Explain These Photos

[X]

So when I come across photos from our past with more questions than answers, I will put em here.Also, you can too.

First up:

An old picture from 1100 year ago in Cambodia has a strange animal carved into it...what may it be or not be?

Stegosaurs roamed Europe and North America during the late Jurassic period, roughly 150 million years ago. Judging from a small carving in an Angkor temple, one or two may have spent some time in Cambodia, too — in the 12th century AD.

A carving on the wall of the Ta Prohm temple, built in the late 1100s, bears more than a passing resemblance to the round-backed dinosaur. Since a 1997 guidebook first pointed out the strange carving, creationists have held up the Ta Prohm dinosaur as proof that humans and stegosauruses once co-existed in Cambodia. There is even a replica of the carving on display at the Creation Evidence Museum in Glen Rose, Texas.

While the carved animal does seem to have a row of plates along its spine, it's not the most compelling argument for revising the prehistoric timeline. The bas relief could be a depiction of a rhino or chameleon, with the "plates" forming a stylized version of foliage. But the curious carving adds another element of intrigue to the gorgeously ruined temple.

http://www.paleo.cc/paluxy/stegosaur-claim.htm

[Rockhopper]

I have visited Angkor Wat but I didn't see that carving. It could be a stylised version of many different animals from that area. Asian Rhino is one.

It's a place that you really need to visit sometime Mr. W. Fascinating!

Tim.

[Agartha]

There are rumours that the slates with the 'stegosaurus' and the other 'monster' at the bottom were added later, pretty recently.
If you look carefully, you can see the slates seem to be lighter than the rest?

But without any carbond dating there's no way to tell the truth.

And the monster at the bottom look so much like a gruffalo!!!
lol

[Rockhopper]

Yeah Ags, it looks like something that Lewis Carroll would cook up!

We need to be careful when reading ancient carvings. Firstly we need to know how the culture who did it were thinking. To understand what their mythological concepts were and so on. Not extrapolate it into modern ideaology.

Tim.

[Marilyn7]

Since Tomb Raider was filmed at that location it could be a movie prop . What I think it is however is a Rhino . The so called spine plates are actually depicting vegetation . The seperation detail along the spine , to me clearly show the lumps are not part of the animal being depicted.

[Agartha]

Since Tomb Raider was filmed at that location it could be a movie prop . What I think it is however is a Rhino . The so called spine plates are actually depicting vegetation . The seperation detail along the spine , to me clearly show the lumps are not part of the animal being depicted.

yes, I read about Tomb Raider and other movies that have been filmed there. And I agree it's most likely a common animal surrounded by big leaves, which are all over the pattern.

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