FOSSILISED sea urchins have been found embedded in the walls of medieval churches, embellished with Egyptian hieroglyphics, and even shaped into Palaeolithic hand-axes. According to Kenneth J. McNamara, they were probably the first objects collected for purely aesthetic reasons by ancestors to Homo sapiens, and provide a tangible record of an early and enduring obsession. In this provocative and absorbing interdisciplinary study, McNamara sets out 鈥渢o use this one strange and seemingly obscure fossil to unlock the ancient mind and to trace how it has evolved鈥�.
Books of such manifest ambition are increasingly rare. While The Star-Crossed Stone falls far shy of its promise, McNamara is to be lauded for asking big questions, and for having the courage to admit what he does not know.
The Star-Crossed Stone: The secret life, myths, and history of a fascinating fossil
Chicago University Press