Koi Alien Photo 55

 

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Koi Alien Photo 55

Koi Alien Photo 55 was posted online by a member of the AboveTopSecret.com discussion forum in July 2007. 

That member (SuicideVirus) later pointed out that it was not real and gave a link to the original photograph which, it seems, he had altered to indicate the images of aliens that can be created using graphics software.

 

 

 

 

Sections below:

1. The relevant image

2. Stories and claims relating to this image

3. The real background to this image

4. Relevant online forum discussions

5. Further references and resources

6. Other material

 

 

1. The relevant image

 

 

 

2. Stories and claims relating to this image

"SuicideVirus" posted this image online on the AboveTopSecret.com discussion forum on 31 July 2007 and said "here's a little story to go along with it":

"In 1972, an archeology team from the University of Illinois visiting Arequipa, Peru, was exploring a local private museum when they were taken into a back room and shown this strange mummy. This single photo was taken by one of the team members. According to the museum records, the mummy came from a group of locals who were scavenging what they thought were Inca tombs hidden in a nearly inaccessible cave high in the mountains near Tres Cruces. The cave was decorated with strange symbols of flying snakes exploding in the air and falling into a river. In 1996, the archeology team returned to the museum only to find that it had burned to the ground in 1990 after being cleaned out by a gang of artifact thieves. The whereabouts of the mysterious mummy are unknown."

 

3. The real background to this image

 

The original version of the photograph is shown below (labelled "koi_ap_55_b").

It is a photograph of an exhibit at the Saint Louis Science Center entitled "Examination of a Child Mummy".

  

The website for that exhibition (here) included the following information:

 

"Based on CT images of the reproductive organs, the body was that of a boy. The roots of his baby teeth had just begun to form and to erupt through the bone; so he was probably about 7 to 8 months old at the time of death. This age estimate is in agreement with age estimates based upon the formation of his hand bones and the closure of the sutures that separated the bones of his head. He was 60 cm (23.6 inches) tall. His hands lie on his thighs. His feet have very high arches (pes cavus) that might be due to the way in which he was wrapped. The spine is also distorted. The mummification process probably loosened the connection between the bones of the spine, and when the body was wrapped, the wrappings distorted the spine. The body was kept rigid by being placed on a wooden rod that was included in the wrappings. The use of such a procedure was common at the time that the body was mummified."

"The child’s head appears to be large, but there is no conclusive evidence of hydrocephalus (large head caused by the accumulation of fluid in the skull). The bones at the back of the skull also are somewhat overlapping—a condition known as “bathrocephally”. This condition is harmless. The skull could be described as being plagiocephalic, which means flattened head. This deformation may have been caused by the child’s head being placed in the same position while he was alive and occurs in 33 of 10, 000 births today. The ethmoid bone has a small hole through it which may be how the brain was removed. The ethmoid plate is still forming at 7 months of age so it would not have been hard to puncture it with a sharp instrument. Once the instrument accessed the brain compartment it could have been used to liquefy the brain and drain it out through the left nostril. There is a small hole on the left side of the skull and the ear on this side of the head has slid down the side of the skull. It is mostly likely that this hole was created post-mortem, possibly recently to examine the inside of the skull. The internal organs (liver, lung, stomach, and intestines) were removed through a cut in the upper left side of the stomach area. The location of the canopic jars containing the internal organs is unknown. The CT images also revealed very dense objects within the body cavity and within the wrappings. These objects are most likely amulets that were inserted during the mummification process to protect the spirit of the child in the afterlife. The cause of the child’s death has not been determined, although it may have been caused by some childhood sickness that left no trace on the bone. Infant and juvenile mortality was high in the ancient world."

 

 

4. Relevant online forum discussions

This photograph was discussed (relatively briefly) on the AboveTopSecret.com discussion forum at:

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread294290/pg2

 

 

5. Further references and resources

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6. Other Material