Three views of the Granby, Colorado
stone idol. From the 1925 report
by Samuel Hubbard.
In October and November of 1924, the Doheny Expedition to
Havasupai canyon was fielded by the Oakland Museum, Oakland, California. Its
purpose was to record an example of rock art that supposedly proved that
dinosaurs and humans had coexisted. This expedition was led by Samuel Hubbard,
director of the expedition and an honorary curator of archaeology at the
museum, and accompanied by Charles W. Gilmore, Curator of Vertebrate
Paleontology at the United States National Museum. The report on this
expedition was written by Hubbard and published January 26, 1925. I have
written about the question of the authenticity of their “dinosaur petroglyph”,
the supposed “wooly rhinoceros of Moab, Utah”, and also a petroglyph supposedly
showing a fight between a human and an elephant, separately.
The Granby, Colorado stone idol.
From the 1925 report
by Samuel Hubbard.
.jpg)
The Granby, Colorado stone idol.
From the 1925 report
by Samuel Hubbard.
“A STONE IDOL?
These
three views of what is probably a Stone Idol, were sent to me by Mr. F. V.
Hammar of Saint Louis. In his letter of June 23rd, 1926, Mr. Hammar
says: - “This queer relic was found by a man named Jordan near Granby,
Colorado. Mr. Jordan was excavating for a garage or a cellar and uncovered this
stone at a depth of 12 feet. He found many utensils, etc., in the same place,
thus giving the presumption of a settlement. The stone is exceedingly hard
green material, and like nothing ever known of in the neighborhood. It may have
been brought from a distance.”
.jpg)
The Granby, Colorado stone idol.
From the 1925 report
by Samuel Hubbard.
This
sculptured stone is of unusual interest to me because it shows carved in high
relief, the figures of two dinosaurs and an elephant. The inscriptions are also
of great interest, and some of them are similar to those I saw in the Supai
Canyon.
It
is significant that the dinosaur and elephant are close together in the Supai
drawings, and here they are sculptured together on the back of the same figure.
The dinosaurs suggest either the
“brontosaurus” or the “diplodocus,” while the elephant has a long curved tusk.”
(p.36)
One of the basic questions for art historians, curators, and
even appraisers, is attribution. The question of who made this, or by which
culture was it produced. Individual artists have their own personal (and
recognizable) stylistic and technological characteristics. That is why you can tell
a Matisse painting and a Manet painting apart. Their creators had differing
physical and mental abilities and biases. The same goes for art and artifacts
produced by one culture as opposed to another. Their (the cultures) members
have differing visual and contextual preferences and assumptions and the
artists work to fulfill their audiences’ expectations. You can see the
differences between the art and artifacts produced by different cultures,
especially if you are experienced in such evaluations and are sensitive to the
norms of those cultures’ aesthetics.
In attempting such an evaluation with the Granby, Colorado,
stone idol I deeply lament the poor quality of the images, but, from what I can
see, it is very easy to recognize a modern fraud. The carvings that are
visible fit into no known culture of New World history, or prehistory. I have
made limited inquiries to try to ascertain if this “stone idol” still exists,
either in Granby, Colorado, or in Saint Louis, but I have been unsuccessful. Perhaps
a detailed personal examination would allow a different interpretation, but
from what can be seen in the photographs, it is definitely a hoax.
Now, I certainly do not want to imply that I think that
Hubbard was part of this hoax. My problem with Samuel Hubbard, Honorary Curator
of Archaeology at the Oakland Museum, Oakland, California, and the Doheny
Expedition that he led into Havasupai Canyon is only its (and his) lack of
scientific rigor. His goal was not to gather data and see what the interpretation
of that data revealed. His self-stated goal was to use the dinosaur
“pictograph” and other discoveries to prove his theories about the antiquity of
men and cultures in the New World.
“This
canyon was first visited by the writer in November, 1894, and in February and
March, 1895. Most of the matters of prehistoric interest described in this
pamphlet, were observed at that time but their true significance was not fully
recognized. Endeavors were made at various times to interest scientists in this
discovery, but without avail.
It is only within the past two or
three years that discoveries made in Yucatan, Mexico, and the western states
prove to the most conservative that a race or races of men of very great
antiquity inhabited North America.
The fact that some prehistoric man
made a pictograph of a dinosaur on the walls of this canyon upsets completely
all of our theories regarding the antiquity of man. Facts are stubborn and
immutable things. If theories do not square with the facts then the theories must
change, the facts remain.” (Hubbard 1925:5)
In this effort Hubbard has picked and chosen from a number
of unrelated and questionable items to attempt to build a logical construct
that will support his theory. To my mind, at least, he failed totally, and this
fraudulent “stone idol” is the weakest link in the flimsy chain. I have stated
before in other examples, there is a reason for the scientific method, and
wandering away from it certainly led Samuel Hubbard astray.
SOURCE:
Hubbard, Samuel
1925 The Doheny Scientific Expedition to the Hava
Supai Canyon, Northern Arizona, October and November, 1924, Oakland Museum,
Oakland, CA.
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