{"id":3052,"date":"2010-06-06T20:06:36","date_gmt":"2010-06-06T20:06:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/crespi-collection\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T10:10:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T09:10:21","slug":"crespi-collection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/crespi-collection\/","title":{"rendered":"Crespi Collection"},"content":{"rendered":"

The<\/strong> C<\/strong>respi<\/strong> C<\/strong>ollection<\/strong> is a remarkable assortment of many thousands of artefacts gathered together by the late Father Carlos \"Crespi\"<\/a>Crespi Croci (1891-1982), an Italian Salesian monk, who did missionary work among the natives of Cuenca, Ecuador. The collection of objects includes gold, silver and a variety of alloys together with ceramics and tablets with unusual writing. The local Indians who allegedly found them in subterranean caves brought these goods to him. There is no doubt that Fr. Crespi knew that some<\/strong> of the artefacts offered to him were modern, made by locals who were able to get a little bit of charitable assistance while preserving their dignity. Father Crespi never properly catalogued them and over time a number of items were apparently stolen. At present some of these artefacts are stored in the church of Maria Auxiliadora in Cuenca. The caves referred to were apparently located by the late Juan Moricz in 1965. Erich von D\u00e4niken wrote about the caves and Moricz in one of his fantasy books, Gold of the Gods. <\/em><\/p>\n

Further details about Fr. Crespi and his collection can be read <\/b>in a 2022 paper by ‘Mettalicman’ bringing the story more up to date(g)<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

A somewhat eccentric website(<\/sup>a<\/sup>)<\/sup> from Stanley Hall<\/a>, expands on the story, but without any real supportive proof. Among the collection is what appears to be a parapegma <\/em>or calendar of a type developed in Greece in the 5th<\/sup> century BC.<\/p>\n

Many wild claims have been made about this strange assortment, including a link with Atlantis. Richard Wingate<\/a> devoted a large section of his book, The Lost Outpost of Atlantis<\/em>,[<\/sup>059<\/sup><\/a>] <\/sup>to the Crespi Collection.<\/p>\n

It was over twenty years later that Wingate again wrote at length about Crespi in his 2011 book, Atlantis in the Amazon<\/em>[771<\/a>]<\/sup>. He describes how Crespi had much of his collection taken from him and recounts his last meeting with Fr. Crespi shortly afterward, leading me to wonder why it took nearly thirty years to record this story.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, a 2015 blog from Jason Colavito<\/a>(b)<\/sup> offers evidence that the objects in question were fakes and that the elderly Father Crespi was unable to distinguish between tin and silver, or brass and gold. He also recounts how Erich von D\u00e4niken<\/a> exploited Crespi’s ‘collection’ and fraudulently claimed to have visited the caves mentioned by Juan Moricz in Gold of the Gods<\/em>[272<\/a>]<\/sup>.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"paraprgma\"<\/a>

parapegma<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

In 2016, April Holloway on the Ancient Origins <\/em>website(c)<\/sup> offers further evidence that most of the objects purporting to be of trans-oceanic origin or influence are fakes. However, while I fully accept that most of the objects are fakes, there are a few that are more difficult to explain.<\/p>\n

One of these(d)<\/sup> is so remarkably like Roman parapegmata, that I find it difficult to casually dismiss it! Parapegmata are<\/em>\u00a0a type of calendar originally developed in Greece during the 5th century BC(i)<\/sup>. A full dissertation on the subject was published by Daryn Lehoux, with the first chapter available online(h) <\/sup>as well as a Bryn Mawr<\/em> review(j)<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

In a follow-up to Holloway’s article, Ancient Origins<\/em> co-founder, Dr Ioannis Syrigos, decided to investigate further the matter of gold artefacts missing from the collection shown to Holloway. He reports that he was met with obfuscation and threats(e)<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

Vladimir Pakhomov<\/a> also commented on the parapegma of Fr. Crespi and concluded, rather hastily in my opinion, that people “in ancient Rome, Greece, Egypt and South America all were using the same calendar – parapegma.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Commenting on Syrigos’ report, Jason Colavito has suggested that the missing gold pieces were a consequence of corruption or greed rather than conspiracy(f)<\/sup>. Colavito also posted a review of the the Crespi collection a year earlier (2015)(l)<\/sup><\/span> .<\/p>\n

(a)\u00a0<\/sup> See: https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20060221130241\/https:\/\/www.goldlibrary.com\/index.htm<\/a><\/p>\n

(b)<\/sup> https:\/\/www.jasoncolavito.com\/blog\/father-crespi-and-the-toilet-tank-float-of-the-gods<\/a><\/p>\n

(c)<\/sup> https:\/\/www.ancient-origins.net\/news-general\/truth-about-father-crespi-and-his-missing-artifacts-finally-revealed-005498?nopaging=1<\/a><\/p>\n

(d)<\/sup> https:\/\/dominorus.majestic64.com\/parapegma.html (link broken)<\/p>\n

(e)<\/sup> https:\/\/www.ancient-origins.net\/news-general\/father-crespi-mystery-deepens-ancient-origins-blocked-further-investigations-005695?nopaging=1<\/a><\/p>\n

(f)<\/sup> https:\/\/www.jasoncolavito.com\/blog\/ancient-origins-alleges-a-conspiracy-to-hide-father-crespis-antediluvian-gold<\/a><\/p>\n

(g) <\/sup>The Crespi Ancient Artifact Collection of Cuenca Ecuador \u2013 Metallicman<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

(h)<\/sup> 0521851815 crop.pdf (cambridge.org)<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

(i)<\/sup><\/span> https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20200511162437\/https:\/\/antikythera-mechanism.gr\/faq\/astronomical-questions\/what-is-a-parapegma<\/a><\/p>\n

(j)<\/sup><\/span>\u00a0 Astronomy, Weather, and Calendars in the Ancient World: Parapegmata and Related Texts in Classical and Near Eastern Societies \u2013 Bryn Mawr Classical Review<\/a><\/p>\n

(k)<\/sup> South American Calendar Parapegma (archive.org)<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

(l)<\/sup><\/span>\u00a0 Father Crespi and the Toilet Tank Float of the Gods – JASON COLAVITO<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Crespi Collection is a remarkable assortment of many thousands of artefacts gathered together by the late Father Carlos Crespi Croci (1891-1982), an Italian Salesian monk, who did missionary work among the natives of Cuenca, Ecuador. The collection of objects includes gold, silver and a variety of alloys together with ceramics and tablets with unusual […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4541,7583,1563,7582,4540,215,1562,4602,1266,1564,7581,4603,1565,1566,2050],"class_list":["post-3052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-april-holloway","tag-bryn-mawr-review","tag-cuenca","tag-daryn-lehoux","tag-ecuador","tag-erich-von-daniken","tag-father-crespi","tag-ioannis-syrigos","tag-jason-colavito","tag-juan-moricz","tag-marina-ivanova","tag-parapegma","tag-richard-wingate","tag-stanley-hall","tag-vladimir-pakhomov"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3052"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3052\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45404,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3052\/revisions\/45404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlantipedia.ie\/samples\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}