[Fred Nerks]

"They look rather modern and kind of cartoonish..."

Interesting comment. That's how I have always viewed them, as caricatures. It strikes me that an artist needs to be very familiar with his subject to create a cartoon representation of a subject. If in fact, the people who created the stones and the figurines lived at close quarters with the creatures depicted, the cartoonish representation may simply tell us how familiar they were with their antics and behaviour.

I am not interested in entering into the Creationism vs Intelligent Design discussion - I just would like to leave the door open to the possibility that these are ancient artifacts...perhaps.

[ahayes]

It strikes me that an artist needs to be very familiar with his subject to create a cartoon representation of a subject.

What, like the depictions in this book?