Re: [Re: The Cretaceous Middle-East]

[Finback <goodmr@ses.curtin.edu.au>]

At 04:23 pm 20/09/00 -0700, dbensen wrote:
>I think the most plausible idea of keeping civilization away from the
dinosaurs is
>that the people who live near the dinosaurs don't tell anybody.  Perhaps the
>natives (that is the humans) believe the dinosaur place to be holy, and so
won't
>let any foreigners near it.  The dinosaurs have to live in a pretty
isolated area,
>anyway (since they haven't escaped and run all over the rest of the world)
and so
>they might have been discovered only a few hundred years ago.  If you have
time,
>you may throw in some bits about how the Ottoman empire or the Turks or
the Romans
>or all the other civilizations that have conquered that part of the globe had
>rumors about the dinosaurs that live there.
        
        Another method of removal of humans from the area would be cultural
taboos. At some point, humans would have entered the area. *crunch crunch
crunch*. Soon, it becomes apparent anyone who goes there doesn't come back.
It's a demon haunted region, and perhaps this knowledge is best left
unuttered. Soon, after a few generations, people just stop remembering the
place altogether. (Plus, the quintessential "Lost World" factor - it's hard
to get into).

In the end, the only reason this region is discovered is because a) oil
exploration (??), or b) National Geographic comes along, does some in-depth
cultural research, and decides to follow up some leads.

Aheh. Just my token currency. :)

And yes, to bring the cryptozoology tone into it, could the rumours of
living dinosaurs be the source of other myths of dragons/Behemoth/whatever,
as has been suggested for the mokele-mbembe? 

I'll shut up about the c-z word now...
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|    Marcus Good aka "Finback"             | "That is not dead       |
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