Big Meg: The Story of the Largest and Most Mysterious Predator That Ever Lived by Flannery Tim

Author:Flannery, Tim [Flannery, Tim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science, History
ISBN: 9780802162588
Amazon: 0802162584
Goodreads: 175749528
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
Published: 2023-08-01T07:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 7

The Sweating Teeth of Malta

Fossilised teeth of the megalodon seem to have piqued the interest of the ancient Roman philosopher and natural historian Pliny the Elder, who perished during the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE. In his Naturalis Historia, which was one of the first scientific encyclopaedias, he speculated that the fossils may have arrived from the heavens as meteorites, and that they had made their way down to Earth during a lunar eclipse. These beliefs circulated in Europe right up until the 17th Century, by which time fossil shark teeth had become the focus of an extraordinary array of beliefs and practices.

Fossil shark teeth are known in Latin as Glossopetrae, tongue stones. They were long thought to have magical properties, and between the 13th and 16th Centuries fossils from Malta played a crucial, protective role for some European nobility. The island of Malta is made almost entirely of Miocene limestones and innumerable fossil shark teeth have been found there. Legend had it that they originated when Saint Paul was shipwrecked on the island in 60 CE. Upon landing, so the story goes, the saint was bitten by a viper, and in revenge cursed all of the serpents on the island, punishing them by turning their tongues into stone: fossil shark teeth.

For centuries prodigious numbers of fossil shark teeth were exported from Malta. The 17th Century Danish bishop, anatomist and geologist Nicolas Steno was bewildered that such a small island could produce so many fossil teeth, noting that ‘no ship goes thither that does not carry some of them’. The export trade continued for a hundred years or so after Steno’s observation, but today the export of fossil shark teeth from Malta is forbidden by law.

Maltese shark teeth were in demand because people believed they could help prevent poisoning, which was in those days a considerable risk for people attending banquets, such as those following marriages or peace agreements, where rivals were obliged to sit together to dine. White arsenic, which looks like sugar powder and can’t be detected by taste or smell, was the favoured toxin for such occasions. The Borgia family, which included popes, cardinals and Lucretia Borgia, arguably the world’s most infamous poisoner, became particularly adept at its administration. Consequently, there was a keen market for poison antidotes and detection kits, and according to the magical thinking of the day fossil shark teeth were a highly effective means of defence, being able to both detect and neutralise the poison. Before you ate or drank anything at a banquet, you dipped a fossil shark tooth into your food or drink, then observed it carefully. If it ‘sweated profusely’ or changed colour, it was a sure indication that poison was about. If any such changes in the fossil tooth were detected, a second test was administered: a trusted retainer would taste the dubious food, and he in turn would be closely observed for symptoms of poisoning. If nothing seemed amiss, the dish could be cautiously sampled by the banqueters.

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