DATING THE STONES

Unfortunately, it's impossible to date the Ica Stones themselves. Radiocarbon dating can only be used on artifacts that contain organic material, which the stones do not. Rocks can only be dated by examining the strata in which they are found, but since the Ica Stones were uncovered by the erosion of a river bank (or in an unidentified cave, depending on which story you believe), the strata of their original resting place is unknown.

The implications of these stones are incredible. Perhaps too incredible. If they are authentic, they change everything we know about the history of human life on Earth.

AUTHENTIC OR HOAX?

Let's again look at the three possibilities:

An advanced human civilization existed at the time of the dinosaurs. This is the theory favored by Dr. Cabrera. He believes the stones are the record left by an advanced civilization. He contends that the stones constitute a library of this civilization's knowledge of medicine, astronomy, prehistoric animals and aeronautics, and that they fled (as the stones indicate) to another planet in the advent of some natural catastrophe. Does this make sense? Why would a people advanced enough to build telescopes, perform complicated surgery and capable of interstellar travel leave records crudely etched on rocks? Why are they depicted hunting dinosaurs with primitive weapons? There is no other evidence of this advanced civilization.

Dinosaurs survived to coexist with humans. This is theoretically possible, but there is no fossil record of triceratops, stegosaurus or any other dinosaur being alive in the same era as humans.

Some fundamentalist Christians, who contend that the Earth is only a few thousand years old, believe that there is fossil evidence of dinosaur and human footprints found together in such places as the Paluxy riverbed. These conclusions are, of course, hotly contested by scientists.

They are a hoax. This seems to be the most likely and logical conclusion. Yet anyone with an interest in these curiosities would welcome a thorough, rigorous scientific investigation and examination of the stones, rather than dismissing them out of hand simply because their implications are too fantastic. A scientific study would put the matter to rest.

THE JULESROD COLLECTION

The Ica Stones aren't the only controversial artifacts that seem to depict dinosaurs. About 50 years ago, an amateur archeologist named Val Julesrod began collecting clay figurines that had been unearthed in Mexico, and have been radiocarbon dated to be about 3,500 years old. While most of the figurines (there are more than 30,000 of them) are stylized human heads, some are of animals that strongly resemble camels, elephants and horses - animals that did not exist in Mexico 3,500 years ago. Others dated at 1,500 years old are monstrous forms that could be interpreted as dinosaurs. Or are they just mythical creatures?