, but the size and shape of the body didn't make sense. This must be a beast that is a combination of a bird and something else, possibly a lion. We now know that the skeleton was that of a Protoceratops. The only question that now remained is what happened to the frill of the dinosaur in the nomads reconstruction? It is likely that if the frill was broken into pieces, the placement of the frill along the back could give evidence for the presence of wings. Once discovering these and creating the griffin myth, the nomads then transported this tale all over Europe during their travels (Mayor, 2000; Ancient Monster Hunters; Wikipedia). 

References:
Mayor, Adrienne. 2000. The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protoceratops#Origin_of_griffin_myths  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6VLojsbAIQ
https://www.theoi.com/Gallery/K5.7.html
https://www.gastondesign.com/our-products/dinosaur-skeletons/

DINOSAURS: From Cultural to Pop Culture - ~800 BC: The Cyclops

DINOSAURS! From Cultural to Pop Culture

Prehistoric Times 

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~800 BC
The Cyclops

Roman Polyphemus sculpture (List of Figures)

The next stop along our travels through time is not a dinosaur stop but an important one none-the-less. I placed it at ~800 BC because that is the estimated date that Homer wrote the Odyssey. In the Odyssey, Odysseus is making his way back home and along the way lands on the Island of the Cyclops, where he meets Polyphemus (pictured right). Homer then goes on to describe the cyclops, which is usually what we would assume a cyclops to look like; typically very large and have one eye located in the center of their forehead. This is not the first historical encounter with a cyclops in Greek history, but this is just the first substantial reference to one that has survived to the modern day. 

Young male African Elephant Skull replica at
Utah's Hogle Zoo. Picture by Jim Lehane.

Looking at the geology of Greece, they are not known for large dinosaur deposits but what they do have is large amounts of Pleistocene deposits. The Pleistocene deposits are rich in that are rich in prehistoric elephant fossils. In particular, the ancient, dwarf elephants. The skulls of the dwarf elephants are on average, twice the size of a human skull and posses a large hole in the center of the "forehead". Modern humans now know this is for the nasal passage of the trunk, but the ancient Greeks, who have had no contact with elephants before, likely assumed that it to be a lone eye socket (pictured left). This was all interpreted by a paleobiologists by the name of Othenio Abel in 1914, and it makes sense (Mythicalcreaturesguide.com). The ancient Greeks discovered the overly-large "human-like" skulls with the singular eye socket and assumed they belonged to a race of massive, one-eyed giants.

References
http://www.mythicalcreaturesguide.com/page/Cyclops#fbid=b0vGB_AGot9
https://listoffigures.wordpress.com/2010/04/

DINOSAURS! From Cultural to Pop Culture - ~2,000 BC: Biblical Behemoths

DINOSAURS! From Cultural to Pop Culture

Prehistoric Times 

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~2,000 BC
Biblical Behemoths

"Before the 19th century when dinosaur bones turned up they were taken as evidence of dragons, ogres,or giant victims of Noah's Flood"
Updike, 2007

The oldest known Torah, the Jewish Holy book (CBS News)

Our first stop along the ride through history is approximately 2,000 BC, which is when it was assumed the Book of Job from the Old Testament was written. That is where we run across the passage:

 15 Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee; he eateth grass as an ox.
16 Lo now, his strength is in his loins, and his force is in the navel of his belly.
17 He moveth his tail like a cedar: the sinews of his stones are wrapped together.
18 His bones are as strong pieces of brass; his bones are like bars of iron.
Job 40:15-18

African Elephant from Utah's Hogle Zoo.
 Photo by Jim Lehane.

The main reason this is our first stop, and not another one a little further along the timeline, is that Creationists seem to have taken up this phrase as proof that dinosaurs were in the Bible and have been around since Creation. If we analyze the passage we do have something that can be described as a dinosaur it seems. First off "behemoth" is a rather obscure term but since the term dinosaur wasn't coined until 1854 this could be taken as a dinosaur, or as any other unknown/obscure animal of the time.

White Rhinoceros from Utah's Hogle Zoo.
Photo by Jim Lehane.

Picking apart other parts of the passage we have "he eateth grass as an ox", indicating an herbivore. The next line, "his strength is in his loins, and his force is in the navel of his belly". I'm not really sure how to interpret that one, but we will just assume it means the animal is pretty big and strong, not really a physical description though. Now we get to the line that is the primary "proof" given for it being a dinosaur; "tail like a cedar". Not many, if any,animals today contain a tail that can be described as "like a cedar".Looking at the next line, "bones are as strong pieces of brass; his bones are like bars of iron", we get the feeling of a large animal with large bones and large limbs. But all modern day large animals with large limbs, all contain tiny little tails (like the elephant and the rhino).

This has been one of the the "proofs" that Creationists provide as evidence that dinosaurs were in the Bible, since no modern day animal can fit the mold. Dinosaurs do seem to fit it well though. So does this mean dinosaurs really did live with mankind? I don't think so, but I think this is an important entry in the Dinosaurs Cultural to Pop Culture series, and one that couldn't be forgotten.

References
Bible references obtained from the King James Version: http://kingjbible.com/job/40.htm
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/expert-discovers-ancient-torah-scroll-in-plain-sight/

DINOSAURS! From Cultural to Pop Culture - Introduction

DINOSAURS! From Cultural to Pop Culture

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I have been fascinated lately with how dinosaurs have affected and been affected by their appearances in the daily lives of people from "Prehistoric Times" through the modern day. In regards to this I have developed a talk that I just gave at a UFOP meeting (and can give elsewhere if you want, just email me) but I am also dedicating a portion of my website to this as I build it up (DINOSAURS! From Cultural to Pop Culture)

The section of the website will illustrate the variety of things that were birthed from dinosaurs (culturally speaking) and how our perception of them has changed through time. This is a work in progress and will likely grow in size as I find more information and not necessarily in chronological order. I have divided this topic into four main time periods: "Prehistoric Times", "Medieval Times", "Modern Times-1800's", and "Modern Times-1900's". The plan is to add thing chronologically on the blog and then place them on the timeline over at the website so people can jump around or just scroll through time. This way if I find new information later I can place in the correct time slot without too much trouble and not being relegated to missing it because I already passed it on the blog. They are currently all blank right now until I get to that information.

This will be a "ride" through time (if you have seen the talk you will understand this) so posts are going to be by stops. The first time stop should be up in the next few days.