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In 1948, the archaeologist Alberto Ruz-Luilier explored the ruins of the ancient Mayan city of Palenque in the jungle of the Mexican state of Chiapas, and in it a pyramid with the Temple of the Inscriptions on top. The temple was opened in 1839 by the American lawyer and diplomat J. Stephens and the English artist Fr. Catherwood and received this name because of the hieroglyphic inscriptions on the walls, stairs and columns. It was once decorated on the inside with huge slabs covered with numerous bas-reliefs and 620 hieroglyphs that resembled people and mythical creatures. Scientists are still working on decoding them. Obviously, they belong to eras thousands of years away from us.
The temple itself stands on a nine-step 20-meter pyramid, the back of which rests on a steep mountainside.
Amazing burial
The floor of the Temple of the Inscriptions is covered with large polished stone slabs. One of them was of particular interest to the archaeologist, since it had two rows of holes plugged with stone plugs. Moreover, the massive walls of the temple did not rest on the floor, but went deep down. This suggested that a structure might be hidden under the stone flooring. Rouss-Louillier began to dig and discovered an underground passage leading into the pyramid, and digging to the very bottom, which happened in 1952, he found a crypt with a burial there.
It was about nine meters long and four meters wide, and its vaulted ceiling was almost seven meters above the floor. The ancient Mayans arranged this underground room so skillfully that the crypt is almost perfectly preserved. The stones of the building were hewn with such precision that not a single one of them has budged over the years. Nine figures on the walls of the crypt - plaster bas-reliefs - apparently symbolized the rulers of the night (in Mayan theology - deities from the underworld). The attire of the rulers was striking in splendor: they adorned in headdresses made of long quetzal feathers, fancy masks, cloaks of feathers and jade plates, skirts or loincloths with a belt, sandals made of leather straps. The neck, chest, arms and legs of the rulers were literally covered with precious ornaments. The high position of these characters was indicated by the sceptres depicted with them with a hilt in the form of a snake's head, masks of the rain god and round shields with the face of the sun god.
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The floor of the crypt - a rectangular stone slab measuring 3.8x2.2 meters and 0.25 meters thick - was covered with fine carvings. The edges of the slab were bordered by a ribbon of hieroglyphs. Later, Rouss-Louillier deciphered two calendar dates. They corresponded to 603 and 633 AD. As for the slab itself, it is recognized as one of the most outstanding works of Mayan art. By the highest technique of execution it is compared with the works of European masters of the Renaissance.
Sarcophagus
Under the slab was the burial of a man of 40-50 years old with numerous jade ornaments buried with him. Who was he? Nothing is known about this.
Is there a spaceship cabin on the stove?
One of the first to describe this slab was the Soviet historian V. Gulyaev. Here is what he saw on it: “In the lower part, a terrible mask is drawn, which by its very appearance reminds of death: the jaws and nose deprived of soft tissues, huge empty eye sockets and bared fangs (the mask of the deity of the earth. - Author's note). The top of this mask is crowned with four images, two of which symbolize death, and the other two, on the contrary, suggest birth and life (a grain of corn and something that resembles a flower). On the crown of this monster sits, leaning back, a handsome young man in a rich headdress adorned with jewels. He stares intently in the direction of the strange cross-shaped object, which is probably a stylized representation of a Mayan corn sprout. Finally, at the top of this corn-cross sits the sacred quetzal bird. And below there are symbols of water and two disks, which depict masks of the sun god. However, the scientist did not pay attention to the fact that the mask on the slab is very similar to the jade mask that covered the face of the deceased. But later it was noticed by others. Two scientists - the Italian Pinotti and the Japanese Matsumura - independently came to the same idea: if a real person is depicted on a slab, then he is also surrounded by real objects, and not some mystical symbols. Further development of this idea led them to the conclusion that the drawing on the plate is … a detailed drawing of the spacecraft. Soon the Russian scientist V. Zaitsev joined their opinion, and the American aircraft designer J. Sanderson put a reproduction of a drawing from a plate into a computer and converted a flat image into a three-dimensional one. The result is a spacecraft cabin with a control panel and a propulsion system. Sanderson added a few strokes to the computer printouts, adding a few touches to the outer skin of the launch vehicle.
Mysterious slab in the Temple of the Inscriptions
This is how modern cosmonauts dress …
But this idea was best known in the interpretation of the Swiss ufologist Erich von Daniken. In his book Chariots of the Gods, he claims that the enigmatic figure in the center of the sarcophagus lid is an astronaut sitting in the cockpit of a starship. And, without further ado, Daniken placed the drawing not vertically, but horizontally, and he immediately "spoke" the way the ufologist wanted!
“In the middle of the drawing,” writes Daniken, “there is a seated man leaning forward. He wears a helmet on his head, from which wires or hoses go back. A device resembling an oxygen apparatus is located in front of the face. His hands manipulate the control devices. With his right hand he presses a button or key, and with his left hand he squeezes the lever (this is confirmed by the fact that the thumb is not visible in the figure). The heel of the left foot rests on the pedals. Attention is drawn to the fact that the "Indian" is dressed very modern. He has a sweater collar around his neck. Knitted elastic cuffs finish on the sleeves. At the waist there is a safety belt with a buckle. Pants fit the legs like leggings. But this is how modern cosmonauts dress when they are not in spacesuits."
Facts versus hypotheses
However, even earlier, namely in 1968, the Soviet science fiction writer A. Kazantsev set forth the same hypothesis in detail on the pages of the journal Technics for Youth. But if we turn to the real facts, then they will not be in favor of the supporters of the cosmic idea. To begin with, both in Daniken's book and in A. Kazantsev's article, the image on the slab is presented in a highly distorted form. Its carved surface is poorly printed, many subtleties are blurred, and separate parts of the picture, which are not really connected with each other, are connected. But the most important thing is that in order to give their "astronaut" a more natural posture (leaning forward), both authors deliberately placed the image in the wrong, transverse position, while the slab must be viewed longitudinally, standing at its lower end part.
As a result of such a distortion, some very important details of the sculptural composition - the quetzal bird, the mask of the deity of the earth, and others - appear upside down or sideways to the eyes of the audience. If we look at the relief of the sarcophagus correctly (see photo), then we will see that the person depicted there sits, leaning back noticeably, and gazes upwards - at the cruciform object. The young man is not dressed in "tight-fitting trousers", as Daniken writes, but only in a loincloth. The body, arms and legs of the young man are naked, although they are decorated with bracelets and beads made of jade plates. Finally, all the main elements of the drawing from the lid of the sarcophagus from the Temple of the Inscriptions - a cross ("tree of life") with a bird at the top, a mask of the deity of the earth and the like - are found in different variations and in a number of other temples in Palenque. But the most important argument in favor ofthat the slab depicts not an alien, but, most likely, "halach vinik" - the supreme ruler of the Maya - is associated with simple logic. Well, please tell me, who, if he were at least three times an alien from space, would need to show the savage Indians a drawing of his spaceship, and most importantly, what would they understand from it?
Vyacheslav Shpakovsky. Secrets of the 20th century magazine