Dinosaurs in Ancient Art

There is a Mesopotamian cylinder seal on display in a museum in Paris with a clear depiction of dinosaurs on it. There are brontosauruses with inter-winding necks and tails. Their depictions are so accurate that they rival dinosaur depictions made in modern times.

Some Bible enthusiasts have concluded from this that someone back in ancient times must have seen a dinosaur. How else could they make such an accurate depiction of one? Furthermore, the cylinder seal is not the only dinosaur depiction. There are depictions of other dinosaur species as well. There are at least a handful of very accurate dinosaur depictions found in ancient art.

While the depiction of a single dinosaur species could be considered a coincidence, a handful of them do suggest that the artists had accurate information related to the dinosaurs. Someone must indeed have seen a dinosaur. However, it does not follow from this that anyone had seen one alive. The most likely explanation for these depictions, as well as the many stories about dragons and other monsters, is that people from time to time uncover dinosaur skeletons.

Ancient artists could make accurate depictions of dinosaurs for the same reason we do so today. They had sufficient skeleton remains to make complete pictures of what they must have looked like when they were alive.

By Gryffindor - Own work, Public Domain, Link