Download Basic knowledge about dragons and dragonology.

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Basic knowledge about dragons and dragonology.
Everything about Dragonology, which means: what we know about unknown, which is more a belief than a knowledge.
A basic information about dragons: genesis, general characteristic, its place in culture and history.
Dragon, means... what?
T
he Dragon – the most incredible and mysterious creature in the world and the most fascinating myth in human's culture. Dragons appear in almost every
culture in the world; all civilizations have their own myths about dragons. This monstrous beasts, sometimes trade with fear, sometimes with respect
or even with worship, have existed in human’s world for so long as themselves. But what we know in fact about them? What is the Dragon?
Dragon is a mythical creature, typically with serpentine or generally reptilian traits; dragons are subscribed as very dangerous beast, dangerous for man but
also very intelligent. Dragons occur in many varied forms; from classic, reptilian scaled forms, through the avian feathered forms, to even a mammalian, furry
forms. Because of this it’s very hard to make a simple definition of Dragon.
The most general definition says that Dragons are all mythical creatures which body has an ophidian shape or attributes – let you notice
that in this definition a fire breathing is not a necessary element of dragon’s characteristic and not all dragons have to have a limbs; legs or wings. That’s why the
primeval dragons were subscribed as an enormous snakes; theirs size was an only extraordinary attribute.
Dragons, as a whole group of fantastic creatures, have two main genesis sources – one in Greek mythology (Western Dragons) and another in Chinese
mythology (Oriental Dragons). From this two main branches of dragons’ family tree have growth all others dragon groups and kinds. This is also a most
popular and simple dragons classification. But it is insufficient in professional Dragonology which have identified many varied dragon groups, kinds and
species, that should be correctly and duly classify. But no matter how many branches this tree has got, it has only one trunk – a primeval pre-dragon creature;
epitome of all beasts – the Snake.
There, where dragons have came from...
G
enesy of dragons is one of the most fascinating mysteries of Anthropology of culture! In almost every culture in the world there has developed an some
kind of belief in mythical, powerful snake-like creature which was a one of the most powerful symbols in that culture: an object of cult, quite often
considered to be a god or godlike being! How it is possible if all this cultures were mostly separated to each other?
HARD WORDS !
Cryptids – species which probably exist but are still
undiscovered by scientists (The most famous discovered
cryptids are Latimeria and Okapi)
Cryptozoology – a science involving the search for
animals whose existence hasn’t been proven yet. 
Mythozoology – a pseudosciens (Dragonology is a part
of it) which tries to describe and classify mythical and
fantastic creatures just like they were a real animals.
Pseudoscience – a claim, belief or practice which is
presented as science, but doesn’t adhere to a valid scientific
method, lack supporting scientific evidence or plausibility.
Anthropology – the study of humans, which tries to
explain why we are who we are and why we do what we do:
art, ideology, science, religion.
Etymon - an earlier form of word in this same language or
in an ancestor language from which the present word has
been derived.
W
There is a few probable explanation of this phenomena.
One of them is that the evolution embedded an innate fear of predators in the
human mind and because humans, just like all apes do, fear reptiles and other big
predators, like big cats and creatures which could threaten at trees, like big birds,
dragons are composed from traits of this creatures.
Other explanation is that dragons were a real animals... but absolutely casual,
which in human imagination have obtained parts of other horrific animals. A proof
for this interpretation are stories described in old Chinese Chronicle of Zuo
(Zuoshuan) written by Zuo Qiuming. Chronicle speaks about taming, rearing and
even eating dragons during Xia dynasty (18th century BC). From this period comes
a bronze bell from Erlitou culture with picture of dragon, which was been using to...
allure dragons for feeding. This same method was used to allure alligators at farms
where this animals where raised for their skin, meat and bones. Chinese alligators
(Alligator sinensis) even looks similar to Chinese dragons – lungs.
The third interpretation is that ancient people may have discovered dinosaur
fossils and misinterpreted them as the remains of dragons. Chinese historian from
the 4th century BC, Chang Qu, mislabeled such a fossil as a dragon bone. The best
example for possibility of such a interpretation is discovered in 2004 dinosaur called
Dracorex hogwartsia, as a tribute to Harry Potter’s school of magic.
Of course there is also the most wonderful but most improbable explanation:
that dragons really existed, but in view of no physical remains of such an animals,
this is an only a pious wish – a pipe dream, but… definitely the most amazing one.
Dragonology – true, false or something else?
hen we talk about dragons we just have to realize that we talk about something which
can’t be simply classified as true or false. So when we start to talk about Dragonology
itself a really big dilemma appears – is this a science or only a game; reality or fiction?
Faced in facts about dragons genesis, shown above, are we still able to talk about Dragonology
as a science about dragons or should we start to think about it as a game, made only for fun?
Formally, the Dragonology is a pseudoscience which is a part of Mythozoology.
That means, the Dragonology is more a belief than a knowledge and it only tries to describe
fantastic, mythological and unreal creatures – dragons, as well as unicorns, trolls, gryphons,
elves or dwarfs – as a real ones, using scientific description, vocabulary and form.
However we can’t have any doubts that Dragonology, and Mythozoology along with it, are
pseudosciences, but we should be careful with easy calling a pseudoscience some similar
knowledge domain – Cryptozoology – and we should not confuse it with Mythozoology. Why?
Not so long ago even a Cryptozoology has been calling a pseudoscience, but for some time
even a very serious scientists think that Cryptozoology has too big services to Zoology to still call
it so contemptuously. Some Dragonologists would like to call their activity as “cryptozoology”, to
give people to understand that dragons are not a fictional animals but only an undiscovered yet.
Unfortunately, Dragonology is only a pseudoscience and should not be combined with
Cryptozoology, for good of the real science and clarity over the purview of each of domains.
So, does this all mean that Dragonology is just a lie? No. Dragonology is a challenge: this
domain of our artistic and scientific activity pushes the boundary of our imagination further into
the reality, for better understanding ourselves, by better understanding one of the most
wonderful and extraordinary from all human works – Dragons.
DID YOU KNOW THAT...?
The word “dragon” in many languages
comes from old Greek word “drákōn”
[δράκων] which means “one who stares”
and it initially has described all enormous
snakes, without any extraordinary traits,
except theirs size. But even if word
“dragon” in some other languages didn’t
come from Greek, its etymon had a
similar meaning. Why dragon prototype
was a snake? Anthropologists suppose
that it is because snakes are the only
predators which can kill a young monkey
at the top of tree…
In evolutionary meaning, humans are apes and just like
all other apes, humans react quicker for snakes than for
other animals, because we instinctually link snakes with
danger. That’s why in almost all religions demons, devils
or gods of evil are shown as horrifying snakes.
Accordingly, dragon is in fact a primeval symbol of evil.
Bibliography:
 “Why we fear snakes” (Vanessa LoBue & Judy DeLoache, University of Virginia) - www.livescience.com/2348-fear-snakes.html
 “Handbook of Chinese Mythology” (Lihui Yang & Deming An), page 105.
 “Where did dragons come from” (Smithsonian Univ.) - www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/where-did-dragons-come-from-23969126
 “Dinosaur that looks like a dragon” - http://creation.com/dracorexthe-dinosaur-that-looks-like-a-dragon
 “On the Track of Unknown Animals” (Bernard Heuvelmans)
Dragons over the centuries.
First images of dragons in history: the oldest known pictures of dragons in visual art.
Primeval dragons via modern dragons – which are more probable; which are more popular?
The oldest dragons in the world – the earliest pictures of dragons.
T
he history of dragons is as long as ourselves.
The earliest undisputed dragon picture is almost
6,500 years old and it has been found in China!
In 1987, at Xishuipo archaeological site near Puyang city
in northeastern Henan province, has been unearthed
a grove named M45 which belongs to the Yangshao early
Neolithic culture. In grove, around one of five skeletons,
probably belonging to some shaman, has been found
a shell mosaic of dragon and tiger. In other tombs from
this period have been founding jadeite bracelets in shape
of dragon, known as C-dragon bracelets. 
But it’s not the oldest picture of dragon ever –
however this picture is disputable and it’s not certain
what kind of creature it shows. It is also from China and it
is about 10,000 years old “dragon” found at Shizitan
archeological site in Shanxi province – Neolithic rock
painting referred to as “yu wei lu long”, which literally
means “deer-like dragon with fish tail”.
Photography of King Gudea libation vase from Louvre Museum.
On the right, extended drawing of the figures from the vase.
A 6,500 years old shell mosaic from M45 grove
found in Xishuipo archeological site in China.
10,000 years old rock painting from Shizitan,
in China which probably is the oldest dragon
picture.
In western word dragons appear in early ages too! The earliest western dragon picture is
shown at libation vase of Gudea - a king of city-state Legash in Sumerian Mesopotamia. It is dated
to 4,025 years ago but some archeologists say that it can be even 6,000 years old. It is also a first
classic dragon picture – four legged winged creature – sometime interpreted as a gryphon, not
a dragon, but differences between this two kinds of mythical creatures have appeared already in
ancient Greece, few thousand years later. This mythical creature calls Mushussu and it appears
also at famous Ishtar Gate of city of Babylon (575 BC). This image of dragon has been taken over
by Greeks and Romans cultures, which are a foundation of all modern western culture.
The new world has also its dragon like creatures, but in both Americas, until XIX century A.D.
dragons were depicted in theirs primeval forms as an enormous snakes. The most well known such
a creature is Quetzalcoatl – its name means “feathered snake” and it was a common god in
Mesoamerican native religions. Also native American tribes from North America have a myths about
dragon-like snakes, mostly pictured as “horned serpent” – this creatures are well known not only
in America but also in Europe; theirs pictures has been found among rock drawing in
Valcamonica, in Italy, and are about 3000 years old. In Australia, Oceania and Africa local
cultures has also many myths about reptilian beings which can be easy classified as dragons:
a Rainbow Serpent from Aboriginal mythology, which pictures painted at rocks has more than
6000 years; Taniwha from Maori mythology, from New Zealand; Apep from ancient Egypt, and
Mokele-mbembe, which has been seen in 1932 by famous British biologist Ivan T. Sanderson.
Real dragons –remains of past or present fiction?
D
Allistair Mitchell and his fake baby dragon in jar.
ragons were always fascinating people.
Many of them were trying to find dragons
in real world; some successfully did!
In 2004, three amateur paleontologists have
found in South Dakota (USA) a fossils of dinosaur
called Dracorex hogwartsia, because its skull
resembled a head of dragon. 
In this same year, Allistair Mitchell have
shocked the world showing a dragon fetus pickled
in jar. Soon, this has turned out as a hoax made as
publicity stunt to promote a fantasy book wrote by
Mitchell – “The world of Eldaterra”. 
Although none of the dragons found by man
wasn’t a real dragon, each of them has touched our
hearts and stimulated our imagination.
D. hogwartsia - Children’s Museum of Indianapolis
Dragons are everywhere – word “dragon” in different languages.
Y
ou can’t understand this what you can’t name. This simple true is valid also in Dragonology. Dragon fans live in almost every country in the world and
speak on of almost 7,500 languages! Here I have shown you how word “dragon” looks like in forty languages from the all world and even from the other
worlds (italic). Now you’ll be able to say how much you love dragons in more than one way! 
Language
Word
Language
Word
Language
English
Dragon
Russian
Дракон [drakon]
Sanscrit
Polish
Smok
Japanese (kanji)
Latin
Draco
Jap. (katakana)
Chinese (simple)
龍 (龙) [lung]
Arabic
Hebrew
[tanīn]
[draqun]
Word
[nāgá]
Language
Word
Dragonic
[darastix]
Czech
Drak
Klingon
[lung’a’puv]
ドラゴン [doragon]
Scottish
Dreugan
Black speache
[kulkodar]
Irish
Draic
Thai
Zulu
Uzekamanzi
Maori
Tarakona
Sindarin (Elvish)
Portuguese
Dragão
Icelandic
Dreki
Qyenuah (Elvish)
Greek
Δράκος [drakos]
Na’vi language
Toruk
龍
[riu]
[aždahā]
[mung-khor] Khuzdul (Dwarws)
[elug]
[‘amlug]
[loke]
Spanish
Dragón
Hindi
German
Drache
Norwegian
Drage
Albanian
Dragua
Fire Witch tongue
Katash wei' vorki
Hungarian
Sárkány
Bulgarian
Дракон [drakon]
Pig latin
Agon-dray
Esperanto
Drako
Azeri
Əждәһа [ejdeha]
Gibberish
Gidadraggidaen
Farsi (Persian)
Turkish
[eždehâ]
Ejderha
Bibliography:




“Defining Chu: Image And Reality In Ancient China” ( A. Cook, John S. Major), page 139.
“Book deal for dragon hoax author” - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/oxfordshire/3576987.stm
“Dracorex” - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dracorex
“How to say dragon in different languages?” - http://www.dragonsinn.net/say.htm