The Loch Ness...a famous lake in Scotland that has been a great part in history. The Picts, a tribe that was attacked by the Romans in the 1st century (A.D.) had left many mysteries for us at the Loch Ness...including stone statues resembling many of the local animals. All are easily known...except for one statue. The srone carving resembled a large serpentine neck with a small head...a long tail and a body...with no, not legs, not claws, but four flippers. The flippers gave it away...it was an apparently unknown beast of the Loch...but what is it? Locals call it Nessie...a.k.a. the Loch Ness Monster.

What is this beast? Is it a myth, a legend, a scientific wonder, a hoax? We are not sure.

She became an obsession in 1933, after game hunter Marmaduke Wetherell found what looked like the footprints of gigantic flippers along a muddy slab on the side of the Loch Ness. Turned out that they were just marks made by stuffed hippopotamus foot. One other famous hoax was a picture that Wetherell's son took and faked by simply took a picture of a toy submarine with a serpent head attached and put in the water, but nobody could tell it was a fake because it was a sillhouette. He admitted it was a fraud later after released in the newspaper. Of course, the mystery of Nessie was still on the case. People took sonar scans in the Loch Ness, but found nothing. Sometimes they would find something, but it was usually just a school of salmon. Some people found vertebrae of the beast, thought to be a plesiosaur. But they lived in subtropical oceans, not frigid lakes. We still see sighting, but is it really real? We do not know.

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[edit on 13/11/06 by masqua]

hi , welcome to ATS.com

Originally posted by Dragonoligist Zac
including stone statues resembling many of the local animals. All are easily known...except for one statue. The srone carving resembled a large serpentine neck with a small head...a long tail and a body...with no, not legs, not claws, but four flippers. The flippers gave it away...

can you please give a reference or citation for this stone carving ? are photographs of it availiable on line ?

because phrases like " the stone carving resembled ......... " alerts me to possible creative interpreatation of that is actually visible .

and more important what the origional context was , ie why it was carved - and what it meant to 1st century picts .

once we know which carving you refere to - we can cross check its provenence , origin and any prior analysis that may have been done on it .

The Picts carved it to show what the meaning of their land was like, and what creatures they have encountered.