Pretty sure they used to think elephant skulls were cyclops’ skulls…
The earliest known english-language account of a dinosaur bone is in Robert Plot’s 1677 The natural history of Oxford-shire: being an essay toward the natural history of England. This is how he explains what we now know as a megalosaurus thighbone:
There happily came to Oxford while I was writing of this, a living Elephant to be shown publickly at the ACT, An. 1676, with whose Bones . I compared ours; and found those of the Elephant not only of a different Shape, but also incomparably different to ours, though the Beast were very young and not half grown. If then they are neither the Bones of Horses, Oxen, nor Elephants, as I am strongly persuaded they are not . It remains, that (notwithstanding their extravagant Magnitude) they must have been the bones of Men or Women: Nor doth any thing hinder but they may have been so, provided it be clearly made out, that there have been Men and Women of proportionable Stature in all Ages of the World, down even to our own Days
The whole account is pretty interesting. He speculates about the origin of the bones and their medicinal uses and discusses the particulars of a few giants.
Dragons, giants, monsters, that sort of thing. They weren’t entirely wrong.
I mean, other than breathing fire, the difference between a particularly large pterosaur and a dragon mostly down to the shape of the head.
Dragons
I remember its been theorized (or proven) that the myth of Cyclops comes from a person finding a mammoth skull. So, probably informed lots of mythologies.
elephant skull!
Same shit nerd
Edit for a /s I’m just being silly
Specific theologies believe dinosaur bones were planted in the earth by satan to affront God.
Never met anyone in the flesh who actually believed this
My grandfather did (does?). There are a whole lot of people who believe the earth is only a few thousand years old. I have no further details cause you couldn’t pay me to broach the subject with him.
My dad did.
It was the most infuriating shit ever, even when I asked him why would God allow Satan to create something so perfect as to deceive billions of people with evidence baked into the deception that cannot be contravened by any method known to man, his response was it’s just to test your faith.
To which I countered, if God sent me to hell for believing that dinosaurs existed, then he’s not a good God. And to which my dad replied, that’s blasphemy.
And don’t get me wrong, I am a Christian. I believe in Jesus, I believe in God. I actually believe in all of the major religions, but I lean towards Christianity personally, but there has to be some rationality, some understanding that human beings can rely on because God gave us the brains to think rationally and to consider what’s directly in front of us for what it is.
If you have to willfully be stupid and believe lies in order to go to heaven, then why would God make smart people that want to see the truth?
And don’t get me wrong, I am a Christian. I believe in Jesus, I believe in God. I actually believe in all of the major religions, but I lean towards Christianity personally
John 14:6
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
How can you believe in all of the major religions when they all contradict? For example, in the Bible Jesus claimed to be God, got crucified, rose again, etc. While Mohammed of Islam denied Jesus’ crucifixion and said Jesus never claimed to be God. In Christianity, Jesus claims exclusivity over Salvation and that He Himself is “The Truth”, leaving no room for other religions (a lot of which tried to leave room for Jesus, interestingly enough).
Hence, the Elect. You don’t have to believe anything - if you’re the Elect, you’ll go to heaven. Everyone else gets eternal damnation.
I don’t think I believe in the elect the way I’ve seen it presented because too many people present the idea of the elect like no matter what they do, they could fire bomb orphans and they’re still going to heaven, they’re the elect.
There’s no way it works that way.
If you were one of the elect the only fire you would be bringing to an orphan is the fire of a home-cooked meal or a fireplace for Christmas or something because you have invited them into your home so that they won’t be an orphan anymore.
If there is an elect, they’re gonna be like Mr. Rogers, or at least approaching Mr. Rogers.
Joe Bob Dingus, the local alcoholic racist that goes to church four times a year, is not going to be the elect.
I was at a small festival one time with my very rural-living family. There were people there passing out pamphlets that claimed dinosaurs were still alive in Jesus’ time and that they existed alongside humans.
I nope’d away from them as fast as I could. Now I wish I’d stayed to listen and share the stupidity.
This satan guy sounds like a hoot. I want to see more of that.
fossils aren’t super easy to find and if you saw one you would think it just a rock. Not really sure how much is found above ground to. I mean if it looked immpressive enough maybe you sell it to a freak show or circus which I think something like them have been around for a long time.
Ammonite used to be called “snake stone” and was sought after for having magical properties.
I would assume it’s along the lines of “hey I found something…”
Followed by “WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT???”
Our Sweet Lord was practicing creature design in hot lava (I kid you not!)
I have to think they weren’t particularly common. If I were completely ignorant and happened to stumble across a giant fossilized femur sticking out if a rock or at some sort of traveling circus, I’d probably guess giant. If I were somewhat familiar with living creatures I’d probably guess elephant/mammoth.
[off topic]
Fun historical novel set just after the death of Alexander the Great.
The gryphon’s Skull by Harry Turtledove.
Two peace loving traders just want to travel the Med and make a little money, but things keep happening. And BTW, they’ve found a gryphon’s skull.
https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-gryphon-s-skull-harry-turtledove/e21a50075c822e97
I was under the impression the some Christians thought they were proof that giants existed, a la David and Goliath.
I watched some videos of slings as weapons of war, and as I see it, David was not the underdog. He brought a gun to a sword fight.
@[email protected] @[email protected]
There’s an eccentric hypothesis I thought of: maybe people used the fossils alongside the surrounding stones for buildings, without ever noticing the fossil. This makes me wonder how many ancient constructions, from simple huts all the way to entire castles and fortresses, contain fossils as stones.
And this doesn’t even seem to be limited to fossils: if we jump to Neolithic onwards, then fast-forward all the way to contemporaneity, some of the artifacts from back then (e.g. figurines such as Venus figurines, clay tablets, vases, papyri, petroglyphs, etc) likely ended up as part of buildings. Maybe those artifacts ended up unwillingly torn apart and ground by heavy machinery (e.g. backhoes, other earthmoving machinery, mining machinery and drilling machinery for petroleum wells, although these often involves prospecting, etc).
The artifact doesn’t even need to be that old: I once saw a news story about someone who used a “hammer” for decades before discovering it was actually a WWII grenade.
