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Adrienne Mayor (born 1946) is a historian of ancient science and a classical folklorist.

Mayor specializes in ancient history and the study of "folk science", or how pre-scientific cultures interpreted data about the natural world, and how these interpretations form the basis of many ancient myths, folklore and popular beliefs. Her work in pre-scientific fossil discoveries and traditional interpretations of paleontological remains has opened up a new field within the emerging discipline of geomythology and classical folklore. Mayor's book, Greek Fire, Poison Arrows, & the Scorpion Bombs, on the origins of biological and chemical warfare revealed the ancient roots of poison weaponry and tactics.

Life
From 1980 to 1996, she worked as a copy editor, and printmaker.

Since 2006, Mayor has been a research scholar in the Classics Department and the History and Philosophy of Science Program at Stanford University.

Mayor has published books and articles on Amazons, unconventional warfare, ancient automatons, toxic honey, tattoos in antiquity, smallpox blankets in history and legend, assassination by poisoned garments in Mughal India, fossil-related legends, fossil-related place names, and other topics in scholarly journals and popular magazines, including History Today, Journal of American Folklore, Archaeology, "Natural History," MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History, Gizmodo, and Foreign Affairs. Her books The First Fossil Hunters and Fossil Legends of the First Americans were both praised in Central Connecticut State anthropology department member Kenneth L. Feder’s book Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology—a book dedicated to debunking pseudoarcheological claims.

Her books have been translated into French, German, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Hungarian, Polish, Turkish, Italian, Russian, and Greek and have been featured in documentaries on the History Channel, the Discovery Channel, and the BBC. She has lectured at the American Museum of Natural History, Boston Museum of Fine Art, Smithsonian, Art Institute of Chicago, Getty Museum, among other venues, and has been interviewed on NPR, BBC, and Coast to Coast AM. Her biography of Mithradates VI Eupator, The Poison King, was a nonfiction finalist for the National Book Award 2009.

From 2011 to 2017, Mayor was a regular contributor to the history of science website Wonders and Marvels.

From 2009 to 2015, Mayor maintained a Facebook profile under the name Mithradates Eupator, which became an active network for more than 2,500 people, including international scholars, classicists, archaeologists, linguists, ancient historians, authors, novelists, museum curators, and others who engaged in valuable research and educational conversation. This unique crowd-sourcing site was eliminated by Facebook on May 26, 2015. In 2018-19, she was a Berggruen Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, her research dedicated to the impulse to create artificial life, whether that be today’s artificial intelligence or the animated statues of myth. The fruits of this research are contained in her latest book, Gods and Robots: Myths, Machines, and Ancient Dreams of Technology.

The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times (2000, reissued with new Introduction 2011)
Mayor's first book investigated discoveries and interpretations of dinosaur and other large vertebrate fossils in classical antiquity, and presented her widely accepted proposal that ancient observations of the fossilized remains of mammoths, mastodons, dinosaurs, and other extinct species influenced belief in giants, heroes, the griffin and other fabulous beings of myth and legend This book is the basis for the popular History Channel show "Ancient Monster Hunters" and the BBC show Dinosaurs, Myths and Monsters. A National Geographic children's book by Marc Aronson, The Griffin and the Dinosaur (2014) describes Mayor's hypothesis that ancient observations of Protoceratops dinosaur fossils influenced ancient images and tales of Griffins.

Reception
In American Journal of Archaeology, Deborah Ruscillo, anthropology department member of the Washington University in St. Louis, writes that this multidisciplinary book is written so that a layperson not well-versed in the topics it delves into may understand it. While Ruscillo does disagree with some of the assertions Mayor makes, she still recommends the book to anthropologists and non-anthropologists alike. In Isis: A Journal of the History of Science Department, Liniane Bodson of the University of Liege writes that “Adrienne Mayor’s thought-provoking book will mark a watershed in the approach to griffins and giants.” While she found some of Mayor’s views one-sided, she still recommended the book to “every historian of natural sciences.”

Greek Fire, Poison Arrows & Scorpion Bombs: Biological and Chemical Warfare in the Ancient World (2003, revised edition with new Introduction 2009)
Mayor's second book uncovers the earliest examples of biochemical weapons in the ancient world, to demonstrate that the concept and practice of biochemical warfare occurred much earlier than was previously thought. One of the book’s purposes is to dispel the idea that ancient warfare was inherently more honorable than modern warfare. She presents ancient Greek, Roman, Chinese, African, and Indian historical accounts of the practice of biochemical warfare, using animal, bacterial, poison, and chemical weaponry, including the titular Greek fire. This book has become a favorite of ancient war gamers and was featured in the History Channel show "Ancient Greek WMDs."

Reception
In The Classical Review, classicist Richard Stoneman praises the book, stating that it should be “widely read”, and specifically praises the wide range of sources used, especially her employment of sources from India. Conversely, in Library Journal, Brian K. DeLuca says that Mayor’s use of modern terminology in relation to ancient methods of warfare is “anachronistic” and finds her arguments for ancient biowarfare unconvincing. Even so, he recommends the book for “larger public libraries, specialized collections, and academic libraries.” In Naval War College Review, author and lieutenant colonel Zygmunt Dembek highly recommends the book because of its unique point of view.

Fossil Legends of the First Americans (2005)
Mayor's third book gathers Native American accounts of discoveries of dinosaur and other fossils and oral traditions about their meaning, from pre-Columbian times to the present. Much of the focus of the book is in challenging the idea put forth by paleontologist George Gaylord Simpson that precolonial indigenous peoples of the Americas did not take notice of the many fossils found on the continent. The book is organized by geographic location of fossils. It has been featured in History Channel MonsterQuest videos.

Reception
Norman MacLeod, Keeper of Paleontology for the Natural History Museum (London), writes for Paleontologia Electronica that he was “disappointed” in the book, and criticizes Mayor for not having much in the way of supporting evidence for her claims outside of the fossils themselves. He also claims that the book would hold little interest to those outside of people already interested in Native American folklore. In a book review for Geological magazine, Paul D. Taylor of Natural History Museum (London) writes that “this competitively priced volume will appeal to palaeontologists, anthropologists, and folklorists.” He also notes that the book is of interest to geologists.

The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome's Deadliest Enemy (2009)
Mayor's fourth book details the story of the life of Mithradates, leader of the ancient Black Sea kingdom of Pontus, who, in the 1st century B.C., did everything he could to overthrow the Roman Empire. The book attempts to relay events from the Pontic point of view, as opposed to the Roman point of view.

Reception
In Melbourne Historical Journal, Jeroen W.P. Wijnendaele of the historical department of Ghent University writes that Mayor does a good job crafting an entertaining book about Mithradates’s life, but that the passages about the historical figure’s use of poison are “repetitive.” He says that the book is a good starting point for college undergrads. In Isis: A Journal of the History of Science Society, Laurence Totelin of Cardiff University says that the book is full of small errors but contains a good bibliography and is good for people new to the story of Mithradates.

The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women across the Ancient World (2014)
Mayor's fifth book surveys ancient myths, legends, folklore, art, and archaeology related to warlike women known to the classical Greeks as Amazons. This is the first comprehensive account of warrior women in myth and history from the Mediterranean world to China. It also includes information on the linguistic origins of the word “Amazon”, details on the body modification of Amazons, and the relationship between Mithridates and the Amazons.

Reception
Jasmin W. Cyril of the Fine Arts Department of Benedict College writes in Kadin/Woman 2000 that “any reader or researcher will be well rewarded through a perusal of this monograph and will find immeasurable advantage in the notes and bibliography.” In American Journal of Philology, University of Toronto professor Alison Keith criticizes the Mayor’s tendency to make unsubstantiated assertions and lack of context for some of her sources. Keith also notes that Mayor sometimes uses folklore as fact. Keith goes on to describe the book as “uneven,” stating that it is “rich in research but weak in accepted methods of scholarship.”

Gods and Robots: Myths, Machines, and Ancient Dreams of Technology (2018)
Mayor's sixth book analyzes classical Greek myths and other ancient cultures' tales about fabricating artificial life, automatons, self-moving devices, and Artificial Intelligence. The final chapter describes real robots, animated statues, and self-propelled machines that were actually designed and constructed in the classical and Hellenistic eras. This book is the result of Mayor’s research as a Berggruen Fellow.

Reception
Kirkus reviews describes the book as “a collection of wondrous tales that present ancient myths as the proto-science fiction stories they are.”

Books
ISBN 978-0-691-18351-0
 * The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times (Princeton University Press 2000) — ISBN 0-691-08977-9
 * Greek Fire, Poison Arrows & Scorpion Bombs: Biological and Chemical Warfare in the Ancient World (Overlook 2003) — ISBN 1-58567-348-X
 * Fossil Legends of the First Americans (Princeton University Press 2005) &mdash; ISBN 0-691-11345-9
 * The Poison King: The Life and Legend of Mithradates, Rome's Deadliest Enemy (Princeton University Press 2009) ISBN 978-0-691-12683-8
 * The Griffin and the Dinosaur: How Adrienne Mayor Discovered a Fascinating Link between Myth and Science, with Marc Aronson (National Geographic 2014) ISBN 978-1-4263-1108-6
 * Gods and Robots: Myths, Machines, and Ancient Dreams of Technology (Princeton University Press 2018) --
 * Gods and Robots: Myths, Machines, and Ancient Dreams of Technology (Princeton University Press 2018) --