ANCIENT DINOSAUR DEPICTIONS
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ANCIENT DINOSAUR DEPICTIONS
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Drawing of graphic highlighting dinosaur and mammoth
To the right is a picture of a dinosaur fighting a mammoth from the book Buried Alive by Dr. Jack Cuozzo (click to enlarge). It was taken by the author in the Bernifal Cave, one of the caverns in France that is renowned for Neanderthal artifacts. The cave has been closed to the public. Science News was given the opportunity to publish the remarkable photo, but declined. It seems that evidence against the prevailing paradigm of naturalistic origin was selected against. It is buried alive by the scientific establishment. As Cuozzo says, this is natural selection in the most literal sense!
Puff the Magic Dragon "Fran Barnes, a recognized authority on rock art of the American South-West, writes, 'In the San Rafael Swell, there is a pictograph [picture symbol] that looks very much like a pterosaur, a Cretaceous flying reptile'..." (Swift, Dennis, "Messages on Stone," Creation Ex Nihilo, vol. 19, p. 20). This figure, about 7 feet long from wing-tip to wing-tip, is actually painted with a dark-red pigment. Indians of the Fremont culture are thought to have inhabited the "Swell" between 700 and 1250 A.D. Black Dragon Canyon is named for the pictograph which resembles a large winged reptile with a headcrest. On the left is shown a photo of one of the curious "dinosaur" petroglyphs near Middle Mesa at the Wupatki National Park. This particular petroglyph is called "Puff the Magic Dragon," and appears to be a depiction of a fire-breathing dinosaur. Though there is no certain way to date such petroglyphs, this carving is believed to be at least several hundred years old.
Ishtar Gate shaped by Babylonian artist In 600 BC, under the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar, a Babylonian artist was commissioned to shape reliefs of animals on the structures associated with the Ishtar Gate. Centuries later, in 1887 AD, when German archaeologist Robert Koldeway stumbled upon the blue-glazed brick, that gate was rediscovered. The animals appear in alternating rows with lions, fierce bulls (rimi or reems in Chaldean), and curious long-necked dragons (sirrush). The lions and bulls would have been present at that time in the Middle East. But, on what creature did the ancient Babylonians model the dragon? The same word, sirrush, is mentioned in the book of Bel and the Dragon, from the Apocrypha. Both the description there and the image on these unearthed walls (see right), which are now displayed in the Berlin Vorderasiatisches Museum, appear to fit a sauropod dinosaur. (Shuker, Karl P.N., "The Sirrush of Babylon," Dragons: A Natural History, 1995, pp. 70-73.)
Corythosaurus, Ethnographical Museum, BudapestThe ancient Sumatrans produced multiple pieces of art depicting long-tailed, long-necked creatures with a headcrest. Some of these animals resemble hadrosaurs. This particular work (Ethnographical Museum, Budapest) depicts a creature that bears a striking resemblance to a Corythosaurus which is being hunted by these ancient Indonesian peoples. (Bodrogi, Tibor, Art of Indonesia, plate #10, 1973.)
Depiction of an Oviraptor Beaked Dragon Statue from the Genesis Park Collection Asian stories and stylized dragon depictions are fairly common. But an unusual beaked dragon statue came up on the antiquities market and is now in the Genesis Park collection. The bronze styling on this artifact suggests it is from the Zhou Dynasty (1122 B.C. - 220 B.C.) or possibly from the Han Dynasty (206 B.C. - 220 A.D.). It displays numerous characteristics of the beaked dinosaurs (like the oviraptor depicted alongside for comparison): tridactyl feet configuration, metatarsal stance, scale-like representation all over the body (except for the horn which has a striated pattern), long (albeit slender) tail, elaborate head crest and a long neck. Another fascinating Chinese artifact is the Late Eastern Zhou Sauropod (Fang Jian) Ornamental box. Displaying a tridactyl foot, a long neck and a head that resembles a brachiosaur, this depiction is compelling. (Fong, Wen ed., The Great Bronze Age of China, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1980, p. 285.)
Late Eastern Zhou Sauropod (Fang Jian) Ornamental Box Close-up of Ornamental Box
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Next we consider a Shang dynasty (B.C. 1766-1122) dragon artifact that was advertised on the Chinese antiquities market as a dinosaur depiction. It displays relief lines in a scale-like pattern, a broad beak, a dermal frill, and a headcrest that is strikingly like the dinosaur Saurolophus (shown on the right). 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. (Click to enlarge.)
Yet another fascinating Chinese dragon artifact is displayed at the Glendive Dinosaur and fossil museum. This bronze dragon sculpture is from the Chinese Han Dynasty sculpture that is approximately 2000 years old.
The February 26, 2000 issue of Science News contained an article that commenting on an artifact housed at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts that has come to be known as the Hesione vase (Hesman, 2000). Pictured on this ancient Greek vase is a series of somewhat unusual paintings, including one that portrays a monster that possesses the head of a dinosaur. This pottery was created around 550 B.C., and depicts the Greek hero Heracles rescuing Hesione from this "monster of Troy." Forced to concede the amazingly realistic dinosaurian depiction, Science News concluded that the paintings on this unusual vase simply prove that ancient people dug fossils, too.
To the left is an urn from Caria, which was located in Asia Minor (Turkey). This artifact (described in Thomas H. Carpenter's 1991 book Art and Myth in Ancient Greece: A Handbook) is estimated to be from 530 BC. It depicts what appears to be a mosasaurus with several known sea creatures. The animal behind the sea serpent is a seal, while an octopus is below the sea serpent along with what seems to be a dolphin. The thick jaws, big teeth, large eyes, and positioning of the flippers on this creature match a mosasaurus skeleton very well. Some mosasaurus species also had a narrow cranial crest behind the eye that may have had a fin attached the way it is depicted on the Carian urn. Other artifacts of interest from this region came to light after the deluge and landslide of 1971 in the small village of Girifalco. A lawyer named Mario Tolone began investigating. Tolone asserts to have found dinosaurian representations in this area of Caria with hundreds of other ancient artifacts, of a pre-Greek civilization of Calabria, that is at least 3000 years old.
Terracotta Statue Terracotta Statue, View from Above
Stegosaurus on Broken Pottery Shown to the left is a terracotta statue measuring about 18 cm long, shaped remarkably like a dinosaur with plates on its back. The plates are triangular, and continue along the back until reaching the tail. In the view from above (right) the object reveals a strange curving of the plates, as if the animal had been represented in motion on the land. The legs are large and awkward, as if carrying great weight, not at all like those of a lizard. There is also a clear representation of a stegosaurus on a piece of broken pottery.
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The art below is from a Mesopotamian cylinder seal dated at 3300 BC. (Moortgart, Anton, The Art of Ancient Mesopotamia, 1969, plate 292.) The animal on the right is an artists conception from a skeleton of an Apatosaurus. There are many striking similarities between these two depictions. The legs and feet on the Egyptian art clearly fit the sauropods better than any other type of animal. The biggest difference is at the head. Cartilage forming the shape of a frill or ears may be stylized or accurate (since there is no way to know from the skeletons we have today). As for the musculature, the Egyptian artist draws with stunning realism. One has to ask where the artist got the model to draw so convincingly the trunk of a sauropod?
Mesopotamian Cylinder Seal and Artist's Conception from a Skeleton of an Apatosaurus
Egyptian Seal with the Cartouche of Tutmosis III Depicting a Sauropterygia-like Animal Throne Arm Rests with Winged Serpents An Egyptian seal with the cartouche (official name inscribed within an oval) of Tutmosis III (appx. 1400 B.C.) depicts a Sauropterygia-like animal (type of plesiosaur). The anterior and posterior flippers are distinctively represented with the narrow connection to the rotund body of the creature. The seal is from the Mitry collection and is of unquestioned authenticity. The ancient Egyptians are known for their keen observation and accurate zoological Winged Serpent Protecting the God Osiris representations, particularly with regard to sea creatures. Other such seals in Limestone Pendant with Hieroglyphicthe Mitry collection appear to have dinosaurian representations as well. The world famous gold throne of King Tut (right) has winged serpents forming the arm rests. Known as Wadjet, the winged serpent of Egypt, protected the Pharaohs and controlled the waters of the Nile. In fact, winged snakes are depicted on many of the coffins from ancient Egypt. To the lower right is a picture of a winged serpent like a "covering saraph" protecting the god Osiris. There is even a hieroglyphic symbol for the winged serpent that appears in the Egyptian Book of the Dead. (Note the hieroglyphic in the picture on this limestone pendant to the lower left.)
Two Dog Palette The January 2003 issue of National Geographic magazine presents an artifact described as a "cosmetic palette . . . from a cemetery of the first dynasties in Manshaat Ezzat." These long-necked creatures displayed on page 78 fit the pattern of other ancient dinosaur-like depictions, including arching, muscular necks and stout bodies. Known as the "Two Dog Palette," this artifact depicts many lifelike animals (including a giraffe on the reverse).
Ancient Palette Depicting DinosaursSlate Palette from HeirakonpolisTo the right are displayed slate palettes from Hierakonpolis showing the triumph of King Nar-mer with long necked dragons and an ancient palette depicting a pair of "dinosaur-like" creatures along with numerous clear representations of living animals (taken from p. 93 of Pritchard's book The Ancient Near East in Pictures).
The preponderance of these long-necked depictions in ancient art (note also the Egyptian wand depiction) motivated archaeologists who do not believe men and dinosaurs coexisted to invent a name for this particular creature. It is called a "serpopard," supposedly a mosaic of a serpent and a leopard. But for those who believe that man was created in the beginning alongside the great reptiles, these palettes seem to be an attempt to depict a sauropod dinosaur. Note the "Four Dogs Palette" with the "serpopard" cut out for clarity.
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