Sliggers, B. Ed. 2006. Dino’s en draken. Fossielen in mythen en volksgeloof. – Bussum, Uitgeverij Thoth

Abstract

The famous Teylers Museum in Haarlem, The Netherlands, has a busy schedule with special exhibitions on various topics, related to their important art, coin, antique instruments, minerals or fossil collections. One of these was the exhibition ‘Dino’s en draken’ (‘Dino’s and dragons’) in 2006 (January 28–May 28). According to the Museum’s website (www.teylersmuseum.nl) the exhibition wanted to show how people of different cultures and era’s explained fossils; to explain the role of fossils in mythology and popular belief/folklore. Giants, dragons, Cyclopes, griffins or basilisks: the find of a petrified bone was in the distant (or not so distant¹) past reason to believe in monsters, dragons and other legendary creatures or even the evidence of their existence (note that this was in times before ‘evolution’ and ‘extinction’ were accepted concepts). The exhibition illustrated the many stories, myths and legends with ‘giant’ fossils and explained their magical contents and the ‘de–mythologising’ with the development of palaeontological sciences. Among the fossils on display were remnants ([post]cranial bones, complete skeletons) of the mammoth, the cave bear and woolly rhinoceros as well as a skeleton of Protoceratops, the claw of Therizinosaurus, the vertebrae of an archaeocete whale and a 21 m long Chinese Dragon. Read more...