A peculiar carving at the Ta Prohm temple in Cambodia has provoked heated discussion among scholars, creationists, and historians. This little stone relief, part of the enormous Angkor complex, has become the subject of dispute due to its resemblance to a Stegosaurus dinosaur. The presence of the engraving has challenged our understanding of both archaeological and paleontological history by giving rise to a variety of interpretations and speculations regarding prehistoric knowledge of dinosaurs.
Description
King Jayavarman VII constructed the Ta Prohm temple, an outstanding example of Khmer architecture, in the late 12th century. With its encircling galleries, towers, and courtyards, the temple complex is roughly 600,000 square meters in size. Unlike many of Angkor’s reconstructed temples, Ta Prohm remained largely intact, with enormous tree roots encircling the ancient stones, creating an eerie blend of architecture and nature. The temple served as a Buddhist university and monastery, dedicating itself to the king’s mother (Lakshmipriya, 2008).
The controversial stegosaurus carving appears on a wall among hundreds of other reliefs depicting various animals, mythical creatures, and daily life scenes. The circular relief, approximately 30-40 centimeters in width, shows what appears to be a four-legged animal with a row of rounded plates along its back. Accurate identification is difficult because of the aged and rather plain carving (Sax, 2018).
The real Stegosaurus was an herbivorous quadruped that grew up to 9 meters in length and lived in the Late Jurassic period, around 155 to 145 million years ago. The two rows of huge, vertical bony plates down its back, together with the four protective spikes on its tail known as thagomizers, were its most distinguishing characteristics. The final Stegosaurus died some 145 million years ago, marking the end of the species long before modern humans appeared (Ruse, 2019).
Theories
Several theories explain the temple carving’s Stegosaurus-like appearance. Young Earth creationists challenge accepted scientific wisdom by citing it as proof that humans and dinosaurs coexisted. Others suggest that the production of such artwork may have resulted from the accurate interpretation and discovery of dinosaur fossils by ancient peoples. Some speculate that dinosaurs might have inherited cultural memory passed down through the generations.
Along with other contentious artifacts like the Ica stones of Peru and purported human footprints and dinosaur tracks in Texas, creationists usually point to the engraving as one of numerous purported pieces of archeological evidence for the cohabitation of humans and dinosaurs. Since the Khmer culture is believed to have emerged shortly after the biblical deluge, they argue that the carving’s apparent accuracy in depicting a Stegosaurus suggests the artist must have witnessed the living creature.
Creationist literature and media frequently include the Ta Prohm engraving alongside biblical allusions, particularly references to behemoth in the Book of Job, which some interpret as referring to dinosaurs. They contend that after surviving Noah’s deluge aboard the ark, dinosaurs progressively became extinct over the ensuing years as a result of environmental changes and human hunting. The carving has been the subject of independent research by certain creationist groups, which have produced documentation and movies highlighting its resemblance to reconstructions of the Stegosaurus. They frequently reject the option of fossil interpretation or coincidental likeness, arguing that the amount of detail in the carving would be impossible without firsthand sight of the living animal.
Beyond the factual proof of dinosaur extinction, this view presents a number of challenges. Many distinguishing characteristics of the Stegosaurus, including the tail spikes, are absent from the carving. It would be realistic to anticipate several, more in-depth representations of live dinosaurs not only at Ta Prohm but also in Khmer literature and art if the Khmer people were familiar with them. Furthermore, no written texts from the Angkorian period mention anything resembling a living dinosaur, despite substantial documentation of daily life, religion, and the natural world.
Skepticism
Skeptics, however, provide more commonplace justifications for the carving. Numerous historians and archaeologists note that the “plates” might be the remains of a native animal, like a boar or rhinoceros. According to others, it could be a stylized representation of a chameleon, which is widespread in the area and can have a characteristic ridge down its back. Determining the carving’s identity is challenging due to its roughness and worn state.
The straightforward style and lack of detail in the carving challenge its depiction as a Stegosaurus. The placement of the plates deviates from fossil evidence, and the animal in the illustration does not have the characteristic tail spikes of a true Stegosaurus. Furthermore, no other dinosaur representations in the thousands of sculptures at Angkor have received positive recognition, making this alleged unique example especially dubious (Burnett, 2019).
Ta Prohm’s temple features numerous carved animals, including monkeys, deer, birds (particularly water birds), elephants, horses, and other mythological creatures like nagas (serpent deities) and garudas (bird-like divine beings). The temple also depicts local animals such as lizards, water buffalo, and several fish species. During the Angkorian era, many of these animals were widespread in Cambodia and had religious or cultural importance. Additionally, there are hunting and everyday life scenes in the temple that contextualize these creatures.
For a number of strong reasons, it is scientifically impossible for a Stegosaurus to have survived to the present day or even to the time when Ta Prohm was constructed (12th century AD). Around 145 million years ago, during the Late Jurassic period, the Stegosaurus went extinct. About 144.8 million years before people started constructing sophisticated structures, this extinction took place. The distance between early humans and Ta Prohm (roughly 300,000 years) is much greater than the distance between us and the construction of the Ta Prohm temple (about 800 years), and both of these timeframes are negligible in comparison to the time between Stegosaurus and human existence (Loxton & Prothero, 2013).
Survival would have been impossible due to the dramatic changes in the environment that have taken place between the Jurassic period and the present, including many extinction events. The most notable of them was the extinction of all non-avian dinosaurs during the Cretaceous-Paleogene period, which occurred 66 million years ago. A Stegosaurus’s survival requirements could not be satisfied due to the drastic changes in the world’s climate, vegetation, and ecosystems.
Furthermore, if any population had survived, there would have been abundant evidence of such enormous, unique animals in the fossil record between the Jurassic and modern periods. In more recent geological layers, we would also discover tangible evidence such as footprints, bones, droppings, and feeding marks. There is no such proof. Furthermore, even in isolated locations, an animal this enormous (up to 9 meters long) could hardly sustain a healthy breeding population without being readily discovered in the contemporary world. Birds are the only dinosaurs that have survived to the present day. They descended from tiny, feathered theropod dinosaurs, which are entirely distinct from the massively armored, herbivorous Stegosaurus.
Conclusion
The scientific community tends to favor more mundane theories, even though the Ta Prohm Stegosaurus still fascinates tourists and feeds conjecture. The carving most likely depicts an idealized representation of a local animal or a fusion of creative components that just so happen to look like a dinosaur. In addition to reminding us to approach such interpretations with careful consideration of historical and scientific context, this intriguing argument demonstrates how ancient artifacts can spark contemporary conflicts.
References
Burnett, S. E. (2019). A stegosaur carving on the ruins of Ta Prohm? Think again. Skeptical Inquirer, 43(4), 45-49.
Lakshmipriya, T. (2008). Conservation and restoration of Ta Prohm temple. In Proc. of VI International Conference on Structural Analysis of Historic Construction, D’Ayala, D. and Fodde (Eds) (pp. 1491-1497).
Loxton, D., & Prothero, D. R. (2013). Abominable science! Origins of the Yeti, Nessie, and other famous cryptids. Columbia University Press.
Ruse, M. (2019). Why did the stegosaurus have plates, or is biology second-rate because it thinks in terms of ends?. RHV. An International Journal of Philosophy, (14), 9-25.
Sax, B. (2018). Dinomania: Why We Love, Fear and Are Utterly Enchanted by Dinosaurs. Reaktion books.
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