Chachapoyan Fertility Idol

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> The beliefs and superstitions of an entire culture, all wrapped up in a 2000-year-old, six-inch lump of gold!
>
> Indiana Jones, The Gold Goddess

The **Chachapoyan Fertility Idol**, also known the **Idol of the Chachapoyan Warriors** (shortened to **Idol of the Warriors**), **Golden Idol**, or the misnomer **Idol of the Incas**, was a six-inch tall, solid gold representation of the ***Chachapoyan*** goddess of fertility known to the ***Inca*** as ***Pachamama***.
The idol was hidden by the tribe's priests in a temple deep within the jungles of ***Peru***. Braving the temple's deadly traps to stare into the idol's eyes became a rite of passage for young Chachapoyan warriors, its exact weight precisely counterbalancing the trigger of an ancient self-destruct system.Template:Artifact

## History

The Chachapoyan Fertility Idol was created by the ***Chachapoyans*** circa ***64 BC***, around the same time the Temple of the Warriors was erected to house it. The Chachapoyan priests hid the idol away inside the temple as part of a soldier's rite of passage, a test that involved a Chachapoyan warrior finding his way into the Temple, avoid the booby traps and claim the idol, so if he survived, he had proven his worth but if not, he had made a favor to his people by being weeded out thanks to his weakness.

 File:Indy6.jpg  Around the 19th century, an ***American*** explorer named ***McHenry*** discovered the ***House of Warriors*** while excavating what remained of the Chachapoyan city of ***Tec'na'al***. The gathering hall was decorated with pictographs that contained directions of, as well as a crude map to, the Temple of the Chachapoyan Warriors. McHenry noted the images, but the ruins were later hit by an earthquake. ***His research***, however, was eventually kept at the ***University of Chicago***.
In ***1935***, a ***Princeton University*** ***archaeologist*** named ***Forrestal*** went to the jungles of ***Chachapoyas***, ***Peru*** while attempting to recover the fertility idol of ***Pachamama*** from the temple. Working from McHenry's notes, Forrestal was ultimately able to find the temple despite part of the map being stolen by the local thieves Barranca and Satipo. Unfortunately for him, Forrestal rushed into the ancient structure without checking if there were any booby traps and was killed by a spike trap.
In ***1936***, on commission from the ***National Museum*** and working from Forrestal's notes, Indiana Jones managed to locate the temple and extract the statue. Barranca and Satipo accompanied him alongside several porters, but Barranca was chased away after an unsuccessful attempt on Jones' life and then killed by the ***Hovitos*** while Satipo remained with the archaeologist. Upon triggering the temple's self-destruct mechanisms by taking the idol, Jones was betrayed by Satipo, who took the idol and left him to die. However, Satipo met his own end on a spike trap and Jones escaped the temple with the idol. Once outside, the idol was stolen by rogue archaeologist René Emile Belloq, who sent the Hovitos to chase Jones while he left with the idol. Belloq promptly unloaded the artifact in ***Marrakesh***, where Jones later re-appropriated it from the shop of antiquities dealer ***Saad Hassim***.

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The National Museum celebrated the idol's arrival with a lavish banquet at the ***Diamond's Eye*** nightclub in ***New York City***. Among the guests was a band of angry Hovitos led by ***Xomec***, alleged descendant of the Chachapoyans. Xomec swiped the idol from curator ***Marcus Brody*** and fled to the jungles of ***Brazil***. Jones gave chase, and after defeating Xomec and his ***Nazi*** co-conspirator ***Ilsa Toht***, once again reclaimed the idol for the museum.

## Behind the scenes

The Chachapoyan Fertility Idol is based on the Dumbarton Oaks birthing figure, part of the pre-Columbian collection at Dumbarton Oaks. The artifact is thought to depict the ***Aztec*** goddess Tlazolteotl although its provenance is disputed.
In *Raiders of the Lost Ark*, the original idea for the scenes with the Chachapoyan Fertility Idol was to have its eyes following Indiana Jones as he moved around the room. As such, one of the props built featured mechanical moving eyes. Evidence of this can still be seen in the archival footage on the film's DVD. Ultimately, the idea was abandoned though one shot remains in the final film -- the one where Indy is pouring sand out of the bag.
Dialogue by René Emile Belloq during the ***Marhala Bar*** scenes which was dropped from the final cut of *Raiders* indicates that Belloq wasn't intended to get away with the idol, with Belloq revealing that he was lucky to escape with his own life because the ***Hovitos*** ultimately proved to be quite "narrow-minded" with regards to who the idol's owner was. Though also present in ***Marvel Comics***' ***comic book adaptation***, the absence of the line from the film itself allowed the artifact's story to continue in ***The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones*** by Marvel.
During the early development of the fourth film, ***Frank Darabont***'s script ***Indiana Jones and the City of the Gods*** featured a drunk Indiana Jones stealing the Chachapoyan Fertility Idol from the ***National Museum*** after unfairly losing his job at ***his university***. To steal it, Indy would have replicated the opening *Raiders* sequence by putting a Bag of Sand to prevent the alarm from going off, only to fail and the alarm alerting Agent ***McKimson***.
There were plans by *Icons* in the mid-1990s to create a Chachapoyan Fertility Idol prop replica for a proposed *Indiana Jones*-licensed product-line called ***The Treasures of Indiana Jones***, so some concept art was made. However, *Icons*' plans ultimately didn't go ahead.
In the game ***LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures***, Indy extracts the statue and leaves the temple with Satipo. Once in the jungle, Belloq confronts Jones, and Indy tries to give him other things (first a diamond, a rubber duck, and then ***C-3PO***'s head, which is very similar to the Idol) but Belloq isn't fooled and takes the real deal. Although the ***Peru*** sequence is omitted from ***the sequel***, it appears that Indy extracted the Idol successfully as he gives it to ***Marcus Brody***, having been chased by the giant rolling boulder from Peru to the ***United States***.

## Appearances

* *Raiders of the Lost Ark* novel Template:Fa
* *Raiders of the Lost Ark* comic
* *Raiders of the Lost Ark*
* *Indiana Jones' Greatest Adventures*
* Template:FAIJ
* Template:FAIJ
* *Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine* Template:Mo
* *Indiana Jones and the City of the Gods* Template:C
* *LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures* Template:Nc
* *LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues* Template:Nc

## Sources

* *The Golden Goddess*
* *Raiders of the Lost Ark Sourcebook*
* *From Star Wars To Indiana Jones - The Best of the Lucasfilm Archives*
* Template:IJ
* Template:IJ
* Template:IJ
* *Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb: 1935 Journal*
* *The Lost Journal of Indiana Jones*
* *Indiana Jones: The Ultimate Guide*
* *Indiana Jones Heritage*
* Template:Hasbro
* *Indiana Jones World Map*

## External links

* Template:WP

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `FAIJ`
2. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `Novel`
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 *Raiders of the Lost Ark Sourcebook*
4. ↑ **Indiana Jones: The Ultimate Guide**
5. ↑ **The Greatest Adventures of Indiana Jones**
6. ↑ Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `Raiders`
7. ↑ Template:LF
8. ↑ Tlazolteotl (photo of Dumbarton Oaks idol). *The Guardian*. Guardian News and Media Limited (2009).
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 *The Complete Making of Indiana Jones*
10. ↑ *Raiders of the Lost Ark* comic
11. ↑ ***Indiana Jones and the City of the Gods***
12. ↑ Icons GRAIL CUP prototype at THROW ME THE IDOL Template:C
13. ↑ ***LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures***
14. ↑ ***LEGO Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues***