Thursday, 15 September 2011

Another Little Gold-Something or Other

 I was researching the Sinu culture of ancient Colombia, one of the sources where Ivan Sanderson would always be finding "Little Gold Airplanes" and such. I came across a couple of photos showing gold objects in the collections of the American Indian at the Smithsonian and not identified any further than that on their internet source (which was a catalogue of the collection)

The object at the top reminded me of a thresher shark with its long pectoral and tail fins, but it is unlike any known thresher shark in its very long dorsal fins also. This could represent a new Cryptid shark that lives in the Caribbean, but it is possible that it might live in the Pacific and tales travelled over the mountains.


This other gold statuette has a human face and an undefinable sort of a body. It just so happens that a tradition exists that the first ancestors of some Colombian peoples were a pair of Sea Serpents that emerged from Lake Maricaibo (Which is a large saltwater bay.) The tradition possibly means nothing more than the Ancestors arrived in a pair of boats with Seaserpent figureheads. In this case, the piece is interesting because the middle (actual body part) strongly resembles a Plesiosaur, and there are reports of Longnecked Plesiosaur-shaped Sea-serpents in the region that are also said to have fanned tailfins (the Hope On sighting is one example) So possibly this little gold whatsit represents a wereplesiosaur, and the first direct representation of such a thing that I have ever encountered (Although you do get stories where Merfolk can transform into Sea-serpents also)

Best Wishes, Dale D.
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4 comments:

  1. Kent McManigal17 September 2011 at 07:36

    The fish reminds me of a flying fish more than any type of shark.

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  2. Anonymous17 September 2011 at 07:53

    It might, but as you can see it has a shark's tail. Nor yet do flying fishes have the long dorsal fins, while thresher sharks CAN have the long pectoral fins.

    Best Wishes, Dale D.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Kent McManigal17 September 2011 at 08:05

    I think there's a lot of artistic license either way. The dorsal fin is wrong for a flying fish. Yet, the tail fin has "unsharklike" rays. Also, the pectoral fins seem (from the photo) to be extended too far forward to be a shark, but right for a flying fish.
    It is a beautiful artifact.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous17 September 2011 at 08:29

    The artist also wanted to make the head more separate from the body and more like a lizard's head than a fish's. All we can hope for is that we find other more definite gold representations of critters like it, or hopefully actual more recent reports that might relate to it..

    Best Wishes, Dale D.

    ReplyDelete

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