Ancient Dinosaur Art

Battlehymn Republic · Post by **Battlehymn Republic** » 2005-06-08 06:47pm

There are creationists who, besides believing in the existence of dinosaurs today, claim that there have been scads and scads of art by ancient peoples that depict dinosaurs.

Is any of that lot actually real? I mean, sometimes there are anachronistic, unexplainable, creepy artifacts. There's probably a whole lot less than what they claim, though.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2005-06-08 07:07pm

Mammals were small furry things that ate berries when dinosaurs were at the peak of their dominion over Earth. To say humans and dinos co-existed at any point to allow for cave paintings is quite fallacious.

Miles Teg · Post by **Miles Teg** » 2005-06-08 07:09pm

I have no opinion/knowledge on the authenticity of these artificats, but if they are real, it proves nothing.

It's quite common for people to find exposed fossils. I'm pretty sure any ancient man that came across such a thing would probably be able to comprehend that it was once a living animal, and they would probably assume that such an animal still existed. Enter the first Sci-Fi art/stories.. Woo Hoo!

Miles Teg

Battlehymn Republic · Post by **Battlehymn Republic** » 2005-06-08 07:52pm

I'm not saying any of those are necessarily real, I was just wondering if anyone's heard from actual credible sources that any of the ancient dino art is actually authentic. For all we know, it's just a coincidence their concept of dragons and mythical beings just happened to look like dragons.

neoolong · Post by **neoolong** » 2005-06-08 08:40pm

Battlehymn Republic wrote:I'm not saying any of those are necessarily real, I was just wondering if anyone's heard from actual credible sources that any of the ancient dino art is actually authentic. For all we know, it's just a coincidence their concept of dragons and mythical beings just happened to look like dragons.

Couldn't they have also found dinosaur fossils and painted pictures of what they would look like? A T-rex skeleton looks fairly similar to what it looks like in all the modern artist renderings after all.

I've never heard anywhere that ancient dino art is authentic in regards to depicting dinosaurs that were alive at the time. The only real way to tell would be evidence about the art, not just the pictures since I can just as easily draw a picture of a dinosaur and claim its proof that dinosaurs are still alive.

Lord Zentei · Post by **Lord Zentei** » 2005-06-08 09:12pm

I'd like to see pictures of these alleged paintings before framing a hypothesis on the matter.

RedImperator · Post by **RedImperator** » 2005-06-08 09:17pm

I've seen some of them, and some of them DO look like dinosaurs. What the cretinists fail to show you is the hundreds of other paintings/sculptures of animals that look nothing at all like dinosaurs. Furthermore, all the ones I've seen look like sauropods. It's not like its a huge leap to dream up an animal that looks like a four-legged barrel with a long neck and a long tail.

wolveraptor · Post by **wolveraptor** » 2005-06-08 09:49pm

Miles Teg wrote:I have no opinion/knowledge on the authenticity of these artificats, but if they are real, it proves nothing.

It's quite common for people to find exposed fossils. I'm pretty sure any ancient man that came across such a thing would probably be able to comprehend that it was once a living animal, and they would probably assume that such an animal still existed. Enter the first Sci-Fi art/stories.. Woo Hoo!

Miles Teg

I some how doubt that Cro-Magnon men thought so deeply about that. But maybe, because they did deal with their own dead, and undoubtedly saw skeletons of the animals whom they killed. I know that some Greeks myths of cyclopes are thought to be inspired by Mammoth skulls. The trunk-hole looked like a gigantic eye.

Elfdart · Post by **Elfdart** » 2005-06-08 10:33pm

I remember reading somewhere that the gryphon (or griffin) was probably based on the skeletons of small horned dinosaurs like Protoceratops and Psittacosaurus. Dragons might also be based on dinosaur fossils. But unless the fundies are referring to these, they are just full of shit.

Frank Hipper · Post by **Frank Hipper** » 2005-06-08 10:35pm

If you're talking about the Ica Stones, consider them soundly refuted.

The Skeptic's Dictionary on the Ica Stones.

Ryoga · Post by **Ryoga** » 2005-06-09 12:21am

Actually, I think dragon myths (particularly European ones) were fueled by crocodiles too. There's a castle in Prague where you can see some artifacts that a medieval king of the region owned, including a skull that he was told belonged to the dragon that was slain by St. George. Of course, he had no clue that it was actually a crocodile's skull.

Lord Zentei · Post by **Lord Zentei** » 2005-06-09 01:03am

Ryoga wrote:Actually, I think dragon myths (particularly European ones) were fueled by crocodiles too. There's a castle in Prague where you can see some artifacts that a medieval king of the region owned, including a skull that he was told belonged to the dragon that was slain by St. George. Of course, he had no clue that it was actually a crocodile's skull.

"Dragon" = "Big Ass Reptile" in the Good Old Days, presumably.

Nobody said it was a dragon of the sentient, flying, firebreathing, spellcasting, gold hoarding, maiden abducting disposition.

Darth Raptor · Post by **Darth Raptor** » 2005-06-09 02:28am

I remember seeing some Native American (maybe Pueblo?) glyphs that a Creationist claimed were representations of dinosaurs. Exactly what dinosaur I had no idea. The drawings looked more like sea horses crossed with kangaroos than anything.

Remember that the anceint peoples could conjure up imaginary monsters too.

wolveraptor · Post by **wolveraptor** » 2005-06-09 12:52pm

The trouble is, I desperately want this to be true, and for dinos to be alive.