Post Description

From dinosaurs to mammoths, when our ancient ancestors encountered the fossil 
bones of extinct prehistoric creatures, what did they think they were? Just 
like us, ancient peoples were fascinated by the giant bones they found in the 
ground.

In an epic story that takes us from Ancient Greece to the American Wild West, 
historian Tom Holland goes on a journey of discovery to explore the fascinating 
ways in which our ancestors sought to explain the remains of dinosaurs and 
other giant prehistoric creatures, and how bones and fossils have shaped and 
affected human culture.

In Classical Greece, petrified bones were exhibited in temples as the remains 
of a long lost race of colossal Heroes. Chinese tales of dragons may well have 
had their origins in the great fossil beds of the Gobi desert. In the Middle 
Ages, Christians believed that mysterious bones found in rock were the remains 
of giants drowned in Noah's Flood.

But far from always being wrong, Tom learns that ancient explanations and myths 
about large fossilsed bones often contained remarkable paleontological insights 
long before modern science explained the truth about dinosaurs. Tom encounters 
a medieval sculpture that is the first known reconstruction of a monster from a 
fossil, and learns about the Native Americans stories, told for generations, 
which contained clues that led bone hunters to some of the greatest dinosaur 
finds of the nineteenth century.

This documentary is an alternative history of dinosaurs - the neglected story 
of how mythic imagination and scientific inquiry have met over millennia to 
give meaning to the dry bones of prehistory. Today, as our interest in 
dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures continues unabated, it turns out we are not 
so far away from the awe and curiosity of our ancient ancestors.