Mystery in Acambaro: Did Dinosaurs Survive Until Recently? (Paperback)

~ Charles Hapgood (Author), David Hatcher Childress (Introduction), Charles, H. Hapgood (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Charles Hapgood's rare book, Mystery in Acambaro, is back in print! Hapgood researched the Acambaro collection of clay figurines with Erle Stanley Gardner (author of the Perry Mason mysteries) in the mid-1960s. The Acambaro collection comprises hundreds of clay figurines that are apparently thousands of years old; however, they depict such bizarre animals and scenes that most archaeologists dismiss them as an elaborate hoax. The collection shows humans interacting with dinosaurs and various other "monsters" such as horned men. Both Hapgood and Gardner were convinced that the figurines from Acambaro were authentic ancient artifacts which indicated that men and dinosaurs had cohabited together in the recent past, and that dinosaurs had not become extinct many millions of years ago as is commonly thought. David Hatcher Childress writes a lengthy introduction concerning Acambaro, the latest testing and other evidence of "living" dinosaurs.

About the Author

Charles Hapgood was a professor at the University of New Hampshire and wrote numerous books, including Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings, which won an Amazon.com award for Best Atlas.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Adventures Unlimited Press; illustrated edition edition (December 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0932813763
• ISBN-13: 978-0932813763
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #599,182 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hapgood's long out of print book is now available, November 28, 2000

A Kid's Review

We owe David Hatcher Childress a huge vote of thanks for reprinting Hapgood's long out of print study of one of the most curious archaeological mysteries of the last century. Sometime in the late 1940s, Waldemar Julsrud, a German living in the small Mexican town of Acambaro, stumbled upon a strange clay figurine protruding from the earth. Within days, a barrow-load of similar clay sculptures was delivered to him by a man who was recovering dozens of them from the excavation of his basement nearby. Subsequent testing suggests they were made between 3,500-6,400 years before the present but correspond to no known ancient culture. This heresy is made worse by the strangeness of the figures, many showing humans co-existing with huge lizards and Godzilla-like dinosaurs. The establishment has shunned the case, but it deserves to be better studied. The story might never have become known if the case had not been investigated by Hapgood (author of Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings) and crime-writer Earle Stanley Gardner. The original pamphlet is only about 20 pages; half the rest are old (rather poor) photos of the enigmatic sculptures and half is a long essay by Childress reviewing evidence of dinosaur survival into the era of modern man.

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Challenging, controvsersial, thought-provoking reading., January 4, 2001

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

Mystery In Acambaro is a detailed and illustrated account of an unusual collection of ceramic figures discovered and assembled by the late Waldemar Julsrud in Acambaro, Mexico. If authentic, some of the figures would seem to indicate that dinosaurs survived in that part of the world into fairly recent times. This clay figures depict bizarre animals and scenes that don't fit neatly into traditional archaeology and paleontology theory, and therefore have been sumarily dismissed by mainstream scholarship as an elaborate hoax. But both Hapgood and Earle Stanley Gardner were convinced that the Acambaro figures were authentic artifacts, with very important implications for our understanding of dinosaurs and Central American human history. Highly recommended, challenging, controversial, very thought provoking reading.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Quite What Was Expected, September 11, 2000

By	Doug Wimberley (Hillsboro, Tennessee United States) - See all my reviews

As mentioned in the title, this book was not quite what was expected. The introduction by Childress was equivalent in length to Hapgood's portion, and contained little new information. It also contained some misinformation about the Zuiyo-maru carcass.

As for Hapgood's portion, a more complete analysis of the mystery figures was expected. The presentation was quite generic with few specific examples of the reasoning behind his belief thst dinosaurs survived until recently.