Antiques

Did Ancient People Believe that Dinosaurs and Humans Lived Together? (Part 1 of 3)   by Joel Gray

Like cultures today, ancient people created artwork based on real-life subjects. Many cave paintings (pictographs) and petroglyphs (shallow rock carvings) depict scenes from battles (24), ancient people performing various rituals (36), (and fauna, such as buffalo, seen by the native peoples. Sculptures, mosaics, figurines, and carvings made by people hundreds or thousands of years ago also depict some strange creatures that seem to closely resemble what we might call dinosaurs. This leads to a fascinating question: Did ancient cultures believe that dinosaurs were contemporaries of humankind and did they claim to see such creatures?

The Acambaro Figurines

In the summer of 1944, a German merchant, Waldemar Julsrud, made a discovery that has caused a stir in the scientific community (35). It was July 1944 and Waldemar Julsrud was riding his horse along the lower slope of El Toro Mountain near the town of Acambaro, Mexico, when he noticed something unusual poking out of the dirt (35). Dismounting, he tore into the ground and unearthed a few ceramic objects unlike anything he had ever seen before (35). His discovery led to the excavation of over 33,500 ceramic, stone, and jade figurines and artifacts (35).

Charles Hapgood, a professor of anthropology and history at Keene State College, learned about the figurines and decided that he would see them for himself (35). After investigating and researching the figurines for 18 years, and after seeing more of the objects turn up when workers dug in certain locations he determined, Hapgood, a self-confessed skeptic (35), authored a book on the Acambaro figurines: Mystery in Acambaro: Did Dinosaurs Survive Until Recently? No longer a skeptic about the origin and authenticity of the ancient figurines, Charles Hapgood believes that they were made by an ancient culture. At the same place where the artifacts were discovered, the teeth of an extinct horse, the skeleton of a mammoth, and human skulls were also unearthed (35). The fact that many of these unique figurines resemble dinosaurs has been a reason the majority of the scientific community has ignored the discovery, passing it off as a hoax.

Shang Dynasty “Saurolophus”

Besides the major discovery in Acambaro, a number of other figurines from other ancient cultures have sparked debate or been ignored by the majority of the scientific community. An artifact from the Shang Dynasty is described by Genesis Park website as a creature that “displays relief lines in a scale-like pattern, a broad beak, a dermal frill, and a headcrest that is strikingly like the dinosaur Saurolophus …” (1). According to Genesis Park, the dinosaur-like figure “was advertised on the Chinese antiquities market as a dinosaur depiction” (1). Concerning it’s authenticity, Genesis Park declares that: “This jade statute, now in the Genesis Park collection, is made of white colored nephrite with differential weathering, cleaving veins and earth penetration, demonstrating authenticity â