Philip Coppens: Mysterious American Metal Plates

For decades, metal sheets with writing have been recovered from various archaeological sites in South America. Until recently, all were labelled “frauds”, but slowly, archaeologists are beginning to change their opinion. The ancient Americans, it seems, knew perfectly well how to work with metal.


When the Spanish conquistadors arrived in Peru and began the conquest of the Inca Empire, they saw silver and gold everywhere. Alas, they were only interested in its monetary, not artistic value. They therefore melted the artefacts down to ingots for easier transport to Europe, where it never arrived; the ships were sunk by pirates before they reached Spain.

From the little that is left in museums like the Gold Museum of Lima, it is clear that the Inca were masters in metallurgy. Nevertheless, the technical proficiency in metallurgy of this civilisation remains one of the more controversial topics in archaeology.

The topic became even more popular and controversial when the likes of Erich von Däniken focused their attention on a collection of metal plates and various related artefacts that had been gathered by an eccentric Italian priest, Father Carlos Crespi, in Cuenca, Ecuador. Von Däniken wrote up his visit to Crespi in “Gold of the Gods”, adding that the collection possessed certain common traits: “All the pyramid engravings have four things in common: a sun, but more frequently several suns, is depicted above the pyramid; snakes are always flying next to or over the pyramid; animals of various kinds are always present.” Such consistency between artefacts collated over a number of years and from different sources, suggested a common origin.
When Crespi questioned the people that brought him these artefacts, they told him that they had found them in subterranean cave systems in the jungles. Crespi therefore made sure that the extra-ordinary collection remained intact, using the courtyard of the church Maria Auxiliadora as his museum. Alas, many of the artefacts were destroyed in a fire on July 20, 1962, an act of arson, possibly engineered to destroy the collection. Alas, little remains of the Crespi collection, which was placed in various locations following the priest’s demise in January 1980. It is said that there remain active attempts to reopen a museum that has all of the collection that still remains.

Today, the collection is commonly labelled a fraud. It is true that Crespi was first a missionary, and not an archaeologist. When poor people brought him these plates, as well as other artefacts, which the local people knew he collected, he made sure they were rewarded for their efforts. He knew several local families were poor but that pride prevented them from asking for money – unless it was as payment for something. And hence, more and more metal plates found their way to the priest. Some, Crespi was sure, were fakes – and they were often the crudest.

But amongst the Crespi Collection were vast quantities of precious metals, like gold and silver. Those artefacts were unlikely to be frauds. Especially when we know that the collection was estimated to be worth at least one million dollar – for more than Crespi was able to pay the locals. Read More at Phillip Coppens...