Mythology derived from Truth?

I recently watched the History Channel's "Ancient Monster Hunters" where they were airing "The First Fossill Hunters." It was based on a book of the same name written by, Adrienne Mayor, an independent folklorist and historian of science.

Through her extensive research, Mayor manages to unravel hidden clues explaining the origins of mytholigical creatures in ancient Greek culture. She provides us with very intriguing evidence that at least some of these seemingly unbelievable creatures are actually based on "fact."

Mayor say's that the finding of beds of fossilized dinosaur bones exposed from years of erosion was not uncommon in the ancient world. Bones were found in many different sizes, however, the rains tended to wash away the smaller bones and leave the larger bones behind. These larger bones were usually femers, vertebrae, or coincidentally bones that ancient people would recognize as human.

From the bones of a woolly mammoth, ancient peoples beleived they were looking upon the remains of a cyclops. If you look straight at the front of the skull of a mammoth, you see a single nasal cavity where the eye sockets would be on a human. It did not occurr to these people that the eye sockets on this skull would be on the sides like in most animals instead of the front like a human's. They knew they were looking at a monster...they just didn't know which one. Keep in mind that ancient peoples did not know about the existence of prehistoric creatures like mammoths and dinosaurs.

This is also where the myth of giants originated from. Incredibly large bones were strewn over such a wide distance that people believed they were gazing upon the remains of gods who were involved in a titanic battle here on earth.

The book also explains the beleif in Griffins, animals with the head of an eagle and the body of a lion. It is beleived that the myth started with an Asian people called the Scythians. They were gold traders. It is thought that the Scythians created the griffin legend based on bones found exposed throughout the hills of their homeland; They did this to ward away theives who may try to steal their gold. It was later found that an abundance of bones from dinosaurs identified as protoceratops and psittacosaurus were scatterred along the routes and close to the gold mines of these ancient traders. These dinosaurs are on all fours like a mammal, but have a skull containing a huge "beak."


Interresting huh?