It is just another piece of Roman plunder on indefinite loan from ancient Greece. The first thing you notice about the marble bust are the eyes. The practice of not including pupils as part of the eye in sculpted busts imparts a distinctive far-off stare. Well, perhaps this is fitting; the poor guy has been dead for over 2,000 years. The white marble head, believed to be a likeness of Aeschylus, can be seen in the Capitoline Museum in Rome where it sits, I assume, on its own pedestal partway down a long row of other famous heads. This particular bust's second prominent feature is the bald cranium emphasized by the smooth, polished stone. Aeschylus (525~65 BC), in case you've forgotten, is considered the father of Greek drama. His poetic work, with its distinctive vigor and lofty tone, still survives in seven extant plays and fragments of more than 70 others. In addition to his writing, Aeschylus was renowned for his heroic acts as a soldier in Greece's perennial war with Persia.

Of more relevant interest to us is Aeschylus' death. It turns out Aeschylus was a victim of his own bald head. According to tradition, he survived hordes of warring mongrels only to be killed by a tortoise. As best I can tell, his is the only documented case of human death directly attributed to a tortoise. Because of this, when friends are looking at my captive-bred marginated tortoises, I take great delight at their reactions when I say "Watch out, they're killers." The two creatures, if they are awake, stare blankly upward from their Plexiglas home, shifting their thoughts from lush salads garnished with Reptocal to slow-motion karate chops and their last kick-boxing class. As my visitors step back, I usually add "Well, at least I assume it was a marginated that did in Aeschylus." The logical candidate, the Greek tortoise, while found throughout much of the Mediterranean world, is absent from Greece. But how do I go from sleepy tortoises to the death of a bald Greek playwright?

Lammergeier vultures were apparently more common in southern Europe 2,000 years ago than they are today. Carrion feeders, they specialize on the bones of deceased animals that other vulture species leave behind. Lammergeiers learned to carry large bones high in the air and drop them on rocks before descending to feed on the exposed marrow. They learned that this method also works for opening up tortoise shells. Apparently, the top of Aeschylus' living head and its marble likeness are similar, at least from a vulture's view. Had Aeschylus lived through the experience, perhaps the secrets of gravity would have recorded 2,107 years before Sir Isaac Newton was born. But as every schoolchild knows, that is not the case.

 Lammergeiers have good aim, and the poet died on the spot. The story of Aeschylus' death has been passed on through the ages. and there is even a record of one balding man adding a "cause of death from a falling tortoise" clause to his life insurance policy. Surely, there's a moral in all this; after all, that is what Greek literature was built around. If I have interpreted this correctly, one can set aside all biological and behavioral information, noble bearing, talent and heroic virtue and simply remember to beware of Greek vultures bearing gifts.

David S. Lee. Terrapin Tails 2(3):6

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Giant Land Tortoise, the last of its kind, rediscovered in New York

    Well if the title did not get your attention the fact that this land tortoise was 52 feet long should perk one’s interest.

    At the time they were known as radeau, French for raft. The flat-bottomed Land Tortoise was constructed in 1758 as a floating fortress for use by the British and provincial armies during the French and Indian War. This radeau had seven sides. The upper sections of the sides were constructed inward over the deck to protect the occupants. It had seven gun ports, each staggered so that cannon crews would not interfere with each other during battle. Cannon ports on the bow and port ensured the raft was covered from all sides. The Land Tortoise was powered by 13 pairs of oars.

    According to records two radeaux were launched on Lake George, New York, on 20 October 1758. Two days later, as the troops prepared to leave camp for the winter, the radeux and numerous other vessels were filled with rocks and sunk in the lake for safe keeping. Two hundred and sixty bateau, French for boat, were all sunk in Lake George at that time. The bateau were 25-35 foot boats which were the work horses of the region’s waterways from the early 1700s until the war of 1812. The Land Tortoise, the larger of the two radeaux, was uncooperative, drifted from the planned storage site, and did not sink until well after dark. The other vessels were all raised the following spring but The Land Tortoise was not to be seen again for another 232 years.

    The Land Tortoise was located with side-scan sonar in 107 feet of water. No others are in existence, and it is the only vessel of its type ever found. Cannons or other artifacts were not recovered. Study of the submerged ship was accomplished with more than 200 photographs exposed along a flat plane, with each overlapping across a measured grid. The process was complicated by the size of the vessel and limited visibility in the lake. The computerized photomosaic image is seamless, undistorted and nearly 3D in appearance. The 1994 photograph took a computer more than 350 hours to produce. The photo reveals The Land Tortoise’s perfectly preserved remains. The Bulwark, or canopy-like structure which protected the gunneries from enemy fire can be seen in the photo. It is apparently this structure which prompted the ship’s original name. Two mast steps which can be seen in the photo suggest that the ship’s designers intended for The Land Tortoise to the rigged. It is the oldest existing warship in the Western Hemisphere. In 1994 The Land Tortoise was opened as a Submerged Heritage Preserve.

Dave Lee, September 2000