Palenque Rocket Man from "Chariots of the Gods"

leading from

Erich von Däniken 
and
Pakal Votan tomb lid 

Voice Over: Days of delay precede our audience with the winged god of Palenque. He is not an easy gentleman to see. A dome of sweltering humidity hangs over virgin forest of Palenque. On our path to the sacred city of the Maya, we pass the cadavers of cattle with swarms of patient vultures wheeling over head.

After eight refusals, we are finally granted official permission to film this ancient celebrity. A sealed sepulchre is opened to us for a brief half hour. Up a steep flight of stairs and down into the even more stifling madness of the interior of the tomb

And there he is, captured for the first time on film, the winged god of Palenque, what the lens sees is so stunning that we must examine the details saperately. We see a man seated in a capsule intently watching something, his hands seem to be operating some undefinable controls, his foot is pressing a pedal. At the rear of the capsule, we see jets trailing flames behind them. Isn't this a typical position for an astronaut as we so well know it today. He seems to be dressed for the job, in trousers with a broad belt, a sort of jacket, tight fitting at the wrists, like coveralls. The chair is well upholstered to absorb the shock of acceleration. A figure before controls also dressed like an astronaut. Another jet trailing flames.

This stone deity say the Maya represents Kukulcan who came from the stars and returned there

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Carl Sagan and Alien

leading from
Alien
and

Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan attended the premiere of "Alien", both he and Ridley Scott were by that time friends

Carl told Ridley, "Hmm, the premise is entirely ridiculous of course."

Ridley replied "Lighten up , Carl, it's only a movie."

Carl further explained "What you present here is actually impossible. There are no other aliens in the universe. However I am writing a book which goes against what I just said."

Ridley asked him "How, then, do you account for the fact that we're the only ones, the only accidental selected piece of biology since the big bang?"

Ridley's thoughts behind this were that our evolution, from the bang, to the earliest forms of life is so organically unlikely that it's actually impossible. There would have had to have been a billion decisions made by accident for that to have occurred, so one has to wonder, who is in charge?

Carl Sagan later went on to write the book "Contact" which Ridley would like because it ended before the aliens would arrive. So the main character would have 12 years to prepare herself. He thought it was a really smart way of doing it. it also must have meant that deep down, Carl believed it was possible.

Source Quotes

1. Ridley Scott: I remember talking to Carl Sagan at the premiere of “Alien.” At the end of the movie, he said, “Hmm, the premise is entirely ridiculous, of course.” I said to him, “Lighten up, Carl, it’s only a movie.” But then, later on, he wrote a bloody good book called “Contact.” The book was really smart, because it ended 12 years before the aliens would arrive. So, the main character would have 12 years to prepare herself. I thought that was a really smart way of doing it. It also must have meant that deep down, Carl really believed that’s possible. (http://entertainment.inquirer.net)
2. Ridley Scott: After a screening of Alien, I was told by Carl Sagan, who wrote the book Contact, "What you present here is actually impossible. There are no other aliens in the universe. However I am writing a book which goes against what I just said." So I asked him, "How, then, do you account for the fact that we're the only ones, the only accidental selected piece of biology since the big bang?" Our evolution, from the bang, to the earliest forms of life is so organically unlikely that it's actually impossible. There would have had to have been a billion decisions made by accident for that to have occurred, so one has to wonder, who is in charge? (www.theguardian.com/)

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Von Daniken's Mayan Rocket Man

leading from:

Erich von Daniken

and

Pakal Votan Tomb Lid

a) As if went in his book Chariots of the Gods, Erich Von Daniken came to believe that the figure in Pacal Votan's tomb lid depicted the god Kukulcan driving a rocket ship.  The figure sat there with his upper part of his body bent forward like a racing a motorcyclist today and that any child would identify his vehicle as a rocket.  It is pointed at the front, then changes to strangely grooved indentations like inlet ports, widens out and terminates at the tail in a darting flame. 

Palenque tomb lid from Chariots of the Gods

b) The crouching being himself, so Erich believed,  is manipulating a number of undefinable controls controls and has the heel of his left foot on a kind of a pedal. He perceived that his clothing is appropriate: short trousers with a broad belt,  a jacket with the modern Japanese opening at the neck and closely fitting bands at arms and legs. And this being wore complicated headgear with tubes and something like antennae on top. So Erich clearly saw this man as a space traveller, that he was looking at a piece of apparatus in front of his face, and that his front seat is seperated by struts from the rear portion o the vehicle in which symmetrically arranged boxes circles, points and spirals can be seen.

Source Quote

1. Erich von Däniken:"There sits a human being, with his upper part of his body bent forward like a racing a motorcyclist today any child would identify his vehicle as a rocket.  It is pointed at the front, then changes to strangely grooved indentations like inlet ports, widens out and terminates at the tail in a darting flame. The crouching being himself is manipulating a number of undefinable controls controls and has the heel of his left foot on a kind of a pedal. His clothing is appropriate: short trousers with a broad belt,  a jacket with the modern Japanese opening at the neck and closely fitting bands at arms and legs. With our knowledge of similar pictures we should be surprised if the complicated headgear were missing.And there it is with the usual indentation and tubes and something like antennae on top.  Our space traveler - he is clearly depicted as one - is not only bent forwards tensely; he is also looking intently at an apparatus hanging in front of his face. The astronauts front seat is separated by struts from the rear portion of the vehicle,  in which symmetrically arranged boxes circles, points and spirals can be seen (Chariots of the Gods (1968) (Space Gods revealed.1976))

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Mayan Rocket Man segment from "The Case of the Ancient Astronauts"

Leading from

Pakal Votan tomb lid

and 

Erich Von Daniken

Temple of inscriptions

Voiceover: Buried deep in the remote Mexican lie the ruined temples and the palaces of a vanished civilisation, that of the Mayan. Here at Palenque in the seventh century AD, the Indians of the sophisticated Mayan culture built a great ceremonial centre. This is the temple of inscriptions, beneath it lies one of Von Däniken's major pieces of evidence. It is a huge sarcophagus lid in an
underground burial chamber, elaborately carved it depicts what Von Däniken interprets in this way.

Pakal Votan's body in the relief

where the rocket ship tail would terminate with a darting flame

Voiceover:  There sits a human being, with his upper part of his body bent forward like a racing a motorcyclist today any child would identify his vehicle as a rocket.  It is pointed at the front, then changes to strangely grooved indentations like inlet ports, widens out and terminates at the tail in a darting flame. The crouching being himself is manipulating a number of undefinable controls controls and has the heel of his left foot on a kind of a pedal. His clothing is appropriate: short trousers with a broad belt,  a jacket with the modern Japanese opening at the neck and closely fitting bands at arms and legs. With our knowledge of similar pictures we should be surprised if the complicated headgear were missing. And there it is with the usual indentation and tubes and something like antennae on top.  Our space traveler - he is clearly depicted as one - is not only bent forwards tensely; he is also looking intently at an apparatus hanging in front of his face. 

head and head dress of Pakal Votan relief

foot on pedal

Voice over: Could this startling interpretation that this slab depicts an astronaut be a valid one? Ian Graham of Harvard Uniiversity is an expert on Mayan Symbols, his interpretation on the slab is quite different from Von Daniken's. The sighting of the tomb is unusual, no other Mayan temple has a staircase like this one leading into the heart of the building, it took four years to excavate this stairway. At the bottom, a stone slab concealed the doorway to an impressive tomb. Inside was the Palenque sarcophagus. Nothing as elaborate as this had before been found. The tomb slab was raised, below it was a sealed coffin.
 

interior staircase

The slab

sealed sarcophagus of Pacal Votan

 

the remains of Pacal Votan

Jade mask

 
When this was opened, it revealed the skeleton of a man, richly adorned with jade ornaments. Hieroglyphics on the tomb identified him as Pacal, a seventh century ruler. This is his funeral monument.

Ian Graham: Well I certainly don't see a need to regard him as a space man, I don't see any oxygen tubes. I see a very characteristically drawn Maya face with the sloping forehead which is rather common among the Maya although sometimes it's been exaggerated by deformation during early childhood, and this is crowned by an elaborate hairdo and elements of head dress, er, here an ear ring suspended from a pierced ear, a nose plug which has the elements of death because it takes the form of a fleshless bone. Here on his chest he has a jewelled pectoral ornament suspended by a chain, at the end of it which flairs out as a rather beaded chord. On his wrists, there is a very typical bracelet. Around his waist, a beaded belt with deaths head in front, and a beaded skirt which is not at all unusual and anklets likewise.

Voiceover: And the hand on the rockets controls?
 
Ian Graham:As a matter of fact it's very plain that this hand isn't holding onto anything. The Maya liked to show hands in rather delicate gestures, many of which may have had meanings which so far escape us. I think this is just a delicate position of the hand.

Voiceover: Such gestures are common in Mayam art. There are similar examples on the side of the slab. But what about the rocket flames at the base?

Ian Graham: These famous flames from the rocket have quite a different explanation because we see for instance this element found here as consisting of two serpent heads uniting at the bottom

Voiceover: Here is the designs. Two serpents joined at the middle whose beards form Von Daniken's rocket flames. According to Ian Graham, the Maya stylised the serpent from a simple design. Eventially the serpents jaw became a rigid shape with a stylised beard below the lower jaw. The jaw is open, it forms the shape used around the design in the base of the slab when paired with its mirror image. By removing the elements, the mayan design on the royal slab becomes clear, there is the Mayan symbol of kingship, a double head serpent, below it lies the dead ruler himself, and finally the two serpents that form the base, this leaves on top a bird symbolising heaven, a cross shaped device, the Mayan sacred tree supporting heaven, and below a grotesque earth monster, symbol of the underworld. The important point is that symbols are found in other examples of Mayan art and are common throughout the Maya world. They have been studied for fifty years and tell a consistent story.

Von Daniken: I am absolutely familiar myself with the archeological explanation, but I do not agree. I know for sure we have in the case of the Palenque slab a lot of designs, carvings, or what the archeologists call glyphics, which we know from other Maya places, but the question I have here is "Have they been interpreted from the very beginning, correctly?" You know, er, archeology in my opinion is one of the very conservative sciences and I do not doubt, not at all, the integrity or the honesty of any archeologist, but I ask myself "do they interpret their findings correc?", to my the Palenque stone still today looks like a modern man sitting inside some kind of technical apparatus, we have never found in the whole Maya literature a man sitting in the same position. It is the first and only time, so we shall wait until we find another guy like this.

Erich Von Däniken

Ian Graham: I see no need at all to invoke any really extreme and extravagant interpretation involving astronauts when there's so much simpler and more consistent explanation presents itself of a mere mortuary slab showing the deceased in his passage towards heaven. The Maya heaven 

(The Case of the Ancient Astronauts (BBC Horizon/PBS NOVA 1977)

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Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan

1. Carl Sagan vs Von Daniken
2. Carl Sagan and Alien

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Delville's influence on Giger

leading from 

Afterworlds

  1."The Zig Zag Devil"
 

2. Delville's influence on Giger's Facehugger

3. Delville's "Treasures of Satan"
 
4. "Treasures of Satan"'s transformation into "Alien Monster IV"


for the continuation of where this story was going, also see:
"Alien Monster IV" to James Cameron's Alien Queen

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Jean Delville's "Treasures of Satan"

leading from: 
Delville's influence on Giger
and also:
The Zig Zag Devil via Jean Delville & HR Giger to James Cameron's Alien Queen

a) Idol Of Perversity

Flemish Symbolist Jean Delville in the year of 1891, the same year that the Bradshaw cave in the Kimberley region was discovered, drew the composition Idol Of Perversity that displays the snaking form with it's tail slithering between her breasts and tongues of like eminating from her head.

Zig Zag Devil,
 (source bradshawfoundation.com)

The Idol of Perversity by Jean Delville 1891
(source of image: http://imageevent.com/ )

The three prongs in the face of the rock painting are the remains of a human figure like the one on the far left in the picture and Jean Delville perhaps translate this into his drawing translates into the edges of the veil either side of her face and naked bosom. Exactly how Jean Delville came to know about the cave painting within that year is unknown but it's easy to imagine that he saw images of Bradshaw's findings one way or another that year.

Jean Delville's Treasures of Satan

b.) Treasures of Satan

However this thing we know to be the Zig Zag Devil, it appears that Jean Delville developed the idea further into the painting"Treasures of Satan" and it was first exhibited in 1895. The zigzagging tentacles have been developed into ones of a monstrous size on the back of a man who resembles a ballet dancer, as if once they were angel's wings and have been transformed into something hellish.

Wikipedia talks about the rest of the themes of the composition saying that "Delville was a great admirer of Eduard Schuré’s The Great Initiates, and it could well be that Satan’s Treasures is inspired by an episode from the Initiation of Isis in Schuré’s book. In the relevant scene, Schuré describes the novice’s failure of an early test, the temptation of the senses. Wrapped in a dream of fire, the novice becomes drunk with the heavy perfume of a seductive woman, and later falls asleep, after wildly satisfying his desire. This failure is described by his hierophant as a fall into the abyss of matter." (source wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Delville)

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