lordmongrove
Justified & Ancient
- Joined
- May 30, 2009
- Messages
- 4,931
Realizing the unicorn
Well what else do you expect unicorns to eat for breakfast?I found these on Tuesday (no, I did not purchase any).
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[Unicorns Were Real, But Climate Change Killed Them
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Unicorns, they’re just like us: uglier than previously believed land-dwellers who, despite being both literally and figuratively big-headed, are powerless under the crushing forces of climate change.
In fact, according to new research published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution, early humans lived alongside 9,000-pound Siberian unicorns, which bear no resemblance to any elegant, rainbow-colored depiction of the mythical creatures we’ve imagined. While scientists have known of these unicorns’ existence for decades, they previously believed that the beasts went extinct around 200,000 years ago. After analyzing unicorn DNA for the first time, scientists have come to realize they were way off; Elasmotherium sibiricum were roaming Eastern Europe and Central Asia until at least 39,000 years ago, meaning they coexisted with humans.........."
See whole article here:
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/unicorns-were-real-climate-change-163246398.html
Well what else do you expect unicorns to eat for breakfast?
I listened to a podcast about unicorns and did a bit of follow-up research. The ancient Greek writer Ctesias mentions a unicorn-like animal called the 'Indian Ass'. Imagine my surprise when I googled it... ...
FULL STORY: https://www.livescience.com/origins-of-unicornsWhere did the unicorn myth come from?
... Unicorn-like imagery dates back to the Indus Valley Civilization (about 3300 B.C. to 1300 B.C.) in South Asia, which included parts of modern-day Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. A side profile of what looks like a horse with a single horn appears on seals from that period. However, these images were likely depictions of aurochs (Bos primigenius), a now-extinct wild ox, according to the St Neots Museum (opens in new tab) in England.
Written Chinese descriptions of an Asian unicorn date as far back as around 2700 B.C., according to the American Museum of Natural History (opens in new tab) in New York. This "unicorn" seemed to be a combination of different animals and had the body of a deer, the tail of an ox, a multicolored or scaly dragon-like coat and a flesh-covered horn (or horns). Despite physical differences, Asian unicorns were described as evasive and solitary creatures, just as they were in later European records. ...
[Unicorns Were Real, But Climate Change Killed Them
"
""
Unicorns, they’re just like us: uglier than previously believed land-dwellers who, despite being both literally and figuratively big-headed, are powerless under the crushing forces of climate change.
In fact, according to new research published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution, early humans lived alongside 9,000-pound Siberian unicorns, which bear no resemblance to any elegant, rainbow-colored depiction of the mythical creatures we’ve imagined. While scientists have known of these unicorns’ existence for decades, they previously believed that the beasts went extinct around 200,000 years ago. After analyzing unicorn DNA for the first time, scientists have come to realize they were way off; Elasmotherium sibiricum were roaming Eastern Europe and Central Asia until at least 39,000 years ago, meaning they coexisted with humans.........."
See whole article here:
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/unicorns-were-real-climate-change-163246398.html
Rhinos strike me as very different to the traditionally more gracile and equine form of unicorn.
I'm not convinced that an ancestral memory of encountering Elasmotherium can account for unicorn legends.
I have read somewhere that the elasmotherium may have survived in Siberia and central Asia until about 30 000 years ago (and perhaps some were still alive in France at a more recent date, if we are to interpret Rouffignac's cave paintings as elasmos rather than rhinos).
By the way, does anybody know if there is an African unicorn myth predating our Western unicorn legends ? That is, did subsaharian people, who lived closeby to standard rhinoceros develop any mythical one horned creature ? Or were they content with what they saw next door ?
I'm sure I read years ago of a Greek or early Roman account of the monokeros (unicorn) that also claimed locals gave it a name which resembles the much later attested 'karkadann'. Karkadann seems to refer to both rhinoceros and a mythical, huge, fierce, one-horned beast that shares with the unicorn a horn that neutralises poison. Unfortunately, I can't recall where I read that, I might try to find it later.
Anyway, I'm perfectly comfortable with the unicorn being derived from rhinos through garbled accounts. I've never been very convinced that it began as a poorly seen antelope in profile making its two horns appear as one, as several people (including one cryptozoologist, who seemed a little committed to the idea) have tried to tell me is likely. Generally, such creatures are observed in groups. Were they conspiring to deceive a visiting human by all standing in profile to him? Also, they don't stay still. If you see something so unusual as an ungulate with a single long horn, surely you have a second look until it moves its head.