The carving in stone I referred to in this post was found in the jungle temples of Cambodia which were produced by the Khmer civilization beginning as early as the eighth and extending through the fourteenth century A.D..
The reason I was curious about what people thought was because the finding was being discussed at NeuroLogica Blog. Of course, Dr. Novella is a materialist and dismisses the carving as a dinosaur for obvious reasons. He believes the carving to be the likeness of a chameleon.
I don’t particularly care one way or the other, though I always find it interesting to see how materialists immediately dismiss all the ancient dragons stories, the biblical references to dinosaur like creatures, and the dino imagines that we find in ancient drawings, on ancient pottery, etc.. Read through his blog and the comments as they are quite interesting, IMHO.
Just for kicks, I showed this drawing to a few people of different ages who had no clue about this debate or the implications of finding a dino drawing in an ancient temple. I didn't preface my question with anything at all. I just showed it to them and asked what it looked like.
Of the three adults I asked, all three immediately said "a dinosaur".
Both my boys said "a dinosaur", and I asked my youngest what kind of dinosaur he thought it looked like. He said it looks like a combination between a Stegosaurus and a Triceratops.
I decided to ask a few younger kids thinking they may pose some interesting interpretations...
A fourth grade girl said a dinosaur.
A second grade girl said a rhino.
A kindergarten boy said a rhino.
After further questioning, I found out the two youngest who said a rhino didn’t consider the plates at all. It’s as though they thought the plates were decor behind the “rhino”.
No one said a chameleon, so since my youngest seemed the most interested, I asked him if he thought it looked like a chameleon. He said that perhaps the eye looked kind of like a chameleon.
At first glance, I’m relatively sure most people would have to honestly say the carving looks like a dinosaur. I’m not opposed to the rhino interpretation, although rhino’s definitely don’t have plates and a tail like a dinosaur. But, it could be that the “plates” are not part of the animal?
I’m just not seeing a chameleon.
Be sure to check out all the links I've included...interesting stuff.
