Yesterday in #ANSC301 we talked about one of my favorite examples of #pseudoarchaeology, the Acambaro Figurines!

More then 30,000 figurines were "discovered" in the 1940s & 50s outside of the Mexican town of Acambaro and purchased by the German collector Valdemar Julsrud. 1/14

From the get go, the collection seemed to be a mixture of well known West Mexican figurine styles and considerably stranger human figures unlike anything that had been previously found in the region. 2/14

But, it was really the strange animal figurines that drew Julsrud's attention to his growing collection. More and more of the figurines looked some what reptilian in nature. 3/14

And then came the straight up fantasy dinosaurs! 4/14

Not just one or two examples, oh no, more and more! 5/14

And more! 6/14

Of even greater interest to Julsrud was that some of the figurines showed humans and dinosaurs interacting. In particular, Julsrud claimed the figurines showed dinosaurs and humans in "loving relationships." 7/14

So... apparently @SUEtheTrex was not the first dinosaur that people fell in love with... 8/14

As Julsrud sought more attention for his growing collection the story was picked up by Fate Magazine who promoted the idea that the Acambaro figurines proved humans and dinosaurs lived together. 9/14

Not everyone was convinced, so Julsrud brought Charles Hapgood in to investigate. Hapgood, who had no archaeology training, cataloged the collection, carried out excavations, and claimed to radiocarbon date the ceramic figurines, proving they were ca. 10,000 years old. 10/14

For those playing the home game, you cannot directly date ceramic figurines via radiocarbon dating. 11/14

Soon after, archaeologist Charles DiPeso became involved, visiting Acambaro and observing figurines being excavated.

DiPeso noted that the excavated figurines, despite being a meter deep, came from a loose earth context, complete with fresh horse manure. They were plants! 12/14

Julsrud wasn't done though, through his connections he was able to convince the @pennmuseum to host a display of his collections.

The museum agreed under the provision they could present them as controversial, and as possibly replicating recent comic book images. 13/x

Finally, the Museum also helped arrange for the figurines to be dated by Thermoluminescence Dating, a technique that does work on ceramic figurines. And, low and behold, the figurines were of very recent origin. You're shocked, I know! 14/14