| Description |
287 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm |
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text txt rdacontent |
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unmediated n rdamedia |
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volume nc rdacarrier |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 254-274) and index. |
| Contents |
A timeless obsession -- In the myths of time -- The stuff of legends -- Fashioning the stone -- Delighting the mind -- Saving the soul -- Protecting the body -- Curing the body -- The dark side -- A joke of time -- Epilogue. |
| Summary |
For at least half a million years, people have been doing some very strange things with fossils. Long before a few 17th-century minds started to decipher their true, organic nature, fossils had been eaten, dropped in goblets of wine, buried with the dead, adorned on bodies and even used to try and cause harm. What triggered such curious behaviour was the belief, passed down from prehistoric to Medieval times, that some fossils could cure illness, protect against being poisoned, ease the passage into the afterlife, ward off evil spirits and even kill those who were just plain annoying. But above all, to our early prehistoric ancestors living hundreds of thousands of years ago, fossils were the very stuff of artistic inspiration. Drawing on archaeology, mythology and folklore, Kenneth McNamara takes you on a journey through prehistory with these strange and curious stones, and explores humankind's unending quest for the meaning of fossils. |
| Subject |
Fossils -- History.
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Fossils -- Mythology.
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Fossils -- Collectors and collecting.
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Animals, Fossil.
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Plants, Fossil.
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Plants, Fossil. (OCoLC)fst01066174
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Animals, Fossil. (OCoLC)fst00809599
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Fossils. (OCoLC)fst00933164
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Paleontology. (OCoLC)fst01051513
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| Genre/Form |
History. (OCoLC)fst01411628
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Popular works. (OCoLC)fst01423846
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| ISBN |
1789142903 hardback |
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9781789142907 hardback |
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9781789142891 (ebook) |
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