The Acámbaro Figures

Discovered: 1944

The Acámbaro Figures are a collection of small ceramic figurines allegedly found in Acámbaro, Guanajuato, Mexico. They were discovered by Waldemar Julsrud in July of 1944. According to accounts, Julsrud stumbled upon the artifacts while riding his horse in the Acámbaro area. He hired a local farmer to dig up the remaining figures, paying him for each object he found. Eventually, the farmer and his assistants discovered over 32,000 figures, which included representations of everything from dinosaurs to people from all over the world, including Egyptians, Sumerians, and bearded Caucasians. The Acámbaro Figures have been cited as out of place artifacts, as they are clearly human made and portray a large variety of dinosaur species. According to all history books, humans did not live in the time of the dinosaurs. Upon the discovery of the figures, many creationists from all over the world proclaimed the artifacts legitimate. If these figures are genuine, it could stand as credible evidence for the coexistence of dinosaurs and humans, which would severely damage the theory of evolution and offer support for the literal interpretation of the Bible.

Attempts have been made to date these figures using Thermoluminescence, or TL dating, and the results suggested a date around 2500 BCE. A man named Don Patton claims he found radiocarbon dates for the figures ranging from 6500 years to 1500 years ago; however, the objects are in very good shape and show no characteristic evidence of having been in the ground for at least 1500 years. If they were authentic artifacts, they should be scratched and marred from the rocky soil, which is characteristic of other objects found in that area of Mexico. Other supporters of the figures claim that the incredible detail of the dinosaurs suggest a firsthand experience with the creatures. The sheer number of the figures discovered is often cited as evidence for a hoax. To date, no credible scholars of archaeology or paleontology accept the discovery as valid.

Dinosaur figurine from Acambaro, Mexico at the foot of El Toro mountain.

The radiocarbon dating given for the figurines, which include things besides dinosaurs such as races of people from around the world, were between 6,500-1,500 years old. This however does not give a fully accurate assesment of when the statues were made. However, once the scientists that were dating the figures discovered what they were actually dating they immediately retracted their statements regarding the age of the figures.

Many have claimed the collection of statues is nothing but a fake, backing up their claims with curious statements such the fact that very few of the clay figurines were broken and that they appeared very clean. However, many artifacts have been discovered in remarkable preservation, and the desert environment is one of, if not the best environments to preserve artifacts over long periods of time.Aside from this, it seems very illogical and unlikely that the many tens of thousands of figurines were all recent forgeries by people with no knowledge of dinosaurs whom immediately sought to bury the treasures they had made and leave them to be discovered without any way to claim financial gain upon their discovery.