Place names describing fossils in oral traditions (original) (raw)

Fossils as a source of myths, legends and folklore

Rendiconti Online della Società Geologica Italiana, 2023

Fossils, as 'mysterious' and often difficult to interpret natural objects, have always fascinated humans with evidence dating back to the Upper Paleolithic. The earliest written records about petrified remains of plants and animals are found in fragments of works by Thales (636-546 BC), Anaximander (615-547 BC), Xanthus of Sardis (500 BC), Herodotus (484-425 BC), and Eudoxus of Cnidus (about 366 BC). However, fossils became a part of folklore in numerous cultures worldwide long before being studied in the field of natural sciences. Due to their enigmatic and ambiguous nature, these 'petrified' remains were often linked to legends, myths, necromancy, medicinal remedies, and alchemy. In fact, several legends of dwarves and giants from ancient Greece and Asia Minor likely have a direct link to the discovery of fossils of large vertebrates, representing a first attempts at explaining the unusual finds of fossilized remains.. In this contribution, some examples of the influence of fossils on folklore, legends and medicinal remedies in different cultures over time are reported and discussed. Only when correctly interpreted as lithified remains of once-living organisms, the study of fossils has enabled significant advancements in various fields of early Earth Sciences.

Historic placenames as a source in identifying bygone faunal distributions: a double-edged sword

Frontiers of Biogeography , 2023

The purpose of this article is to exemplify how certain types of historic toponyms (placenames) can be employed as an aide to biogeographers in revealing past distributions of species and ecosystems, but also the need for additional interrogation of their likely veracity. Some of the toponyms bestowed by the Dutch explorer, Maerten van Delft, who surveyed the northern coasts of Australia’s Melville Island and the Cobourg Peninsula in 1705, serve as examples for further examination. The expedition conferred 61 toponyms and topographic descriptors, some of which are enigmatic given what we know of the ostensive distribution of Australian fauna in the region at the time. Presumably, the names referred to animals seen on the expedition. Cartographic, documentary, linguistic, and natural science sources were consulted to analyse the meanings of the toponyms. It shows that some the toponyms were based on misidentification due to unfamiliarity of the endemic fauna, whilst one did not refer to an animal at all. Another toponym raises the tantalising prospect that thylacines were present on Melville and Greenhill Islands at the time.

Material traces of past cultures as a motive for the creation of Spanish place names

Onomastica LXVI, 2022, 2022

SUMMARY Place names referencing the material traces of past cultures are relatively common in the microto-ponymy, of Spanish-speaking areas. Since they were created by rural speech communities completely lacking in historical and archaeological culture, they make it possible to reconstruct how realities of archaeological interest (fragments of tools and building materials, ruins of buildings, dolmens, menhirs, tombs, old coins, inscriptions, engraved or painted cave art, among others) were popu-larly perceived and interpreted long before becoming objects of scientific study. Taking an exten-sive toponymic corpus as its starting point, this paper presents an exhaustive classification of such names, differentiating those of a purely descriptive nature from those intended to provide answers to questions concerning the origins, age, and purpose of the enigmatic discoveries. This toponomastic analysis facilitates the rigorous study of the process of onymic creation and its underlying motives.

Inscribing Nature: Archaeological metaphors and the formation of new sciences

This paper examines how new sciences legitimate themselves through the deployment of archaeological metaphors. It begins by considering one of the earliest examples of this deployment, exploring why metaphorical archaeology has been so useful in launching new readings of nature. The second section traces the subsequent fortunes of the archaeological metaphor, examining how it was exploited in the context of the museum sciences of the early 19th century, and concluding with an examination of a reciprocal movement, as the archaeological metaphors for geology rebounded into the stratigraphical interpretation of archaeological finds. Section three examines some of the consequences of the spread of the stratigraphical paradigm at the end of the 19th century, focusing on the archaeological psyche of Freudian psychoanalysis. The paper concludes with a brief examination of the use of archaeological metaphors in what is arguably the most important science of our day.