Hello,
I was watching an episode of ancient aliens with some friends tonight, and the episode was about humans living among dinosaurs. While none of us actual believe about this but we were wondering if there is any evidence to disprove the carvings that are seen in some of the temples found around the world.
Thank you
I'm guessing you mean [these](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WI_nvEWvJ4o/T-wrcslyAZI/AAAAAAAAELo/TUj3GDiBAwI/s1600/Ancient+Aliens+-+04x10+-+Aliens+and+Dinosaurs%5B(021033) three [depictions](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OD8UrKwJ_Gk/T-wrjuBpIwI/AAAAAAAAEL4/8F7B8hJf4ZU/s1600/Ancient+Aliens+-+04x10+-+Aliens+and+Dinosaurs%5B(022381) of [dinosaurs](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hvt_ezPk67E/T-wrxZaQUCI/AAAAAAAAEMg/4qC5yUbamy0/s1600/Ancient+Aliens+-+04x10+-+Aliens+and+Dinosaurs%5B(036413)?
Unsurprisingly, they're all crap.
The first Maya piece is simply of a lizard. Reptiles are not uncommon in Maya art, and reptiles and amphibians even make their way into some glyphs. Take the rulers of Calakmul, who styled themselves the "Snake Lords".
The SE Asia image is misinterpreted from erosion, convenient cropping, and forcing the data. Here's a good Smithsonian article about it.
The last ones are the infamous "Ica stones." Firstly, much of the imagery hardly even looks stylistically correct. Second, there is absolutely zero provenience information about where they came from, and no archaeological dig has ever recorded finding them. And, of course, there's the mulitple people who have admitted to manufacturing them.
Most of these are willful misinterpretations of the carvings or paintings, others are blatant forgeries.
we were wondering if there is any evidence to disprove the carvings that are seen in some of the temples found around the world.
What do you mean "disprove"? Are there ways to identify forgeries? Certainly, but for that you'd need a specific example. Are there ways to show that a depiction of an Eagle isn't actually a depiction of a Pterodactyl? No, but you'd need a reason to treat the carving that way. This is a good demonstration of the burden of evidence, there are a plethora of much more plausible (if less sexy) explanations for the depictions of suspicious carvings. Ancient aliens has done this in every episode I've seen (not many), they show some carving with an ambiguous shape and say "LOOK A SPACESHIP".
Something to remember too: our ancestors had imaginations. Great sea creatures, massive reptiles, giant birds etc were invented throughout the world. Some may even have had access to fossils of large alien creatures and imagined the beasts that left them.
Also, the way of representing animals differs from culture to culture. Many Mayan depictions of Jaguars can be very "reptilian" to our eyes.
The brief glimpse that episode shows of the purported "dinosaur" from the Maya is from the murals in Structure 1, Room 2 of Bonampak. The mural depicts the subjugation and sacrifice of prisoners by the ruler, Chan Muwan.
The "dinosaur," which is clearly a snake, appears to be part of one of the warriors on the lower level's headdress. Other elaborate headdresses are shown throughout. Serpent imagery is astoundingly common in Mesoamerica and there is zero reason to think that this particular mural depicts anything other than a snake. Saying, as the show does, "well it looks like a lizard, so therefore dinosaur," is not an argument.
See also the Smithsonian on The Idiocy, Fabrications and Lies of Ancient Aliens and Jason Colavito's review of this episode.
What carvings?