BIBLICAL UNICORN LOCATED?
Elasmotherium sibiricum
Or is this it?
Unlike
the Bible's description, critics imagine unicorns to be like those
depicted in fables. "Unicorn" is derived from Latin which simply means
one-horned.
|
Verse |
Bible Description |
Fantasy/Fable Description |
|
God compares his strength to "the strength of a unicorn" (i.e. "he shall eat up the nations his enemies, and shall break their bones") |
Mythical docile pony |
|
|
Untamable |
Horse-like (tamable) |
|
|
Not useful for plowing |
Horse-like (used for plowing) |
Valentin Teraiyev in Museum of Geology at Moscow
State Geo-Research Institute 17th International Geological Congress in
Moscow, 1937
One complete Elasmotherium skeleton displayed above has its horn missing. Horns were valuable and collected among locals to make bowls which explains why many specimens have missing horns. Notice that two specimens pictured below in Moscow have horns intact.
Marco Polo described unicorns as, "scarcely smaller than elephants. They have the hair of a buffalo and feet like an elephant's. They have a single large black horn in the middle of the forehead... They have a head like a wild boar's... They spend their time by preference wallowing in mud and slime. They are very ugly brutes to look at. They are not at all such as we describe them when we relate that they let themselves be captured by virgins, but clean contrary to our notions."
Elasmotheriums were contemporary with modern man since 10th century writer and traveler Ibn Fadlan described them in his journeys. They may have been even more common during the Biblical account between 1000 and 1500 B.C. The following information, including Ibn Fadlan’s account, supports the Biblical record of unicorns:
“One suggestion is that the unicorn is based on an extinct animal sometimes called the "Giant Unicorn" but known to scientists as Elasmotherium, a huge Eurasian rhinoceros native to the steppes, south of the range of the woolly rhinoceros of Ice Age Europe. Elasmotherium looked little like a horse, but it had a large single horn in its forehead. It seems to have become extinct about the same time as the rest of the glacial age megafauna.
However, according to the Nordisk familjebok and science writer Willy Ley the animal may have survived long enough to be remembered in the legends of the Evenk people of Russia as a huge black bull with a single horn in the forehead.
There is also testimony by the medieval traveller Ibn Fadlan, who is usually considered a reliable source, which suggests that Elasmotherium may have survived into historical times:
"There is nearby a wide steppe, and there dwells, it is told, an animal smaller than a camel, but taller than a bull. Its head is the head of a ram, and its tail is a bull’s tail. Its body is that of a mule and its hooves are like those of a bull. In the middle of its head it has a horn, thick and rouisnd, and as the horn goes higher, it narrows (to an end), until it is like a spearhead. Some of these horns grow to three or five ells, depending on the size of the animal. It thrives on the leaves of penof trees, which are excellent greenery. Whenever it sees a rider, it approaches and if the rider has a fast horse, the horse tries to escape by running fast, and if the beast overtakes them, it picks the rider out of the saddle with its horn, and tosses him in the air, and meets him with the point of the horn, and continues doing so until the rider dies. But it will not harm or hurt the horse in any way or manner. "The locals seek it in the steppe and in the forest until they can kill it. It is done so: they climb the tall trees between which the animal passes. It requires several bowmen with poisoned arrows; and when the beast is in between them, they shoot and wound it unto its death. And indeed I have seen three big bowls shaped like Yemen seashells, that the king has, and he told me that they are made out of that animal’s horn."
Even if Elasmotherium is not the creature described by Ibn Fadlan, ordinary rhinoceroses may have some relation to the unicorn. In support of this claim, it has been noted that the 13th century traveller Marco Polo claimed to have seen a unicorn in Java, but his description (quoted above) makes it clear to the modern reader that he actually saw a Javanese rhinoceros.” (source)
“Elasmotherium ("Thin Plate Beast") was a genus of giant rhinoceros which stood, on average, 2 metres (6.6 ft) high and 6 metres (20 ft) long, with a single two-meter-long horn in the forehead. The animal may have weighed up to 5 tonnes (5.5 short tons). Its legs were longer than those of other rhinos and were designed for galloping, giving it a horse-like gait. It was probably a fast runner, in spite of its size. Its teeth were similar to those of horses, and it probably grazed low herbs.” source: Wikipedia
“Like its Indian cousin, the Javan Rhinoceros has a single horn (the other extant species have two horns).” source: Wikipedia