Re: St. Augustine a fossil hunter?

[Adrienne Mayor <afmayor@aol.com>]

Yes! St Augustine (AD 354-430) was a fossil collector. He lived in 
Carthage (now Tunisia, North Africa) in the twilight of the pagan Roman 
Empire, the dawn of the Christian Byzantine era. In the "City of God" 
15.9, Augustine discussed the existence of giants and giant creatures 
in the distant past. To confirm the historical reality of giant beings 
in the deep passt, he cited classical Greek and Roman authors and the 
long history of discoveries of giant bones around the Mediterranean 
since the time of Homer (8th century BC). He noted that Roman farmers 
in Italy often plowed up giant skeletons and he cited Pliny the Elder 
(1st century AD) on the widespread notion that the aging Earth produces 
ever-punier, smaller, and weaker life-forms.

Augustine wrote: "Some people refuse to believe that [in previous ages] 
men were of much larger size than they are now...but skeptics are 
generally persuaded by the evidence in the ground." He described the 
"frequent discovery of incredibly large bones revealed by the ravages 
of time, the violent action of streams, and other events...tangible 
proof" that ancient life-forms were enormous, and that "some of those 
[giant creatures of the past] even towered far above the rest."

He had collected such giant remains on the beach at Utica, on the Gulf 
of Tunis: He wrote, "I myself--not alone but with several other 
people--found a human molar so immense that we estimated that it was 
100 times the dimension of our own teeth. I believe that molar belonged 
to some giant."  Augustine went on to point out that bones and teeth of 
past creatures are very long-lasting, which allows rational people of 
much later ages the opportunity to visualize the giant beings from eons 
ago.

The area around ancient Utica (now 7 miles inland due to silting) 
contains abundant Pliocene large mammal fossils. Since the large tooth 
was taken as that of a giant human, it probably belonged to a mastodon 
(some scholars suggest it was a giant Hippopotamus amphibius molar).

Ironically, Augustine's own bones were kept on display in Italy, after 
his death during the Vandal invasion of North Africa.

For a full description of Augustine's fossil discovery and 
interpretation, see pp 154-56, 261-62 of Adrienne Mayor, "The First 
Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times" (Princeton 
2000).

On Nov 18, 2005, at 9:16 AM, Vladimír Socha wrote:

Good day,
some time ago, I've read an interview with Robert T. Bakker, where he 
states that the "Doctor of the Church" Aurelius Augustinus (St. 
Augustine of Hippo, 354 - 430 CE) collected fossils and also raised 
presumptions as of its origin. My question is: Does anyone knows how 
much is this true and what's the source of this? Did St. Augustine ever 
mentioned fossils (how would he call them?) in his works? Thanks for 
any info, Vlad