I just finished an awesome quest: Forbidden Legend that was activated after reading a book, and I found two dragon claws in the process. The last dungeon was very interesting, as it had me use both claws I found in a single area. This is the most amount of claws I had to use at one time, which made me believe that perhaps the characters within the book were possibly the creators of the dragon claws. Perhaps it is much more likely that the claws were created by/for the dragon priests to protect preucious treasures or burials. Has anyone found further evidence of their initial creators/purpose?

It's actually denoted in a fairly uncommon in-game book, "Death of a Wanderer." You can read it right over here -> http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Death_of_a_Wanderer

tl;dr -- The Dragon Claw keys aren't designed to keep adventurers/grave robbers out, but rather keep the Draugr in.

That actually makes a lot of sense considering how the note found beside the emerald claw was written.

I knoooow, it's fascinating tops. Also made my mind snap a bit when I first read it. And it explains why the draugr just leave the claws lying around when someone inevitably wanders into ruins and gets torn apart.