A massive stone head was discovered in the Guatemalan forests more than half a century ago. Its face was aimed up towards the sky, with beautiful features, small lips, and a prominent nose.
Surprisingly, the face had Caucasian traits that were uncharacteristic of any of America’s pre-Hispanic races. The finding drew a lot of attention right away, but it quickly faded away into the pages of history.
Dr. Oscar Rafael Padilla Lara, a doctor of philosophy, lawyer, and notary, first learned of the discovery when he received a photograph of the head in 1987, along with a description that it was taken in the 1950s by the owner of the land where the head was discovered and that it was located “somewhere in the jungles of Guatemala.”
The photo and tale were published in the newsletter ‘Ancient Skies,’ which was picked up and read by well-known explorer and author David Hatcher Childress, one of our guest authors at Ancient-Origins.net, who was curious about the mystery stone head.
He sought out Dr. Padilla, who informed him that he had located the Biener family, the owners of the property where the monolith was discovered. The site was 10 kilometers from a small community in Guatemala’s south, La Democracia.
Dr. Padilla, on the other hand, expressed his dismay when he arrived at the site and discovered that it had been demolished by revolutionaries around ten years earlier: “It was destroyed by revolutionaries about ten years ago. We’d arrived at the statue too late. Anti-government insurgents used it as a target practice.
This completely damaged it, similar to how the Turks shot off the snout of the Sphinx in Egypt, except worse,” he explained. The eyes, nose, and mouth had all vanished.
With the head sitting on a neck, Padilla was able to estimate its height to be between 4 and 6 meters. Due to armed clashes between government and rebel troops in the area, Padilla did not return to the spot.
The tale died a quick death after the head was destroyed, but it was revived a few years ago by filmmakers behind “Revelations of the Mayans 2012 and Beyond,” who utilized the photos to argue that extraterrestrials have made contact with prior civilizations.
“I confirm that this monument displays no traits of Maya, Nahuatl, Olmec, or any other pre-Hispanic civilization,” declared Guatemalan archaeologist Hector E Majia in a document published by the company.
It was developed by an outstanding and superior culture with incredible knowledge that no one on this planet has ever heard of.”
Rather than aiding the cause and the inquiry into the monolith, however, this publishing had the opposite effect, putting the entire tale in the hands of a rightfully skeptical audience who assumed it was all a PR trick. The letter itself has been called into question, with some claiming it is not authentic.
Nonetheless, the gigantic head appears to have existed, and there is no proof that the original photograph isn’t genuine or that Dr. Padilla’s narrative is untrue. So, if it was genuine, the question remains: where did it originate? Who designed it? And why is that?
The place where the stone head was believed to have been discovered, La Democracia, is already well-known for stone heads that, like the one discovered in the bush, look skyward. The Olmec culture, which thrived between 1400 and 400 BC, is said to have built these.
The Olmec heartland was in the Gulf of Mexico lowlands, but artifacts, designs, monuments, and iconography in the Olmec style have been discovered hundreds of kilometers outside the heartland, especially at La Democracia.
The stone head in the 1950s photos, however, does not have the same features or style as the Olmec heads. The late Belgian author, radio host, and television commentator on alternative history Phillip Coppens posed the question of whether the head “is an anomaly of the Olmec period, or whether it is part of another – unknown – a culture that predated or post-dated the Olmecs, and whose only artifact identified so far is the Padilla’s head.”
Other questions raised include whether the construction was only a head or if it had a body beneath it, similar to the Easter Island statues, and whether the stone head is connected to any other structures in the area.
It would be good to have answers to these issues, but it appears that the hype surrounding the film “Revelations of the Mayans 2012 and Beyond” has simply served to bury the story further into history.
Hopefully, an inquisitive explorer will pick up the narrative again and dig deeper to uncover the truth about this fascinating monument.
