Originally posted by Centrix Vigilis
Probably the best explanation as fossil finds are common enough today that reasonably one might assume the same for earlier periods. The difference being that the then vs. now had little scientific developement to judge what they were in relation to the socio-mythic-theologic culture at hand.
Croc worship in Egypt for example. |
It's only been in the last 5 years that the dig notes of hundreds of excavations have been reviewed and indicate that fossil bones have been found at nearly every site in Greece. They weren't relevant to what they were looking for, so they weren't considered important. The ancient Greeks worshipped them as the bones of Heroes. On one site they found a leg bone from a sauropod in the village square. It was venerated as the bone of one of the Mythologic Heroes.
The Greeks could well be the first paleontologists.