Padre Carlos Crespi
Padre Carlos Crespi was born in Italy in 1891. He joined the Salesian Society, a Roman Catholic religious order, and was sent to minister to the people of Ecuador. Padre Crespi dedicated his life to the service and welfare of the people of Ecuador, both rich and poor alike.
He was a man of extraordinary benevolence and talent. Up to the time of his death in 1982, he served as educator, anthropologist, botanist, artist, explorer and musician. Following his death a statue was erected in the city of Cuenca to commemorate his long years of service to the community.
Over the years Padre Crespi gained the confidence of the local Indian tribes. To repay him for his kindness, they would bring him ancient artifacts. When asked where they had found them, they would simply say that they came from under the ground.
During the course of his ministry Padre Crespi assembled a considerable collection of ancient objects, and stored them at the Church of Maria Auxiliadora at Cuenca. It was there that he and von Däniken met.
Padre Crespi invited von Däniken to examine his vast store of treasures, which he kept in various rooms. One room was devoted to carved stones. Another room contained Inca artifacts of gold, silver, copper and brass. A third room contained artifacts that were similar to the objects that von Däniken had seen in the underground cavern that he had explored with Juan Moricz.
This time von Däniken was allowed to photograph these golden objects, and it was these photographs that appeared in his book “The Gold of the Gods”.
The objects in Father Crespi’s collection were an archeologist’s dream. Not only were they made of gold, but they had a historical value beyond price. If there is anything that can serve to validate the existence of the civilization of Paititi, it is this collection acquired by Padre Crespi.
The showpiece of his collection is a sheet of metal, 20½ inches high, 5½ inches wide, and 1½ inches thick. This weight of this metallic plaque is about 44 pounds.
It would be impossible to place a price on this unique plaque which deserves to be enshrined in one of the great museums of the world.
But what makes this plaque of supreme importance to archeology is that it is imprinted with 56 different characters, arranged in groups of four. These characters are completely unknown to scholars, and up to this time these “letters” have never been deciphered. They could not have been created by the Incas, since the Incas had no recorded form of writing. In a strange way, these “letters” seem bear out what Percy Fawcett had described in his letter to his son Brian, quoted above:
“Judging by inscriptions found in many parts of Brazil, the inhabitants used an alphabetical writing allied to many ancient European and Asian scripts.”
In fact the “letters” have been compared to a cross between the characters used by the Magyars of the Carpathian Mountains in Europe, and the ancient Sumerians. This suggests that whatever culture was responsible for creating this metallic plaque could have been the same civilization that “seeded” these ancient cultures in Europe and Asia.
The 56 characters of this metallic plaque are shown below.
In In the Title Deed referred to above, Juan Moricz claimed to have found “metal plaques (leaves) engraved with signs and writing”, in a large underground cavern accessed by the subterranean tunnels that he had discovered.
When Moricz agreed to guide von Däniken to his secret treasure trove, they entered the tunnels which led to this large underground cavern. It was here that von Däniken saw for himself the vast “library” of these metal leaves. The entire library amounted to several thousand “leaves”, of which the panel shown above is just one example.
Could it be that the plaque shown above is the key to deciphering all the leaves in the library? Obviously we will never know until the entire library becomes available for scientific study and analysis.
But Padre Crespi’s golden collection was not limited to this plaque, as unique and important as it undoubtedly is. There were also a vast range of other objects, of which the items shown below are just a few examples.
Entire Volumes could no doubt be written about each one of the above objects. Padre Crespi never tried to classify or interpret them. Their age and origin is still unknown. Their picture motifs are strange and their meaning has yet to be deciphered.
It is hoped that one day these artifacts will get the attention and research that they deserve. Unfortunately, that day does not seem likely to dawn any day soon.
Many of these priceless objects were destroyed when the Church was severely damaged by fire. Others disappeared when the Church buildings were restored. After Padre Crespi died the remaining artifacts were removed and are no longer accessible to the public.
It seems as if the prediction made by the Oracle of Tolemac is correct, and that these objects will remain hidden until the time when the world is ready to benefit from the ancient wisdom of Paititi.
The quest for the evidence of Paititi will be continued when we investigate in greater detail the mysterious subterranean tunnels discovered by Juan Moricz, and the subsequent expeditions that were made to discover the “stone and metal objects” that Moricz claimed lay hidden in vast underground caverns.
