Geomythology (also called “legends of the earth," "landscape mythology," “myths of observation,” “natural knowledge") is the study of oral and written traditions created
by pre-scientific cultures to account for, often in poetic or mythological imagery,
geological
Geology (). is a branch of natural science concerned with the Earth and other astronomical objects, the rocks of which they are composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Earth s ...
events and phenomena such as earthquakes, volcanoes, floods, tsunamis, land formation, fossils, and natural features of the landscape.
Dorothy Vitaliano, a geologist at
Indiana University
Indiana University (IU) is a state university system, system of Public university, public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. The system has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration o ...
, coined the term in 1968.
[
]
:"Geomythology indicates every case in which the origin of
myths
Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...
and
legend
A legend is a genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human values, and possess certain qualities that give the ...
s can be shown to contain references to geological phenomena and aspects, in a broad sense including astronomical ones (comets, eclipses, meteor impacts, etc.). As indicated by Vitaliano (1973) 'primarily, there are two kinds of geologic
folklore
Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, myths, legends, proverbs, Poetry, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also ...
, that in which some geologic feature or the occurrence of some geologic phenomenon has inspired a folklore explanation, and that which is the garbled explanation of some actual geologic event, usually a natural catastrophe'."
Oral traditions about nature are often expressed in mythological language and may contain genuine and perceptive natural knowledge based on careful observation of physical evidence over generations. In some instances, geomyths can provide valuable information about past
earthquake
An earthquakealso called a quake, tremor, or tembloris the shaking of the Earth's surface resulting from a sudden release of energy in the lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from those so weak they ...
s,
tsunami
A tsunami ( ; from , ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and underwater explosions (including detonations, ...
s,
flood
A flood is an overflow of water (list of non-water floods, or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are of significant con ...
s,
impact event
An impact event is a collision between astronomical objects causing measurable effects. Impact events have been found to regularly occur in planetary systems, though the most frequent involve asteroids, comets or meteoroids and have minimal effe ...
s,
fossil
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...
discoveries, and other events.
Geomyths include folk explanations of conspicuous geological features, and sometimes garbled or metaphorical descriptions of catastrophic geological events that were witnessed in antiquity. In the case of massive geomorphic events in the pre-human past, such as mountain formation, observations and imagination combined in mythic explanations that were handed down orally over millennia. In the case of natural catastrophes within living human memory, descriptions were handed down over generations. Both types of geomyth often include supernatural details. Because the descriptive narratives were expressed in mythological language, scientists and historians have not been aware of the real events and rational concepts embedded in geomythological stories. One type of geomyth includes tales arising from imagination or popular misconceptions, for example, beings magically transformed into stone to account for landforms. As more studies are done in geomythology, however, scientists and historians are finding accurate insights about geological processes. And datable events such as tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions have been found to be recorded by eyewitness accounts, some from thousands of years ago.
Some myths transmitted real information about real events and observations, preserving geological data over millennia within non-literate cultures. A well-documented example of a datable geological event recorded in myth is the creation of Crater Lake in Oregon when Mount Mazama collapsed. Geologists’ scientific interpretation of how the volcanic cataclysm long ago resulted in Crater Lake, is echoed point for point in a local myth of its origin, told by members of the Klamath Indian tribe who saw it happen almost 8,000 years ago.
In August 2004 the 32nd International Geological Congress held a session on "Myth and Geology", which resulted in the first peer-reviewed collection of papers on the subject (2007).
Examples
Fimbulwinter
The Norse mythological tale of the unending winter - the
Fimbulwinter - has been posited to be an example of geomythology. Here the Fimbulwinter is seen as a Viking folk memory of a much earlier time when an eruption in South America at
Lake Ilopango caused a long winter throughout the world. The eruption spewed eighty-seven cubic kilometres of ejecta into the atmosphere, blocking out the sunlight. Trees withered for lack of sun and crops failed. In Scandinavia, a region already low on agricultural land, many people starved to death: as many as half the population of Scandinavia died during the long winter, according to one estimate, and the effects went on for at least three years. Archaeologist
Neil Price has argued that the Fimbulwinter myth is likely a folk memory of this time, although he is careful to point out that "Geomythology is by its very nature an inexact concept: inherently unproveable, prone to confirmation bias, and hampered by a lack of precise dating in both textual and archaeological sources." Price gives several examples as to why the Fimbulwinter myth is an example of geomythology. One example is from Snorri's poem the ''
Poetic Edda
The ''Poetic Edda'' is the modern name for an untitled collection of Old Norse anonymous narrative poems in alliterative verse. It is distinct from the closely related ''Prose Edda'', although both works are seminal to the study of Old Norse ...
'':
First of all that a winter will come called Fimbulwinter.
Then snow will drift from all directions.
There will then be great frosts and keen winds.
The sun will do no good.
There will be three of these winters together
and no summer in between.
"The description of this terrible distortion of the seasons," writes Price, "is remarkably similar to the cycle scientists postulate for the immediate effects of the eruptions."
South African Horned Serpent
A horned serpent cave art is known from the La Belle France cave in
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
, often conflated with the
Dingonek. It may be based on
dicynodont fossils.
[Benoit J (2024) A possible later stone age painting of a dicynodont (Synapsida) from the South African Karoo. PLoS ONE 19(9): e0309908. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0309908]
American West Coast
According to J. G Swan (1868), the
Makah American Indian people, who occupied the tip of the
Olympic Peninsula in Washington State, USA, have an old story of a deluge. A long time ago, but not at a very remote period, Swan was informed, a rise of water flowed over fields and meadows, making an island of
Cape Flattery. The waters receded over a four-day period, leaving
Neah Bay dry. The waters then returned, and are said to have submerged the entire area, killing many and the rest escaping in canoes, and receding to its normal level in four days.
The Lowland Hundred (Cantre'r Gwaelod)
A mythological ancient sunken kingdom that, according to oral tradition, existed between
Ramsey Island and
Bardsey Island in what is now
Cardigan Bay
Cardigan Bay () is a large inlet of the Irish Sea, indenting the west coast of Wales between Bardsey Island, Gwynedd in the north, and Strumble Head, Pembrokeshire at its southern end. It is the largest bay in Wales.
Geography
Cardigan Bay ha ...
to the west of
Wales
Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...
. Further research revealed that this tract of land was indeed inhabited, with there being a submerged forest and evidence of ancient settlements present.
See also
*
Landscape mythology
*
Euhemerus
References
Bibliography
*
Further reading
* Burbery T. (2021). ''Geomythology: How Common Stories Reflect Earth Events''. Routledge.
* Hamacher, D.W. (2014)
Geomythology and Cosmic Impacts in Australia ''West Australian Geologist'', No. 505, pp. 11–14.
* Hamacher, D.W. and Goldsmith, J. (2013)
Aboriginal oral traditions of Australian impact craters{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180820103004/http://www.narit.or.th/en/files/2013JAHHvol16/2013JAHH...16..295H.pdf , date=2018-08-20 . ''Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage'', Vol. 16(3), pp. 295–311.
* Hamacher, D.W. and Norris, R.P., (2009)
Australian Aboriginal Geomythology: eyewitness accounts of cosmic impacts?''Archaeoastronomy'', Vol. 22, pp. 60–93.
* Mayor, A., (2011). ''The First Fossil Hunters: Dinosaurs, Mammoths, and Myth in Greek and Roman Times.'' Princeton University Press.
* Mayor, A. (2005). ''Fossil Legends of the First Americans.'' Princeton University Press.
* Piccardi, L. (2000). ''Active faulting at Delphi: seismotectonic remarks and a hypothesis for the geological environment of a myth''. ''Geology'', Vol. 28 (7), pp. 651–654. doi:10.1130/0091-7613(2000)28<651:AFADGS>2.0.CO;2
* Piccardi, L. (2001). ''Fault-related sanctuaries''. ''EOS Transactions'', American Geophysical Union, 52 (47), U52B-03. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/234424583_Fault-Related_Sanctuaries
* Piccardi, L. (2005). ''Paleoseismic evidence of legendary earthquakes: the apparition of Archangel Michael at Monte Sant’Angelo (Italy)''. ''Tectonophysics'', Vol. 408, pp. 113–128. doi:10.1016/j.tecto.2005.05.041
* Piccardi, L. (2005). ''The head of the Hydra of Lerna (Greece)''. ''Archaeopress, British Archaeological Reports, International Series'', Vol. 1337/2005, pp. 179–186.
* Piccardi, L. (2007). ''The AD 60 Denizli Basin earthquake and the apparition of Archangel Michael at Colossae (Aegean Turkey)''. in Piccardi, L. and Masse, W.B. (eds) (2007). ''Myth and Geology''. Geological Society, London, Special Publications No. 273, pp. 95–105. doi:10.1144/GSL.SP.2007.273.01.08
* Piccardi, L., Monti, C., Vaselli, O., Tassi, F., Gaki-Papanastassiou, K., Papanastassiou, D. (2008). ''Scent of a myth: tectonics, geochemistry and geomythology at Delphi (Greece)''. ''Journal of the Geological Society, London'', Vol. 165, pp. 5–18. doi:10.1144/0016-76492007-055
* Piccardi, L. (2014). ''Post-glacial activity and earthquakes of the Great Glen Fault (Scotland)''. ''Memorie Descrittive della Carta Geologica d’Italia'', vol. XCVI, pp. 432–446. https://www.isprambiente.gov.it/it/pubblicazioni/periodici-tecnici/memorie-descrittive-della-carta-geologica-ditalia/memdes_96_piccardi2.pdf
* Stewart, I.S., Piccardi, L. (2017). ''Seismic faults and sacred sanctuaries in Aegean antiquity''. ''Proceedings of the Geologists Association'', vol. 128, pp. 711–721. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/151192491.pdf
* Vitaliano, D. B. (1968). Geomythology. ''Journal of the Folklore Institute'', Vol. 5, No. 1 (June 1968), p. 11.
* Vitaliano, D. B. (2007). “Geomythology: Geological Origins of Myths and Legends”. In: ''Myth and Geology''. Piccardi, L., Masse, W. B (ed). GSL, Special Publications. 273: 1–7.
History of Earth science
Geomyths