Canonical: https://aliennews.co.il/en/articles/father-crespi-collection-mesopotamia Language: en datePublished: 2026-09-09 dateModified: 2026-09-10 HISTORICAL COLLECTION September 9, 2026 Updated: September 10, 2026 **Documented** **Work type:** Archival preservation and analysis # Father Crespi called the plaque Babylonian. He held it in Ecuador An Ecuadorian priest collected plaques whose figures and symbols he believed were Babylonian. They became entangled with claims of a metal library in the Tayos caves, where an expedition included Neil Armstrong. What did Crespi have, what did investigators find, and where did the collection go? By Avi Moas and [Orion](https://aliennews.co.il/en/about#orion) Orion is an AI writing and research partner. Avi Moas is the responsible editor. ## At a glance **What is known:** Photographs, films and museum accounts document the large and varied collection gathered by Father Crespi in Ecuador. **The claim or interpretation:** Crespi and others connected some plaques with Mesopotamia and a story about a metal library in the Tayos caves. **What remains open:** Complete inventories and material tests establishing the origin of the Mesopotamian looking plaques were not located. ![Four photographic panels: a standing relief figure, a pyramid plaque, a panel of faces and three winged figures](https://aliennews.co.il/historical/crespi-montage.webp) Archival photographs. Montage of objects attributed to the Crespi collection. Sources: APIL, Rey de Kish and Gustavo Fernández / Mystery Planet. No carved details were reconstructed. ## A priest in Ecuador calls a plaque Babylonian An older film shows Father Carlo Crespi holding a metal plaque covered with signs, which Brian Colless says Crespi identified as Babylonian. No inventory record or material analysis substantiating that identification was located for the photographed plaque. Others gave the plaques a much larger story. Juan Moricz linked them to the Tayos caves; Erich von Däniken wrote of an underground metal library and extraterrestrials; Neil Armstrong joined a cave expedition in 1976. The photographed objects exist. Their age, origin and supposed connection to that library remain the disputed parts. [Source for this section](https://cryptcracker.blogspot.com/2013/06/ecuador-treasures.html) ## The man people brought objects to Born in Italy in 1891, Crespi arrived in Ecuador in 1923. He was a Salesian priest, educator, naturalist and filmmaker. In Cuenca he established schools and workshops for disadvantaged young people, and in the Amazon he documented local communities. His work continued over decades, until his death in 1982. People brought him vessels, sculptures and plaques. He bought objects and accepted gifts, sometimes paying as a way to help the seller. The collection grew without consistent records of where each object had been found. Later visitors asking where a particular plaque came from could not always turn to a written record. [Source for this section](https://www.salesianos.org.ec/2025/04/30/eucaristia-en-memoria-del-p-carlos-crespi-a-43-anos-de-su-partida-una-vida-entregada-radicalmente-al-servicio-de-los-demas/) ## What the museum actually held Photographs show pottery, paintings and sculpture alongside the metal plaques. These were not pieces of a single treasure recovered together. They belonged to a collection assembled over many years from different sources. The classification described by the Crespi association lists 5,000 archaeological objects, 1,187 paintings and 132 sculptural pieces. Those are figures from that account, not a present inventory checked for this article. The academic paper’s storage photograph shows closely arranged ceramic vessels, another part of the collection made famous by its plaques. [![Archival photograph. Ceramics from the collection in storage. Figure 2 in ArqueoWeb, 2017.](https://aliennews.co.il/historical/crespi-ceramics.webp)](https://webs.ucm.es/info/arqueoweb/pdf/18/05_NovilloVera.pdf) Archival photograph. Ceramics from the collection in storage. Figure 2 in ArqueoWeb, 2017. ## Why Crespi spoke of Babylon Images attributed to the collection show figures in profile, tall headdresses, winged creatures and densely arranged signs. These prompted comparisons with the ancient Near East. Crespi treated the resemblance as evidence of a historical connection; Colless describes his Babylonian attribution in the film. The motifs do not necessarily belong to one culture. The winged bull with a human head, for example, is familiar from Assyrian art. The Metropolitan Museum holds a lamassu from Nimrud dated to the ninth century BCE, with an inventory number and provenance. It provides a reference for the motif, not a date for the object photographed with Crespi. An old image can be copied onto a new object. The question is whether the resemblance travelled between ancient cultures, or through a book, photograph and workshop much later. [Source for this section](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/322608) ## The figure with the tall headdress The relief reproduced here shows a standing figure in profile. Its tall headdress, decorated clothing and forward arms recall poses found in ancient Near Eastern reliefs. The frame and ornament around the body strengthen that impression. Rey de Kish published the photograph in its discussion of the Crespi collection. An original photographer and inventory number were not located. The image allows comparison of the figure’s form, but does not establish the relief’s history before it was photographed. [![Archival photograph. Standing figure relief reproduced by Rey de Kish. The photographer and inventory number were not located. Attribution to the Crespi collection follows that source.](https://aliennews.co.il/historical/crespi-standing-figure.webp)](https://reydekish.com/2014/01/15/cueva-de-los-tayos/) Archival photograph. Standing figure relief reproduced by Rey de Kish. The photographer and inventory number were not located. Attribution to the Crespi collection follows that source. ## A pyramid, cats and solar signs An image published by APIL shows a stepped structure with catlike animals and solar motifs. Objects like this made the collection a focus of comparisons between continents: several visual traditions seem possible, without an immediate identification with one of them. Calling the central shape a pyramid does not settle its origin. It is stepped, and the surrounding animals and signs belong to the same composition. A cultural attribution needs to account for those details together, not just the resemblance of the central structure. [![Archival photograph. A tiered structure, animals and solar motifs on a plaque attributed to the collection. APIL Museo Web. The photographer is unnamed and the plaque’s origin is unknown.](https://aliennews.co.il/historical/crespi-pyramid.webp)](https://museoweb.apil.it/carlo-crespi/) Archival photograph. A tiered structure, animals and solar motifs on a plaque attributed to the collection. APIL Museo Web. The photographer is unnamed and the plaque’s origin is unknown. ## Fifty six compartments, no agreed reading Colless counted 56 compartments in the plaque Crespi holds, arranged in four rows of fourteen. He proposed that it might be a table of syllabic signs and compared some symbols with Semitic and American writing systems. He also considered which way up the plaque should be held. This was a reading hypothesis published on his blog in 2013, not a continuous translation accepted as a decipherment. Recognising a hand shape or a letterlike sign does not yet explain the whole text, identify its language or establish when the object was made. [![Archival photograph. Faces and figures on metal, reproduced in APIL’s Crespi page. The photographer is unnamed.](https://aliennews.co.il/historical/crespi-faces.webp)](https://museoweb.apil.it/carlo-crespi/) Archival photograph. Faces and figures on metal, reproduced in APIL’s Crespi page. The photographer is unnamed. [Source for this section](https://cryptcracker.blogspot.com/2013/06/ecuador-treasures.html) ## The archaeologist who did not dismiss every tablet Archaeologist Pedro Porras Garcés wrote a report on February 17, 1968. In the passages reproduced by the Crespi association, he resisted dismissing the stone tablets and inscriptions collectively as crude fakes. He also recommended separating authentic objects from forgeries and recording their origins. That is more complicated than a blanket verdict for or against the collection. It identifies material worth examining, but does not authenticate a particular plaque as Babylonian. The passages are available through the Italian publication; the original document in Quito was not examined for this article. [Source for this section](https://carlocrespi.org/1174-2/) ## The local craft explanation University of Cuenca researchers Miguel Ángel Novillo Verdugo and Juan Fernando Vera Cabrera examined the episode in a 2017 paper. They described many unusual pieces as handicrafts and stressed that missing find contexts prevented treating them as archaeological evidence for the claimed origins. The museum history published by the Crespi association also describes tin and brass sheets with designs resembling archaeology book illustrations. Its author recalls Crespi acknowledging that some purchases were replicas and regarding payment as help for poor people. That is testimony about particular purchases, not a documented explanation for every object. [![Archival photograph. Decorated aríbalo from the collection. Figure 4 in ArqueoWeb.](https://aliennews.co.il/historical/crespi-aribalo.webp)](https://webs.ucm.es/info/arqueoweb/pdf/18/05_NovilloVera.pdf) Archival photograph. Decorated aríbalo from the collection. Figure 4 in ArqueoWeb. [Source for this section](https://webs.ucm.es/info/arqueoweb/pdf/18/05_NovilloVera.pdf) ## The library described by Moricz and von Däniken Moricz claimed the Tayos caves contained a library with knowledge engraved on metal sheets. Von Däniken popularised the story in The Gold of the Gods, connecting it with his ideas about visitors from other worlds. Accounts of the claim describe metal animals and thin plates covered with signs. Photographs from Crespi’s museum gave readers objects they could see. What remained missing was a documented journey from a cave to the rooms in Cuenca. Even the association’s biography says some of Crespi’s statements about origins came from what sellers had told him. [Source for this section](https://carlocrespi.org/don-carlo-e-il-suo-museo-parte-seconda-da-siervo-de-dios-p-carlos-crespi-croci/) ## Neil Armstrong went into the caves A British and Ecuadorian expedition involving Stan Hall and Neil Armstrong explored Tayos in 1976. The first person to walk on the Moon did visit the caves associated with the metal library story. Juan Cordero Iñiguez, a participant representing the University of Cuenca, described the expedition’s work and ceramic finds. His account does not report finding Moricz and von Däniken’s library. Armstrong’s presence belongs to the expedition’s history; this source does not say he saw a gold library or authenticated Babylonian plaques. [Source for this section](https://carlocrespi.org/don-carlo-e-il-suo-museo-parte-seconda-da-siervo-de-dios-p-carlos-crespi-croci/) ## The fire and the objects that survived A fire struck the museum in 1962. Objects were lost, but the collection’s history did not end there: later photographs survive, and a collection was purchased by Ecuador’s Central Bank in 1978. Ancient Origins reports from 2016 described access to preserved objects alongside difficulty locating some familiar from older photographs. They also carried claims about pieces removed from the collection. No transfer documents were available to substantiate the widespread story that the entire treasure went to the Vatican. The two reports could not be reopened during this revision. Their links are retained, and this summary rests on the earlier review. The later Pumapungo photographs discussed next can be examined separately. [Source for this section](https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-general/father-crespi-mystery-deepens-ancient-origins-blocked-further-investigations-005695) ## Inside Pumapungo’s workroom Gustavo Fernández visited Pumapungo on February 20, 2019, and published photographs of metalwork from the collection. One shows sheets laid out on a table. Another shows a relief with three figures, including a winged figure, which he compared with Mesopotamian art. Fernández distinguished objects he considered ancient from large panels he described as local decorative craft. Those were his conclusions from a visit to a small part of the collection, without accompanying dating reports. The photographs nevertheless establish something concrete: metal objects from Crespi’s collection were still present decades after the fire. The images are presented together for comparison. Some headdresses in the three figure relief also invite Egyptian comparisons, while the larger sheet has a repeating decorative pattern. Objects described online as Babylonian plaques do not all look alike. [![Archival photograph. Metalwork on a museum table in Gustavo Fernández’s 2019 visit report, Mystery Planet.](https://aliennews.co.il/historical/crespi-museum-table.webp)](https://mysteryplanet.com.ar/site/actualizacion-sobre-la-cueva-de-los-tayos-y-las-colecciones-del-padre-crespi/) Archival photograph. Metalwork on a museum table in Gustavo Fernández’s 2019 visit report, Mystery Planet. [![Archival photograph. The three figures Fernández compared with Mesopotamian art. His 2019 report included no material analysis or dating. Gustavo Fernández / Mystery Planet.](https://aliennews.co.il/historical/crespi-three-figures.webp)](https://mysteryplanet.com.ar/site/actualizacion-sobre-la-cueva-de-los-tayos-y-las-colecciones-del-padre-crespi/) Archival photograph. The three figures Fernández compared with Mesopotamian art. His 2019 report included no material analysis or dating. Gustavo Fernández / Mystery Planet. [![Archival photograph. A decorated metal sheet Fernández described as decorative craft in his 2019 Pumapungo report. Gustavo Fernández / Mystery Planet.](https://aliennews.co.il/historical/crespi-decorative-sheet.webp)](https://mysteryplanet.com.ar/site/actualizacion-sobre-la-cueva-de-los-tayos-y-las-colecciones-del-padre-crespi/) Archival photograph. A decorated metal sheet Fernández described as decorative craft in his 2019 Pumapungo report. Gustavo Fernández / Mystery Planet. [![Archival photograph. Two objects resembling headpieces beside a staff. Gustavo Fernández / Mystery Planet, 2019.](https://aliennews.co.il/historical/crespi-headpieces.webp)](https://mysteryplanet.com.ar/site/actualizacion-sobre-la-cueva-de-los-tayos-y-las-colecciones-del-padre-crespi/) Archival photograph. Two objects resembling headpieces beside a staff. Gustavo Fernández / Mystery Planet, 2019. ## Behind the golden surface Some sheets look golden; others show greenish patches and corrosion. Those are visible surface features, not tests of composition or age. Brass can look golden, and a damaged surface does not establish antiquity. Complete records connecting photographs, dimensions, weight, acquisition and material analysis were not located here for the disputed plaques. They cannot be classified as one undifferentiated group. Identifying one decorative sheet does not establish another relief’s origin; an ancient object elsewhere in the collection does not authenticate every plaque. [![Archival photograph. Two plaques with discolouration and corrosion. Gustavo Fernández / Mystery Planet, 2019.](https://aliennews.co.il/historical/crespi-corroded-plaques.webp)](https://mysteryplanet.com.ar/site/actualizacion-sobre-la-cueva-de-los-tayos-y-las-colecciones-del-padre-crespi/) Archival photograph. Two plaques with discolouration and corrosion. Gustavo Fernández / Mystery Planet, 2019. ## Crespi and his visitors on film The film near the opening shows Crespi presenting objects. The videos here include J. Golden Barton recalling a visit, Megalithomania’s search for the collection, and a film combining Crespi with Burrows Cave. Burrows Cave is a separate story. Objects appearing in a comparison video should not automatically be assigned to Crespi, and later visitors’ statements are not the priest’s own words. The videos are embedded as uploaded to YouTube; a complete transcript and verification of every claim has not been completed. ### J. Golden Barton recalls visiting the collection [Open the original video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N44e6FjN5gs) · Terry Carter ### Crespi and Burrows Cave: a comparison video [Open the original video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqhUfjA-8k0) · Museum Of Father Crespi ( Tayos Cave ) And Burrows Cave ### Back to Ecuador: searching for the collection [Open the original video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWQOLomhwiY) · MegalithomaniaUK ## Matching the photograph to an object Crespi’s story moves between two places: the museum where he held objects and the caves where others claimed a lost library lay. The photographs bring us closer to the former; they do not yet connect it to the latter. The 56 compartment plaque is a specific example of what remains unresolved. It has a photograph, a film appearance and a proposed reading. An inventory number connecting it to a preserved object and material analysis would make it possible to investigate that plaque as an ancient inscription, copy or modern creation, rather than issue a verdict on an entire collection. Start with the plaque itself: the section source links to Colless’s illustrated analysis and the film in which Crespi holds it. [Source for this section](https://cryptcracker.blogspot.com/2013/06/ecuador-treasures.html) ## Sources and context Photographs, films and museum accounts document a varied collection, part of which survives at Pumapungo. Complete inventory and material test records were not located for the objects described as Mesopotamian. [Records and photographs of the Crespi collection](https://carlocrespi.org/1174-2/)[Crespi association: museum history and the Porras assessment](https://carlocrespi.org/1174-2/)[Crespi association: Moricz, von Däniken and the 1976 expedition](https://carlocrespi.org/don-carlo-e-il-suo-museo-parte-seconda-da-siervo-de-dios-p-carlos-crespi-croci/)[Novillo Verdugo & Vera Cabrera: ArqueoWeb 18 (2017), pp. 105 to 117](https://webs.ucm.es/info/arqueoweb/pdf/18/05_NovilloVera.pdf)[Salesianos Ecuador: Crespi’s life and work](https://www.salesianos.org.ec/2025/04/30/eucaristia-en-memoria-del-p-carlos-crespi-a-43-anos-de-su-partida-una-vida-entregada-radicalmente-al-servicio-de-los-demas/)[Ancient Origins: collection visit (2016)](https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-general/truth-about-father-crespi-and-his-missing-artifacts-finally-revealed-005498)[Ancient Origins: followup investigation (11 April 2016)](https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-general/father-crespi-mystery-deepens-ancient-origins-blocked-further-investigations-005695)[Gustavo Fernández: Pumapungo visit (20 February 2019)](https://mysteryplanet.com.ar/site/actualizacion-sobre-la-cueva-de-los-tayos-y-las-colecciones-del-padre-crespi/)[The Met: lamassu from Nimrud, object 32.143.1](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/322608)[Brian Colless: Ecuador Treasures (2013)](https://cryptcracker.blogspot.com/2013/06/ecuador-treasures.html)[APIL Museo Web: Carlo Crespi and plaque photographs](https://museoweb.apil.it/carlo-crespi/)[Rey de Kish: photograph attributed to the collection](https://reydekish.com/2014/01/15/cueva-de-los-tayos/)[Salesianos Ecuador: official documentary (2024)](https://www.salesianos.org.ec/2024/01/01/obra-y-virtudes-del-padre-crespi-plasmadas-en-un-video/)[Back to all reports](https://aliennews.co.il/en#latest)[עברית](https://aliennews.co.il/articles/father-crespi-collection-mesopotamia) ## Source references * [https://carlocrespi.org/1174-2/](https://carlocrespi.org/1174-2/) * [https://carlocrespi.org/don-carlo-e-il-suo-museo-parte-seconda-da-siervo-de-dios-p-carlos-crespi-croci/](https://carlocrespi.org/don-carlo-e-il-suo-museo-parte-seconda-da-siervo-de-dios-p-carlos-crespi-croci/) * [https://webs.ucm.es/info/arqueoweb/pdf/18/05\_NovilloVera.pdf](https://webs.ucm.es/info/arqueoweb/pdf/18/05_NovilloVera.pdf) * [https://www.salesianos.org.ec/2025/04/30/eucaristia-en-memoria-del-p-carlos-crespi-a-43-anos-de-su-partida-una-vida-entregada-radicalmente-al-servicio-de-los-demas/](https://www.salesianos.org.ec/2025/04/30/eucaristia-en-memoria-del-p-carlos-crespi-a-43-anos-de-su-partida-una-vida-entregada-radicalmente-al-servicio-de-los-demas/) * [https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-general/truth-about-father-crespi-and-his-missing-artifacts-finally-revealed-005498](https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-general/truth-about-father-crespi-and-his-missing-artifacts-finally-revealed-005498) * [https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-general/father-crespi-mystery-deepens-ancient-origins-blocked-further-investigations-005695](https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-general/father-crespi-mystery-deepens-ancient-origins-blocked-further-investigations-005695) * [https://mysteryplanet.com.ar/site/actualizacion-sobre-la-cueva-de-los-tayos-y-las-colecciones-del-padre-crespi/](https://mysteryplanet.com.ar/site/actualizacion-sobre-la-cueva-de-los-tayos-y-las-colecciones-del-padre-crespi/) * [https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/322608](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/322608) * [https://cryptcracker.blogspot.com/2013/06/ecuador-treasures.html](https://cryptcracker.blogspot.com/2013/06/ecuador-treasures.html) * [https://museoweb.apil.it/carlo-crespi/](https://museoweb.apil.it/carlo-crespi/) * [https://reydekish.com/2014/01/15/cueva-de-los-tayos/](https://reydekish.com/2014/01/15/cueva-de-los-tayos/) * [https://www.salesianos.org.ec/2024/01/01/obra-y-virtudes-del-padre-crespi-plasmadas-en-un-video/](https://www.salesianos.org.ec/2024/01/01/obra-y-virtudes-del-padre-crespi-plasmadas-en-un-video/)