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The Creatures of Medieval Maps and Bestiaries - Ep 62
1.1k Plays1 year ago
Join us on a journey through the mystical world of medieval maps and bestiaries. We will cover a selection of creatures real and imagined, their portrayal in the medieval period and how they informed people’s perceptions of said creatures.
Transcripts
For rough transcripts of this episode go to https://www.archpodnet.com/animals/62
Links and Sources
- The Hereford Mappa Mundi
- The Medieval Bestiary: Animals in the Middle Ages
- The Worksop Bestiary
- Harvey, PDA (1991) Introducing Medieval Maps. British Library.
- Livingstone, J. (2018) Travel, trade and exploration in the Middle Ages. British Library.
- Morrison, E. (2019) Beastly Tales from the Medieval Bestiary. British Library.
- Nigg, J. (2014) Olaus Magnus' Sea Serpent. The Public Doman Review.
- Waters, H. (2013) The Enchanting Sea Monsters on Medieval Maps. Smithsonian Magazine.
Contact
- Alex FitzpatrickTwitter: @archaeologyfitz
- Simona FalangaTwitter: @CrazyBoneLady
- Alex’s Blog: Animal Archaeology
- Music "Coconut - (dyalla remix)" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2UiKoouqaY
Affiliates
- Motion: https://www.archpodnet.com/motion Motley Fool
- Motley Fool
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Transcript
Introduction to Medieval Maps and Bestiaries
00:00:00
Speaker
You're listening to the Archaeology Podcast Network.
00:00:15
Speaker
This is episode 62, the creatures of medieval maps and DCREs. I'm your host, Alex Fitzpatrick, and with me as always...
00:00:31
Speaker
So today's gonna be a bit different than our usual episodes, so less about animal bones, although I guess there's a lot of episodes we do that aren't really about animal bones, so not that different than some of our other episodes, I guess. That's alright, people come here for the animal bones and they stay for the video games and just miscellaneous animals.
00:00:55
Speaker
Yeah, so today is going to be one of those days, although not about video games.
Religious Beliefs and Natural History in Maps
00:01:00
Speaker
So less about animal bones and remains and more about kind of how animals were viewed and described in the past, which is, you know, obviously still quite important due to its implications for how animals would obviously be treated in the past as well.
00:01:16
Speaker
Yes, and I mean, we have to bear in mind as well that both the maps and beast series that we'll be covering, especially in the medieval period, are useful reflections of an intensely religious world that was also grappling with their understanding of natural history. So it's also interesting to see how these two things come together. Yeah, so you have medieval maps, which were mainly sketches
00:01:42
Speaker
produced for a particular occasion or reason instead of kind of a general reference map. So like what we normally would think of when we think of maps, you know, they were basically single purpose in use. So for example, for maybe a specific navigator or for a scholar that's trying to learn about a foreign land and its customs. So this was especially used for regions of interest at the time, such as the Middle East and
00:02:11
Speaker
Asia. And also the thing with medieval maps is that the east tended to be at the top rather than the north, which Jerusalem depicted as the centre for reasons you can all guess. The importance of the east in this case was sort of twofold, because not only that was where the sun would rise, but it was also where medieval Christian looked for the return of Jesus Christ.
00:02:35
Speaker
And then, of course, you have maybe what other people really think about if we talk about older, more historical maps in this case, which are maps that depict the sea. And these were often illustrated with various sea creatures and monsters, likely reflecting the vast unexplored nature of the oceans at the time. Now, most of these maps were usually
00:03:01
Speaker
just for display by wealthy people with depictions of creatures often informed by stories from otherwise uneducated sailors. Sorry, we can actually carry on our saga of wealthy people showing off their collections because I believe many episodes ago we had one that had accumulated a range of various exotic underlined with inverted commas several times, foul.
00:03:28
Speaker
Oh, yes, of course. Yes, definitely. We're just gonna follow collection. It's less about the accuracy and more about some real
00:03:40
Speaker
collector mentality, I guess. But interestingly, even though we think about sea monsters in these maps that were primarily hoarded and kept and displayed by wealthy people, the sea monsters would actually begin to disappear from maps starting with the 18th century due to better understandings of oceanic navigation. Illustrations were then actually used for more useful things.
00:04:06
Speaker
such as good fishing areas, so there'd be several fish depicted where those places were found, or places of safe passage where you'd usually see a ship that's looking very nice and passing through, so you knew that you weren't going to probably get into a shipwreck if you sail there. It's safe to say that as time goes by, maps become increasingly more utilitarian in function.
Mapamundi and Preservation of Medieval Maps
00:04:30
Speaker
And of course the type of maps that we'll be discussing in this episode in particular are the Mapamundi, which are a specific type of medieval European maps that actually depicted the entire world, hence the name Mapamundi being map of the world, or at least the world through the lens of a medieval European, obviously.
00:04:49
Speaker
which they didn't tend to be just about the geography per se, but they were all portraying information about sort of spirituality and folklore, and often depict the world post great flood. So showcasing the three continents that were founded by Noah's sons in the form of a wheel, which are also known as a T and an O map, as it often depicts a wheel or O shape with a T shape inside of it. Of course, the regions included at the time would have
00:05:16
Speaker
pretty much equated to Europe, Asia, and North Africa. What's interesting is that there were absolutely loads of them up and we still have about 1,100 surviving today. Yeah, it's pretty good. I would have assumed there was a lot less, to be honest. How does paper keep that long?
00:05:32
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, we'll get into it. But when I was kind of doing some of the research for this, I realized a lot of the kind of maps you still have, some of them are kept at one of my old workplaces, the JP Morgan Library Museum. And I do know that it's a really intense conservation lab there.
00:05:53
Speaker
I do believe the time when I was working there we had one of the Gutenberg Bibles, so there's loads of very fragile materials there. So yeah, it would have to probably need a pretty intense...
00:06:07
Speaker
conservation for that. Because paper is a nightmare. So like the fact that they're being preserved now, I can see because we have the knowledge and the science behind it. But how did that piece of paper make it in all of those centuries where conservation techniques weren't exactly a thing?
00:06:26
Speaker
Oh, for sure, yeah. And I mean, I think, unfortunately, I guess some of it probably is because a lot of these things were hoarded by wealthy people that have the resources at the time to, you know, make sure that they weren't as well kept as they could be at the time. Which is probably, I mean, it's kind of why some of these fall into museums, private collections and things like that. But yeah, I mean, it is really impressive how many do survive today.
Bestiaries: Real and Mythical Creatures
00:06:53
Speaker
of course, another sort of what we'll say topic that we'll be covering as the title medieval beast jerry's, which is quite literally it's a it's a book of beasts, which includes various details of animals such as description of their physical appearance, their behavior, their habits. So essentially is an early resource for natural history, a close approximation to time period.
00:07:17
Speaker
depending on the bestiary, yes, the degrees of closeness to actual natural history is variable, we'll say. These also tended to include moral lessons involving said animals. So I guess in a way like the creature was used as a parable almost, as it was believed at the time that all of nature was designed by God to instruct humans on how to live, and therefore each animal had its own lesson to impart on humans.
00:07:44
Speaker
These animals do tend to range from the real to fictional, in order to reflect the diversity of the natural world given to use by God. And the origins can actually be traced even longer before the BCRA, potentially to a second century ancient Greek text called the...
00:08:03
Speaker
Thank you, which described animals, trees, and rocks and interpreted them as a reflection of Christianity. And this was actually built on by Isidor of Seville, who was the Archbishop of Seville during the 11th century with a text called the Etymologies. This would become one of the most popular encyclopedias during the early medieval period and covered over 250 animals and provided ample information regarding the etymology of word,
00:08:33
Speaker
hence the title. Etymologies also established a series of categories that would eventually be used by most B-Series moving forward. So you have your land animals, your birds, your serpents, and your sea creatures. And B-Series from the 12th century onwards would mostly take form of illuminated manuscripts where the text is actually accompanied by elaborate illustrations, which
00:08:56
Speaker
look them up. They are fantastic in either really great ways or just really confusing ways. I think we've actually touched upon bestiaries in the past. I think it's hard not to, especially when you start talking about animals and how animals were perceived when you get to the early medieval period because they did really
00:09:21
Speaker
you know, strengthen, not really strengthen, it's not really the word because a lot of it was wrong, but it did support current ideas of certain animals at the time, especially the quote unquote, exotics that were being shipped in, you know, or seen and reported back by other people.
00:09:40
Speaker
But ultimately, the mundane as well, because what's with the snails? Oh, they love snails. All the fighting snails, snails riding cats, cats riding snails into battle. I mean, I think that's its own thing. Like, there's something behind the snail obsession that I don't know if people have been able to academically reflect upon or critically analyze, but it's everywhere, isn't it? I'll give my own professional hot take.
00:10:09
Speaker
That was just a monk doodling because he got pulled and then he just caught on. You know snails nowadays are pretty like in the in the zone of like I don't know memes like I definitely have seen like a gif of this like snail who gets like a jetpack and like flies away and I've definitely seen like memes with snails so I think there's actually something kind of there. Do you know what I mean?
00:10:39
Speaker
medieval meme. I think there's a modern appreciation of snails and not just by the French.
00:10:46
Speaker
Are you sure it's not just the specific part of the internet that you? What, like snail Twitter? Sorry, snail X. No, it's not. I'm not. I'm not specifically interested in snails. I just know that like snails are like enjoyed, you know, like they're not like dogs and cats, but like, you know, there's
00:11:10
Speaker
I think there's snail memes, okay? I'm just saying. There are snail memes. And all you're talking about is medieval memes, like Simone said. I mean, I've seen snail memes, but out of illuminated manuscript snails. Okay, I will find these snail memes, okay? This will be a challenge I will readily accept, okay? There you go, listeners. Have you got any snail memes? Send them away. We really need them, apparently.
00:11:37
Speaker
I mean, I guess if we want to like actually think it through, you know, snails are just things you would commonly see on things. So maybe you were just like, I don't know, like if I was a monk and I was like, OK, you got to like draw our stuff and, you know, draw what you see. And I was just seeing snails all the time because they are kind of like everywhere, depending on where you are.
00:12:04
Speaker
And it just got really good at drawing it. But the only thing that snails are going to ride into battle against is your cabbage, realistically. Well, I mean, I guess you're right. What if you get bored and you start just imagining things like, I don't know, snail going into battle with a little Lance or something. I get it.
00:12:23
Speaker
There you go. That's my unprofessional hot take. Knock by the board, draw snail, catch us on, becomes a bit of a meme. I guess Memos, something Latin sounding, making it a bit more high medieval. But I mean, yeah, you know, there were these weird ones and obviously we will be covering some of the weird ones in this episode. But there's also
00:12:47
Speaker
There are some that are, you know, actually not that far off. And obviously there is also creatures that we're actually seeing every day. So they're not as ridiculous as some of the, you know, animals from the Afghan continent. So I guess really what a lot of these animals tend to look like is like either a person with four legs or like a variation of a dog or horse. Maybe they were just trolling.
00:13:15
Speaker
like much, much later on, I think we've discussed on the show before, I think the 17th 18th century depiction of cows as just rectangles with legs. That's much later, you're just strolling.
00:13:33
Speaker
I guess, yeah, I mean, we do talk about this a lot on the show of like, you know, we always have these really interesting complex interpretations for things that we find in our ecological record, but there's also always this light chance that sometimes it's just like, someone just thought it was cool, or someone was bored. And you know, there's always a really good chance that happening because you know, think about your own lives and the things you do out of boredom or because you think it's cool.
Humor in Medieval Depictions
00:14:01
Speaker
so yeah so we're having a laugh i'm gonna draw this creature from my imagination see how many people believe it it's one guy who's just really into snails and he's like guess what that's my thing now and it's gonna be everyone else's thing moving forward pretty impressive
00:14:17
Speaker
Anyway, so yeah, these are the sort of creatures that were illustrated in these maps and bestiaries. They range from pretty on point to, as Simona said, rectangles with legs or even stranger and weirder. And again, they also kind of range from the mundane to the fantastical. So what I've done for this episode is we'll go through some
00:14:47
Speaker
examples and we'll talk about some examples of Beast Jaries and maps as well. But I've also added links, Simona, I'm sure you can see that, to different examples of these very interesting creatures. And I thought it might be interesting to just try and explain to the listening audience what we're looking at. Yes, I must admit I have not opened them because I find the surprise is always best.
00:15:15
Speaker
So we'll be hearing, I mean, I've seen them, but it's been a while, so actually I'll be kind of reacting similarly. So we'll hear our first reactions to a lot of these on air. And whether or not we can do this without completely losing our minds, a la Simona finding out that Pokemon come from eggs, I'm not 100% sure, but we shall see. You're also forgetting Simona reacts to Star Wars creatures.
00:15:41
Speaker
Yes, of course. We've really kind of tested the bounds of your sanity on this show. I don't mean to, but it's kind of funny to be honest.
Unique Medieval Maps: Hereford Mappa Mundi
00:15:52
Speaker
And I guess special shout out to the British Library, the aforementioned JP Morgan Library, and the Harrowford Cathedral for making so many medieval texts available online.
00:16:03
Speaker
which is amazing. We'll probably put some links to it in the show notes. Also, the British Library has some really gorgeous animations of some of the illustrations on YouTube. I highly recommend them. It's just really nice that it's really readily available to see online. Thanks for that. Especially as we said, a lot of these texts are extremely fragile, so it's pretty great to see them digitized in some way. On this note.
00:16:31
Speaker
I think we'll prepare ourselves mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually, and we'll take a break. And when we come back, we'll start looking at some weirdos.
00:16:43
Speaker
And we are back with Archaeo Animals, episode 62, and we are talking about the animals and creatures of medieval maps and beasties. And we're going to start with what actually originally inspired this episode, which is the Harford map of Mundi. And, Simona, I feel like you've taken away because you are the person who originally kind of suggested this.
00:17:06
Speaker
Yeah, it's a medieval map of the world, hence Mapamundi. The fact that it's called the Hereford Mapamundi gives it away that it's in Hereford, and it is currently held at Hereford Cathedral, and it dates back to about 1300 AD, and is, as far as we know, the largest medieval map surviving.
00:17:24
Speaker
There was a larger one called the Ebstorf map, which was unfortunately destroyed during Allied bombings during World War II in Hanover, Germany in 1943. The Hereford Mappa Mundi is a TNO map, as we mentioned earlier, you know, circle with a T within, that covers Europe, Asia and North Africa.
00:17:45
Speaker
but also includes a plethora of myths and legends, such as the location of the Golden Fleece and the Cretan Labyrinth, as well as locations which are mentioned in the Bible. So, for example, you have Eden located in an island at the top, which is the east, you remember, and the Tower of Babel. Babel, Babel, Babel. I think, I think it's Babel, because it's Babel Fish in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
00:18:13
Speaker
Yeah, that's what I would have assumed. I request assistance from native speakers. Well, I think you've picked the wrong two speakers here. Yeah. I think Babel depends, like, if you went to somewhere posh, like, oh, yes, that's the Tower of Babel. Yes, it's New Islington in London. That was my best posh English accent. It was very good.
00:18:41
Speaker
Just wait till you hear my New Jersey one and I'm going to mute. Yeah, for the best. He's abruptly disappeared. Good. All right, so are you ready, Simona, for our first depiction of an animal? Are we ready to look at this? Yes, because also, by the way, aside from all these weird and wonderful things, it also includes animals. So the first one we'll be looking at is the camel. Really?
00:19:07
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it's not as spectacular as some of the other ones. It looks like a border collie that's not doing very well. It is a bit of, like I said, a lot of these depictions tend to either be horses or dogs or a combination of two and I feel like this one's, yeah. It feels like much of the beastiary animals, like the author sort of would be asked before they took on the job, it's like, oh, so how many camels have you seen? Yes.
00:19:36
Speaker
It's one of those things though where you're kind of just like...
00:19:39
Speaker
When you look at it, you kind of see that someone was clearly describing it as, okay, it has humps, it's got four legs, and then that's probably the extent of it. It's got hoops. The chicken would be a major red flag for a border collie. I can assume someone being like, okay, so I saw this animal, we call it a camel now, it's got these little lumpy things on its back, it's got four legs, it's got these little ears, and it's like a horse.
00:20:07
Speaker
So I can kind of see where, I can see where his vision was going in this. And, you know, we're going with Bactrian Cabell, because he's got the two humps. Which is interesting, to be honest, that you could at least identify it to that. Yeah, everything else is confused. Yeah, there is.
00:20:30
Speaker
It's very, it's got a dog head. Yeah. Yeah. That's a dog. That's just a dog, isn't it? But yeah, it is actually in the text. I don't know if you can kind of see it in the red ink above it. It does say bactria and the text. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. Good. Factria Camelot. Camelot. Yeah. Camelot. So it has, has something. I have the actual translation.
00:21:00
Speaker
Well, to be fair, it's also really hard to read. Luckily, if you go on mapamundi.co.uk and you look at the interactive map, they do provide text to kind of help out. It is actually really hard to read, but I am also cheating. Sorry to everyone, particularly my Latin professor.
00:21:19
Speaker
I mean, to be fair, like paleography, it's its own discipline and for very good reason. So yeah, the text accompanying this illustration does actually help identify it as a bactria and camel. And it says that bactria in particular are very strong and never wear out their feet. Because medieval camels in general were also viewed as long living creatures that could live for hundreds of years.
00:21:45
Speaker
unless they're exported to a foreign land because the air will make them ill and they'll die, which, to be fair, checks out. You take a camel and you take them to Britain, where it's very wet and much colder. They're not going to have a brilliant time. I mean, you could take an Alex to Britain when I first moved here, and I was so ill for two weeks, it was horrible.
00:22:09
Speaker
I was going to make that joke and I refrained and then but you did for me so it's great. I did because it's real and it happened and I was really sick and my skin was the worst it's ever been when I first smoked deer. It was horrible. Do not recommend. I could have lived for hundreds of years but then I moved abroad. Yeah, yeah.
00:22:30
Speaker
I mean the anxiety alone, let's be real. But yeah, so we should also say that not only are the illustrations a bit wrong, but so are some of the beliefs about these animals. So the other things that medieval camels were believed to be able to do is they were
00:22:50
Speaker
To be fair, this one's actually kind of accurate. They were noted for being able to go for at least three days without water. I actually don't know what the specifics of that are for camels, but it's not... I'm not sure, actually. But it's about right, you know? They are able to hold water in their humps, so that's fine. And they were known to have an appetite specifically for muddy water and would make clear water dirty with their feet. I actually don't know enough about camels to refute that.
00:23:16
Speaker
I mean, I can tell you that the last one is incredibly true as it is for every species on the planet. You step in a river, a riverbed's made of silt. What your leg's gonna do? Kick out the silt, you think? Yes? Yeah. Yeah, that's fair. So, anyway. Very accurate. Should we get to our next one? Oh boy. So this is the Lynx? Sure.
00:23:49
Speaker
Simona, would you like to explain what it looks like? Okay, so I can see the bottom half looking keyline-like. I would have gone for Lion over Lynx, but, you know, like, okay, that checks out the tail is kind of lion-y. I mean, Lynx's do tend to be bobtailed for the most part, but that's fine. The head looks like a bat.
00:24:14
Speaker
Do you see anything in particular that may be a bit weird about the head? I mean, the eyes are huge, but I get that. The eyes are huge, yes. They use the eyesight a lot. The nose is doing things as well. I'm not too sure what's going on with the nose. I mean, the best way I can explain it is that it looks like Gonzo from The Muppets a little bit. But also like the teeth, because it looks like, you know, when someone
00:24:39
Speaker
I don't know what a child is trying to draw like, you know, a human face of someone smiling and they'll just like do the mouth and the opening and then just put a line in the middle with lots of vertical lines and that's your teeth. Yeah, it's just that. So some explanation, they got massive eyes because links is linked links is were known for their keen eyesight. And the accompanying text actually says that they could see through walls. However, links were also believed to forget what they have seen immediately once it looks away.
00:25:09
Speaker
Now the other thing, which we haven't mentioned because it's not that
00:25:14
Speaker
noticeable, but the text in this manuscript also says that lynxes can urinate black stones, which is depicted helpfully under the links that we're looking at right now. You see that little black circle? Yeah. So in general, medieval lynxes were believed to be able to urinate precious stones, although it is sometimes described as flame-colored in other texts. So they would hide their urine with sand in order to hide these stones.
00:25:41
Speaker
To be fair, like, I can see why they would have thought that because, you know, some of your box standard domestic cats sort of dig it up and covering up their things in the litter tray.
00:25:51
Speaker
So I get that. Precious stones. I mean, I guess the idea is that people never really got close enough to see what they were actually kicking up. And obviously they would just find pee. So, you know, I also would like to see, I would like to know how they tested the hypothesis that they can see through walls that they're randomly just Nick one from the wild, bring it to a castle and then just someone stood on the other side of the wall.
00:26:20
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I'm not sure the kind of scientific rigor that these kind of images went through, to be honest. The other thing, and it's hard to tell from this image, but apparently a lot of other medieval links were always depicted as very wolf-like, except they often had spots on their backs. I don't know what that means.
00:26:37
Speaker
I guess that checks out for Lynx's, because a few of them sort of like, they're coat colour, they do have sort of spotty. But no, I do apologise, they're like, it's starting to turn very quickly into like, Simona, this is medieval bistro. It's all out of love.
Sea Creatures and Allegories in Maps
00:26:55
Speaker
I do truly love these maps and bistro, it's just like, what? It's all for comedic effect, it's jest.
00:27:03
Speaker
Yeah, so we'll go from this map to kind of the other maps we just talked about, which are the ones that actually kind of deal with the sea. So they obviously illustrate sea creatures. So we want to go to serpents. This is the one we're looking at right now is from the Carta Marina, and it depicts a serpent called the Sea Orm or the Great Norway Serpent.
00:27:32
Speaker
Okay. I mean, nice to meet you. You're a big boy. That's a worm. It's a worm with a whole quite like a dog head, right?
00:27:43
Speaker
Yeah, it does look quite wolf-like, because almost I guess some of the scales right next to the mouth would almost look like they're drawing first or in the neck fluff in a wolf. I mean, yeah, like I said, I think you can really kind of make a category of medieval depictions that just kind of look like they put a dog or wolf
00:28:05
Speaker
head on something? Not animal related at all but i'm focusing to like i don't know something to the northeast oh no i guess no that wouldn't be the northeast because east is at the top oh but oh no right to the southeast there's an echesta horrendous just just something awful there and i want to know what it is echesta horrendous
00:28:31
Speaker
Karibdis. I mean, that's a big fish. That's like a little, that's a weird looking fish. It's horrendous. Okay, back to back to Orma. Yeah, he's a warm red boy. He is a warm red boy. Probably the most common sea monster found on medieval maps.
00:28:51
Speaker
And the sea serpents such as the sea orm were reportedly encountered by sailors whose descriptions would inform these illustrations. Now, I did say this was just a worm with a dog head, but they were actually often described as worm-like and hundreds of feet in length and able to wrap themselves around ships to destroy them. And unlike land serpents, sea serpents had really hard, rough heads with no feet or fins. So they were literally just worms in the water.
00:29:21
Speaker
as you do. Snakes don't have feet or fins. No question. I mean, they don't. But like, I don't know. I guess you would, some sea serpents, I feel like, in other contexts will have like little fin things. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Anyway, we'll get to something else that's not worm-like, kind of, which are sirens. And this one's from the Theatrum orbis terarum.
00:29:51
Speaker
I did it. I'm proud of you. And I mean, this is, yeah, they're naked.
00:29:59
Speaker
Oh no. Yeah. So real listeners at home, the sirens we're looking at, they've kind of, I guess they've put the tail kind of in a place where, I mean, it's in the right place. But no, cause, but normally like in, I guess at least contemporary depictions of sirens, it tends to be just, just below the belly button. Yeah. But this we can see a butt. So. Oh no. Yeah.
00:30:27
Speaker
medieval sirens but scandalous. Now they're originally depicted as half woman half bird but later on mainly depicted as half woman half fish although some depictions actually kind of split the difference and combine the two with bird feet and fish tails. As many of you might know sirens were in folklore were seen as dangerous for sailors as they charmed them with their singing and then they murdered them.
00:30:56
Speaker
Which is fun. Big mood, I guess. Some other folklore include that signs only sing during storms and weep when the skies are clear, which is also a big mood. And another says that a sailor can escape a sign by throwing an empty bottle which will distract them as they will play with it. Also big mood.
00:31:20
Speaker
Other big moods, you see that sirens are all of the moods, they are sometimes depicted with mirrors to illustrate their vanity. Yes, you love yourself siren, you do you. So overall this was of course in the context of the time viewed as an allegory for selling one's soul to the devil for worldly pleasures.
00:31:38
Speaker
Of course. Now I think we're going to go to potentially the most hotly anticipated one within like our podcast group chat. Let's talk about the seapig, Simona. Yes. Let's, as depicted, the carta merida. Oh, look at the seapig. I'm expecting a lot of fan art. No. No.
00:32:04
Speaker
Okay, Simona, what does it look like? What does it look like, Simona? What kind of bowl? So I guess they're kind of half-fried. Why has it got eyes on the side? You know what? I didn't even notice that the first time I put this on the show notes. And now I'm like, oh, how did I miss them? Okay. So.
00:32:23
Speaker
for reference everyone because not not everyone would have heard of the seapig but a seapig is actually a small creature that lives deep down in the seafloor okay it doesn't look much like an actual pig how do you describe a seapig it's not what the seapig looks like on the map i mean it's quite pink i guess not unlike sort of our you sort of picture a pig
00:32:54
Speaker
This might have broke your brain. The sea pig is a small creature that is found at the bottom, deep down on the sea floor. It has in common with the pig, it's just that it's pink in colour like you would normally picture.
00:33:17
Speaker
domestic pigs like commercial farmed pigs to look like. Look it up. I just I can't describe it. But what we're looking at here in this medieval map is a bonafide pig or boar, I guess, with a vicious body that's got eyes on it.
00:33:39
Speaker
but also webbed feet. So yeah, sea pig. It's probably related to what is now called the deep water sea cucumber. It's called the plavis species. But its name and depiction likely is based on Pliny the Elder, our fave. His theory that every land animal had an aquatic equivalent. So, sea pig.
00:34:02
Speaker
And obviously uses an allegory, of course it is, for Deceitful Heretics who lived as swine, and apparently they look like that. So I think we'll go to a break while Simona's getting over this. I didn't realize how much psychic damage this would do. And we'll get back to you when we've calmed down.
00:34:22
Speaker
And we're back with archaeo animals. This is episode 62, the creatures of medieval maps and bestiaries. And right before we hit up the bestiaries, we will take a look at one last sea creature, the ichthyocentaur. Yes.
00:34:39
Speaker
Yeah. He's living his best life. I mean, dude's rock, you know? There's a lot going on that, again, I didn't notice the first time. I just noticed now he's got chicken claws or something at the front. Yes, I guess he's got two sets of arms. He's got his human arms. And then when the animal body starts from the waist down, he's also got some talons. And then the rest of him is sea serpent-like, but he's got a wonderful garland.
00:35:05
Speaker
of nice greenery on his head and he's playing a viola or something. For reference, this is depicted in the Theatrum Orbisterarum map, which is near Scandinavia.
00:35:17
Speaker
and yes he is playing a viol 16th century string instrument. So as we kind of implied ichthyocentres and I guess as the name implies they were hybrid creatures consisting of the upper half of a human the lower half of a horse which to be fair I don't think the example we're looking at really
00:35:36
Speaker
It's not really a horse, it's kind of like a, like I said, it's like a chicken or something, and a fishtail. And they were also considered tritons or mermen in ancient Greek and Roman mythologies. And it's in the name because I mean, it's a center of the sea.
00:35:52
Speaker
Yeah, I guess so. And as map indicators, the Ixio Centaur was viewed as a peaceful creature and potentially indicated places of safe passage. As we said, it just looks like a chill dude, which is, I guess, nice in comparison to some of the other ones that we will be looking at as we move on.
00:36:11
Speaker
to some of the valiant, if not completely ridiculous attempts at depicting animals within medieval BCRs, although we won't be going too far away from the sea because our first one is a whale. And I mean... It's a fish. It's a fish. It's a big fish. And I mean, if you explain what a whale is to someone, I guess you would just be like, oh, it's a big fish, right? Although I'm more interested in this figurehead on the ship.
00:36:39
Speaker
I don't know what that is. It doesn't look that the similar sort of for the figureheads that you see sort of in, I guess, popular culture depictions of sort of like Scandinavian ships. Yeah, yeah, true. It's just, I don't know, it's kind of funny the way it looks like.
00:36:56
Speaker
But the depiction of a whale we're looking at actually depicts what was apparently the very common occurrence of sailors mistaking a whale, a belua here specifically, for an island and trying to make camp on its back before getting thrown off after making a fire. Ain't that just something we can all relate to, folks? I'll be on Tuesdays.
00:37:19
Speaker
Yeah, this was unsurprisingly an allegory for the devil deceiving people. And let's be real, you for most of these, you can kind of assume they're all allegories for the devil deceiving people. So like, they've got this camp set up. So they've got the ship, they're sort of not parked, docked on the way. Yeah, they also they got a fire going with what seems like it was probably going to be a lovely stew. Yes. But what's the right of them if they put some flowers down or something just give it a dash of color?
00:37:49
Speaker
I was trying to think and I'm thinking either it's kind of like just like sea flora that would be on there or even just maybe like a weird depiction of barnacles or when I first looked at it I was like oh is that supposed to be like the water coming out of its blowhole. But in two different places? I mean it's also a big fish and they're saying it's a whale so you know we're not really going for accuracy are we?
00:38:16
Speaker
To be fair, that's the case for most of medieval peace series. I mean, you find out whales are mostly just big fish. Also, just notice, it's got a mouthful of fish as well. Yeah, just having this dinner and then you know, like, don't you hate it when you're trying to have your dinner and someone just docks their ship on you and tries to set up camp and cook a stew in your back.
00:38:38
Speaker
Oh, actually, I can answer that question you had about what those things were with my next note that I meant to say, which is that, you know, whales were just big fish to offer to medieval bestiaries, and they were believed to be able to emit a sweet odor to attract fish for eating. So that's what you're looking at. It's supposed to be showing the odor coming off of the whale. I see.
00:38:59
Speaker
They weren't so ridiculous after all, huh? Ah, they got me. Yeah, let's see how smart they are when we go to dragons and, I guess, technically elephants. Right, which I guess is as good an excuse as any to talk about this incredible illustration. It's one of the best. It's so good. So it's a dragon fighting an elephant as they are on Thursdays. Yes. It's so good, right? Like, it's so good.
00:39:30
Speaker
I don't know what's the best part. The position they're in, the face that the elephant's making of just like, gosh, not again.
00:39:40
Speaker
Everything about it is perfect. I kind of want to get this tattooed on me. It's so funny. It just like, it seems like one of those, like, this sounded better in my head. Yeah. So basically this depiction is showing how one of the only things that could conceivably take on a dragon was an elephant. Apparently dragons would ambush an elephant by attacking their legs and suffocating them. And the elephant is just not having it. It's got the most despondent look on his face.
00:40:11
Speaker
It's just, I am that elephant. Oh, we all are the elephants. They're like, just why? Dude, why? Dude, stop. So dragons are often depicted as basically giant serpents with legs and wings. And again, unsurprisingly, could sometimes be an allegory for the tableau.
00:40:34
Speaker
Strangely enough, they would actually rarely be shown breathing fire.
Symbolism and Humor in Bestiaries
00:40:41
Speaker
And elephants were unsurprisingly drawn likely based on word of mouth, so emphasis was placed on the big ears, the long trunk and the huge tusks, which I mean
00:40:54
Speaker
Yeah, that makes an elephant, I guess, the main parts of an elephant. It would be fair as far as elephants go, you know, compared to like the camel that we were looking at earlier. This is pretty realistic. Immigrant are the things. Yeah, I mean, there's some other beliefs about elephants that weren't as, you know, entirely realistic. So elephants were believed to have no knee joints. So medieval people believe that if you made an elephant fall down, it would not be able to get up.
00:41:22
Speaker
Also, their skin and their bones could be burned to drive away serpents and they could live for up to 300 years. Unless they go to a foreign land. Yeah, of course, of course. But that is...
00:41:37
Speaker
is what people believed. Well, find another enemy of the dragon, the very non-blossed elephant, we also have the panther, which in this depiction is leaving its cave after three days specifically and emitting a sweet-smelling odour, which seems to be a trend here, while roaring and causing a dragon to hide deep in the earth. Yes,
00:42:04
Speaker
Are those shoots coming out of its mouth the raw or the odor? I think it's the odor. I think it could be two things, actually. The dragon's done. It's just done. Do you see the blue one that's right to the right of that's me? It's just got a stripped human face. Some have got dog faces. The one right at the top, I could buy that as feline. It could buy a sort of tiger-like.
00:42:34
Speaker
And then yeah, it's a dog and then it's a person with their ears. So panthers were actually seen as gentle creatures that would immediately hibernate in a cave for three days after eating. Afterwards they would leave the cave, roar out this very sweet smell which attracts the other animals except for dragons which are obviously scared of panthers, duh.
00:42:58
Speaker
boy would you know that this is an allegory for Jesus Christ who is able to repel the dragon aka the devil and draw all animals and humans to him and he also went into a cave for a bit before returning to the world ah so yeah logic it's the three days specifically yeah no the logic's there okay yeah yeah i mean i've heard worse logic it kind of makes sense
00:43:27
Speaker
Well, the next one is, you know, I feel like we can't really talk about B series, particularly medieval B series, we're not talking about a unicorn. And the image we're looking at depicts a virgin tricking a unicorn into laying its head on her lap so that the nearby hunter can kill it.
00:43:48
Speaker
Which is, I mean, it's also an allegory for the vulnerability of Jesus while Mary was still pregnant with him. How? Obviously. Obviously. It looks like it's small hippo. You know what? It does look like a hippo. Like a tapir thing. It's, yeah, it's, okay, so folks, it's not really a horse we're looking at with a horn. It's more like
00:44:15
Speaker
Yeah, it's like a tape here or something with a horn again. So, you know, that point is accurate, but it's not very majestic looking. Like I kind of don't blame the hunter for wanting to get that thing. It's not nice to look at actually. To be fair, they would also get them because their horns were prized for the power to purify water.
00:44:43
Speaker
And also, you know, they were actually considered, although we, you know, today we consider your unicorns to be beautiful, pure fantasy creatures. Medieval times they're actually known to be incredibly dangerous animals, so the reason why this image we're looking at depicts a
00:45:02
Speaker
virgin tricking the unicorn, so that a nearby hunter can kill it, is because that's what a lot of bistriaries utilize unicorns for, to kind of describe the clever ways in which you could slay them. Again, usually involving a virgin woman because they they just attract unicorns, obviously. Aww, okay. But despite being vicious creatures, unicorns were also used as an allegory for Jesus Christ. Which is very weird.
00:45:30
Speaker
Isn't it? Yes. Yeah, we're not going to get into a theological debate, but it just seems like an odd thing. And the other thing is that in BCRs, they were either horse-like, like we would imagine unicorns today, or they were more goat-like. And let's be honest, neither of those things are depicted in the image we're looking at. That's not a goat.
00:45:51
Speaker
No. No, I don't know what that is. Like a tapia type thing, hippo. Yeah. Well, we'll move on to something a bit more normal and definitely very accurate, which is a crocodile. Now, Simone, I want you to look at these images and try to figure out which one's the crocodile. Okay, I want to know what's the one on the right because I'm pretty sure that's not it.
00:46:18
Speaker
I think the one that's eating something, that's basically a dog with talons and a weird sort of spiny back and tail. I think that might be our crocodile, the red things.
00:46:34
Speaker
Yes, so actually, so the thing on the right is actually a Hydra. The thing on the left is indeed a crocodile, even though it looks like a red dog. So it's actually eating a Hydra's winged snake, which is, as you might be able to see, is actually escaping out of its belly. So there's a lot going on.
00:46:54
Speaker
It was very worm-like with wings. And then the depiction of the panther scaring away the dragon, it looks very much like a worm with wings. So was that also a Hydra? Or was it a dragon masquerading as a Hydra? I mean, I think consistency isn't really
00:47:14
Speaker
The most pressing thing. Remember the camels masquerading as elephants. This is true, yes. I guess there is precedence for this, so you're right. I apologise. For those who are not aware, the camels masquerading as elephants is in our previous episode on animals in warfare. You'll have a great time. Check it out.
00:47:35
Speaker
So the depictions of crocodiles were so wildly inconsistent to the point that the only consistent thing about them was that they would depict the crocodile having four legs. For some reason, they were almost always either shown as either a dog or a lion, and sometimes the head would be upside down.
00:47:59
Speaker
mean you can get that because so like it was known as being the only animal that can move the upper part of his jaw while keeping the lower part still so that might be why his head was depicted upside down yeah it was also known for his hard outer skin which is not exactly portrayed in this particular example but you know
00:48:19
Speaker
Yeah, which could repel rocks. And it was also, as you said, it was, you know, the only animal that could move the upper part of its jaw while keeping the lower part still. So there was some accuracy. There, I guess, of course, what may not be as accurate is the idea that only two animals could kill a crocodile, a sawfish, also known as a sera.
00:48:43
Speaker
and a hydrus because both of them could kill it from the inside. Do you think they also release a sweet-smelling odor? I mean, here's the thing though, maybe, but the crocodile's dung was known to be a beauty enhancer, so, you know. And the other thing about crocodiles that everyone knew in the medieval period was that it always cried after killing a human being. Well, like, do you have the expression crocodile tears? Yes.
00:49:13
Speaker
Okay, so I guess something like that, that's where it might come from, crocodile tears? I guess, yeah. So, yeah. Anyway, as we reach the end of the episode, I do want to end on, you know, a very familiar creature to all of us that we all know about, and is probably very accurately depicted in this Beast Jerry, which is the Bonacom.
00:49:37
Speaker
So, Simona, what you're looking at is a Bonnecon spraying poop on some soldiers. It's very straightforward. I mean, it's a good defense mechanism. You're going to confuse the heck out of them, and that will give you your opening to run away. It's a sound tactic. If it wasn't for the fact that it already put a spear through its neck,
00:50:04
Speaker
Yeah, it's a bit last minute, isn't it? But, you know, it almost got away with it.
00:50:09
Speaker
Yeah. So it's a mythical creature, also known as the bonasos, or the bonacho, taken from the Greek bonasos, which means bison. Unsurprisingly, it's often depicted as a bull or bison-like creature with the horse's mane. Now, its curled horns make it incredibly vulnerable to attack, so its defense mechanism is to poop on its enemies. And when I say poop, I mean, it's a huge fecal spray of about three acres that causes burns. Again, big mood.
00:50:40
Speaker
That's it, sound defense tactic. You will confuse the enemy and that gives you the opening that you need to either counter attack or run away. Yeah, real left-hose intolerance mood there.
00:50:55
Speaker
I guess oversharing is a good place to stop this episode, huh? Possibly. So as always, you can find us online at the Archaeology Podcast Network website, or wherever you get your podcasts. We're on, it's not Twitter anymore, it's called X, so you can find us there at Archaeo Animals for as long as that website exists. Let us know about any other episodes.
00:51:19
Speaker
Tell your friends about us, subscribe, like, all the other fun stuff. I'm gonna think about my life choices after that one. Anything else you want to do, Simona? Just... Just go reflect on the seapig. Yeah, I do like that seapig. See you next time, folks! Bye! Bye! Thank you for listening to Orkyo Animals.
00:51:45
Speaker
Please subscribe and rate the podcast wherever you get your podcasts from. You can find us on Twitter at rqanimals. Also, the views expressed on the podcast are those of ourselves, the hosts and guests, and do not necessarily represent those of our institutions, employers and the Opioid Podcast Network. Thanks for listening.
00:52:08
Speaker
This episode was produced by Chris Webster from his RV traveling the United States, Tristan Boyle in Scotland, DigTech LLC, Culturo Media, and the Archaeology Podcast Network, and was edited by Rachel Rodin. This has been a presentation of the Archaeology Podcast Network. Visit us on the web for show notes and other podcasts at www.archpodnet.com. Contact us at chris at archaeologypodcastnetwork.com.