The Star-Crossed Stone: The Secret Life, Myths, and History of a Fascinating Fossil
By Ken McNamara
3.5/5
()
About this ebook
Throughout the four hundred thousand years that humanity has been collecting fossils, sea urchin fossils, or echinoids, have continually been among the most prized, from the Paleolithic era, when they decorated flint axes, to today, when paleobiologists study them for clues to the earth’s history.
In The Star-Crossed Stone, Kenneth J. McNamara, an expert on fossil echinoids, takes readers on an incredible fossil hunt, with stops in history, paleontology, folklore, mythology, art, religion, and much more. Beginning with prehistoric times, when urchin fossils were used as jewelry, McNamara reveals how the fossil crept into the religious and cultural lives of societies around the world—the roots of the familiar five-pointed star, for example, can be traced to the pattern found on urchins. But McNamara’s vision is even broader than that: using our knowledge of early habits of fossil collecting, he explores the evolution of the human mind itself, drawing striking conclusions about humanity’s earliest appreciation of beauty and the first stirrings of artistic expression. Along the way, the fossil becomes a nexus through which we meet brilliant eccentrics and visionary archaeologists and develop new insights into topics as seemingly disparate as hieroglyphics, Beowulf, and even church organs.
An idiosyncratic celebration of science, nature, and human ingenuity, The Star-Crossed Stone is as charming and unforgettable as the fossil at its heart.
Related to The Star-Crossed Stone
Related ebooks
Balder the Beautiful, Volume I. A Study in Magic and Religion: the Golden Bough, Part VII., The Fire-Festivals of Europe and the Doctrine of the External Soul Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIcelandic-Canadian popular verse Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDracula's Guest: Magical Creatures, A Weiser Books Collection Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Clarkesworld Magazine Issue 198 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRoscommon Folk Tales Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBabylonian Astronomy Charting the Stars in Antiquity Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUchronia: An Anthology of Alternate Histories & Alternate Worlds Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTo Breathe the Breath of Isis Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Centaur: Modern Myth - A Mystical Encounter in Secret Lands of Caucasus Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMidir and Boann in Ériu-Land: The Paradisal Days of the Light-Bringers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBall Lightning: A Popular Guide to a Longstanding Mystery in Atmospheric Electricity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5TALES OF THE ENCHANTED ISLANDS OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC - 20 Tales of Enchanted Islands Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStandard candles Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOutsiders: The Humanity and Inhumanity of Giants in Medieval French Prose Romance Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Mythology of the Northland: Teutonic Myths Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLEGENDARY TOWERS - 10 stories of legendary towers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Chain of Things: Divinatory Magic and the Practice of Reading in German Literature and Thought, 1850–1940 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUlster Folklore Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJersey Legends Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I Alien: Memoirs of a UFO Spy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Hymns of Hermes: Echoes from the Gnosis Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMystics Magazine: Zoroastrian Mystical Theology, A Conversation with Charles William King Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAll The Books of Earth Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Secret Glory Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFreaks of Fanaticism, and Other Strange Events Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDeath in Early New England: Rites, Rituals and Remembrance Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOld Stones of the Cotswolds & Forest of Dean: A survey of megaliths and mark stones past and present Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Stuff of Dreams: The Weird Stories of Edward Lucas White Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Spirits of the Rock Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Icknield Way Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Archaeology For You
How to Survive in Ancient Egypt Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Survive in Ancient Greece Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hidden History: Lost Civilizations, Secret Knowledge, and Ancient Mysteries Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5America Before: The Key to Earth's Lost Civilization Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Epic of Gilgamesh Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Anunnaki Chronicles: A Zecharia Sitchin Reader Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/51177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed: Revised and Updated Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sex and Erotism in Ancient Egypt Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lost Colony and Hatteras Island Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Earth Chronicles Handbook: A Comprehensive Guide to the Seven Books of The Earth Chronicles Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Disinformation Guide to Ancient Aliens, Lost Civilizations, Astonishing Archaeology & Hidden History Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Mound Builders Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fifty Things You Need to Know About World History Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Brutish Museums: The Benin Bronzes, Colonial Violence and Cultural Restitution Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Underwater Ghost Towns of North Georgia Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBlack Tudors: The Untold Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lost King: The Search for Richard III Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Memory Code Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Lehi and Sariah in Arabia: The Old World Setting of the Book of Mormon Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings100 Hieroglyphs: Think Like an Egyptian Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mystery of the Olmecs Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Buried: An alternative history of the first millennium in Britain Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Indian New England Before the Mayflower Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ancestors: A prehistory of Britain in seven burials Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Atlantis Pyramids Floods: Why Europeans are White Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Incas Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5There Were Giants Upon the Earth: Gods, Demigods, and Human Ancestry: The Evidence of Alien DNA Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for The Star-Crossed Stone
4 ratings1 review
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In March 1887, a grave was discovered in England. It was an old grave, the interred had been there for thousands of years. But the two occupants weren’t the only creatures there: they had been buried with hundreds of fossilized sea urchins. Historians and archaeologists were puzzled. Why were these fossils buried with the ancient humans? What was their significance? Kenneth McNamara’s The Star-Crossed Stone looks into the discovery, history, and folklore surrounding fossil urchins.Like many other historical objects, once you go looking for them, they show up everywhere and in the most unlikely of places. Fossilized urchins look much like modern sand dollars, but embedded in stone. They show up in ancient gravesites, church decorations, medieval engravings, and even Egyptian hieroglyphics. Local cottage owners placed them around doorways and windowsills as good luck charms. They were used as fertility charms and used by Vikings as “thunder-stones” to connect them to their mythology. These seemingly ordinary rock formations have been known as shepherd’s crowns, button stones, and fairy loaves.McNamara’s intricate weaving of paleontology and anthropology is both learned and lucid. Since there weren’t any creatures around that looked like the fossils, ancient peoples thought they were remnants of a time long before, of myth and mysticism. McNamara paints this cachet as more charming than provincial. To this day, there are still cottages and outbuildings that incorporate these fossils into their designs. The five-pointed skeletons of these ancient creatures lend themselves well to decoration (once you get past the fact that you are using an actual skeleton as decor in the first place). A delightful and engaging read.