Feature Articles – Jurassic Library
According to geological evidence, the Age of Dinosaurs and the Age of Man are separated by roughly 60 million years. That has not deterred the dream-spinners of Hollywood from supposing that dinosaurs survived into the present (The Lost World), or that they can be genetically recreated (Jurassic Park). other movies in this genre have played with the idea that, somehow, man and the dinosaurs may have co-existed.
by Philip Coppens


documentary because they did not add any scientific weight to the debate. In 1997, the documentary’s producer, Bill Cote, decided to cash in on two controversial items dropped from the original broadcast. The segment concerning the Ica stones was called Jurassic Art and was marketed for cable television and the video sales market. The production centred on Steede’s research as he was the latest archæologist to investigate the collection. When Steede met Basilo Uschuya, the farmer confirmed that he had engraved the stones from drawings that Cabrera had brought to him. Why? “Making these stones is easier than farming the land.” Uschuya stated that Cabrera had about 5000 ‘genuine’ stones – ie. stones that Uschuya himself had not made – and that he had not fabricated all of the others, contrary to what he had previously stated. We have no clues as to who else might be making these stones. Cabrera explained Uschuya’s implication by admitting that a large number of stones had indeed been copied, but they were only for sale to tourists. There is of course little harm in creating replicas; a position most museums will be happy to agree with. Doubters will argue that Cabrera only confessed to his part in these forged stones when faced with his accomplice’s statement – so how can we rely on any of his other statements? We also wonder whether Cabrera had asked anyone else to fabricate stones. Cabrera continues to maintain that his stones are genuine and that there is still a hoard of genuine stones, whose secret location is guarded by Uschuya and others. Cabrera claims he was shown a cave in which the cache of stones had remained hidden for millions of years. This cave was revealed, he says, after a severe rainstorm washed open a new area near the Ica river. (This may or may not be the event referred to by Herman Buse in 1965.) Cabrera remains tight-lipped on who took him to the cave and as no maps or pictures of it exist we have only Cabrera’s word for it. Cabrera has stated that he hopes it will not be found. Even Erich von Däniken, who describes Cabrera as a “warm friend”, was denied the privilege. Steede, who offered to be blindfolded throughout the journey to the cave, was also rebuffed and now believes the cave never existed. Surely, you ask, couldn’t the matter be settled once and for all by dating the stones? Unfortunately, though some testing was done, the results remain inconclusive. Cabrera himself sent stones to the Universities of Lima (Peru) and Bonn (Germany) and to NASA scientist (and ancient astronaut buff) Joseph Blum. At Bonn, a Professor Frenchen apparently confirmed that the stones were andesite (an extremely hard volcanic rock composed mostly of silica) and that the oxidized patina on their surface indicated “significant” age. In 1967, Cabrera asked friend Eric Wolf, a mining engineer, to arrange an analysis and published the results in his book. The stones were indeed andesite, worn smooth in ancient rivers. “I have not found any notable or irregular wear on the edges of the incisions,” Wolf notes, concluding: “These etchings were executed not long before they were deposited in graves or other places where they were discovered.” 6 Cabrera adds, specifically, that “the coating of natural oxidation covers the incisions as well.” This would suggest the stones were indeed ancient. However, this has to be balanced by the first-hand observation by Neil Steede that, even though the stones he examined did have this patina, there was no patina in the grooves. This suggests that while the stones were certainly very old, the carvings were clearly of far more recent origin.
While some investigators claim that they were refused permission to see the Calco collection in the Museum of Ica stash, Neil Steede was granted access. He concluded that these “definitely genuine” stones show a finer workmanship and have less deep cuts than Cabrera’s stones. This is a clear indication of a more highly skilled manufacturer than Cabrera’s artisan. Furthermore, they are restricted to depicting conventional humans and existing animals, not extinct animals; nor do they include any examples of the more exotic motifs of the Cabrera stones. In the same year that the Mysterious Origins of Man documentary aired, the German cable channel Kabel 1 broadcast its own investigation.7 The team had filmed secretly as Cabrera took them into one of his ‘secret’ rooms. Here, instead of incised stones, were astonishing clay sculptures: small dinosaurs crawling out of an egg, kangaroos, people with odd-shaped heads and other similar themes. The team decided to confront Basilo Uschuya with this new footage. He claimed to have made these sculptures as well, for what in his opinion was a minimum salary, and showed the team such a sculpture, which seemed indistinguishable from those in Cabrera’s secret room. The story became stranger when, that same year, Erich von Däniken launched the German version of his book Arrival of the Gods, in which he reported on his 1996 trip to Peru… and said that Cabrera had allowed him to visit and photograph the figurines! Von Däniken stated that he was first shown these clay figures during his visit in 1983. The point is that, unlike the stones, these clay figurines can be tested. Von Däniken sent one to the University of Zurich for carbon-dating and they reported that the figurine was modern. His fellow researcher, Johannes Fiebag, sent two other samples to the University of Weimar who, likewise, concluded that the samples were “relatively young” and still contained water. Conclusion: these figurines were not “a hundred thousand” years old, as Cabrera claimed; they could have been made 20 years ago. It is quite possible for the engraved stones, if authentic, to have a simple anthropological origin. An alternative explanation – not considered by Cabrera or others – is that the engravings are votive renderings by the tribe’s shaman; after all, the dream-flight of the shaman is, in many cultures, linked to the flight of birds. Could not a shaman have picked up a dinosaur bone (which can be found easily in the area), entered a trance, connected with the bone’s previous owner and seen the dinosaur age in a vision? It seems increasingly likely that the Ica stones have been fabricated, but it is difficult to believe that they are all – estimates run to 50,000 pieces – made by one poor, uneducated farmer. No independent study has been made, if only to separate any possibly authentic artifacts from the fakes. Nor do we know to what extent Cabrera’s interpretations have been based on any of the fakes. The one researcher who has known Cabrera the longest, Erich von Däniken, has repeatedly stated that some stones are definitely fakes. He has also cast doubt on the origins of the entire collection. In the end, perhaps von Däniken understands Cabrera’s motive best. He is convinced Cabrera tells stories: “And stories is the right word, for they do not fit in with any scientific scheme of things. The old man uses engravings which he must know are fake to substantiate his beliefs. Why? Has he become so enamoured of his own theories that he thinks imitations will back them up?” 8
Cabrera’s interest in medicine and archæology might have made him susceptible to an ingenious fraud, but if so he is not the one who has profited from it. Or perhaps he has fooled himself, seeing evidence of his wishful thinking everywhere. In 1966, the media were rife with the theme of men and dinosaurs interacting, especially in the movie One Million Year BC (1966). Was Cabrera inspired by this? Or was he inspired by the so-called ‘Acambaro figurines’, named after their place of origin in Mexico where, in 1925, Waldemar Julsrud, a Danish storekeeper, found hundreds of clay figurines of dinosaurs which – like their Ica counterparts some 40 years later – are cavorting with men? 9 Clearly, more research must be done to settle the doubts about the Ica stones. Now 77 years old, Cabrera remains the sole custodian of the enigma and seems to enjoy the position. Without giving anything away, he still offers a jovial welcome to visitors to the Museo Cabrera – his own Jurassic Library. It is, he is convinced, “the most important legacy of our time.” In 1977, two producers for BBC TV travelled to Peru to film a number of stories for a programme called ‘Pathways to the Gods’, in the Chronicle series. Tony Morrison and Ray Sutcliffe, who specialise in film reportage from South America, were chiefly interested in ancient trackways and the Nazca lines, but included the mystery of the Ica stones. Morrison – who has visited Peru on a regular basis since 1961 – went on to write the book Pathways to the Gods (1978). He was told by local informants that, despite the esteem with which Cabrera was originally regarded, his ‘crazy’ ideas had isolated him and created some bad feeling in the community Sutcliffe told FT that they had located and filmed Basilo Uschuya, the only forger of the stones ever identified. Uschuya’s homestead stood out from those surrounding it as the only one with a TV mast and an electricity generator. Far from being an illiterate peasant, Sutcliffe said Uschuya was intelligent, proud of his achievement and had “a great sense of humour.” He proved it to the TV crew by taking a fresh stone about an inch a half long – its patina the result of being baked in cow dung and massaged with boot polish – powered up his dentist’s drill and carved an ‘ancient’ legend of ‘BBC TV’. Today, the stone sits on Sutcliffe’s desk as one of the most unusual paperweights in the world. Note: since this article was written, Dr. Javier Cabrera has passed away. NOTES 1. See, for example, Ankerberg Theological Institute
2. According to some, of course, they didn’t all disappear. Cryptozoological books often argue for the possible survival of dinosaurs in remote parts of Africa or elsewhere. And, everyone’s favourite lake-monster, Nessie, has also been identified (partly in jest) as a remnant of a Jurassic species.
3. Herman Buse, Introduccion al Peru (1965).
4. Santiago Agurto Calvo, ‘Las piedras mágicas de Ocicaje’ in El Comercio (supplement) 11 Dec 1966.
5. David Hatcher Childress, Lost Cities and Ancient Mysteries of South America (1990), p50.
6. Cabrera, The Message of the Engraved Stones of Ica, pp40-41.
7. Kabel 1, 7 August 1997.
8. Erich von Däniken, Arrival of the Gods (Element Books, 1998), p64. Von Däniken claims he broke an arm off one of the figurines for dating, adding “May Cabrera and the ancient gods of Peru forgive me!”
9. A study of the Acambaro figurines is being prepared for a future FT. This article originally appeared in Fortean Times 151, October 2001. It was also featured in Kadath, issue 101 (2005).