The Ica Stones
A Peruvian doctor collected thousands of engraved stones that seemed to show ancient people hunting dinosaurs.
What was reported
In the 1960s, Javier Cabrera, a doctor in Ica, began collecting andesite stones engraved with pictures, eventually gathering more than 11,000. Some showed people riding and fighting dinosaurs, using telescopes and performing surgery.
Cabrera argued that the stones were the work of an advanced ancient civilisation that lived alongside dinosaurs, and opened a museum to display them.
Explanations offered
A local farmer, Basilio Uschuya, who had sold many of the stones, admitted in the 1970s that he carved them himself, copying pictures from comics and magazines, and showed reporters how he aged them. Archaeologists consider the dinosaur stones a hoax, though Peru does have genuine ancient engraved stones.
- When
- Collected from the 1960s
- Where
- Ica, Peru
- Witnesses
- A doctor's collection and the farmer who made them
- Status
- Hoax
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.