Golden Idol

Golden Idol
Fictional "Golden Idol" (Ancient Chachapoyan goddess of fertility) from the 1981 feature film Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Plot element from Indiana Jones franchise
First appearance	Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Created by	Steven Spielberg & George Lucas
Genre	Adventure
In-story information
Type	Fictional idol
Element of stories featuring	Indiana Jones

The Chachapoyan Fertility Idol, also known as Golden Idol, is a fictitious artifact that appeared in the opening sequence of Raiders of the Lost Ark, a 1981 adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg. Its likeness was made famous by the popularity of the film. It is also the first relic that audiences see the protagonist of the film franchise acquire, establishing that hero as a treasure hunter.

Origin

The movie prop idol was based on an actual greenstone carving in the pre-Columbian collection at Dumbarton Oaks. The artifact is presumed to depict the Aztec goddess Tlazolteotl.^[1] Scientific analysis by the Smithsonian, though, shows the Dumbarton figure to be a probable fake from the late 1800s.^[2][3] Other scholars are less certain, but express similar doubts.^[4]

In the film

In the film Raiders of the Lost Ark the idol is portrayed as resting in an ancient, abandoned temple in South America. The specific location is not given in the film, other than a subtitle that reads "South America, 1936". The tribe of "Hovitos" natives is fictional. The idol is located on a booby trapped pedestal, and its weight, approximately 3 pounds of gold, precisely counterbalances the trigger for the temple to partially collapse and release falling walls, shooting darts, and a huge rolling boulder which would seal the temple entrance, trapping intruders within.

Fictional history

Based on the film and Indiana Jones comic books, the idol belonged to the Chachapoyan tribe in Peru, South America. It was sought in 1936, in the Peruvian Amazon jungle, by archaeologist/treasure hunter Indiana Jones. Jones had heard of the idol when a score of golden Chachapoyan figurines began to appear on the antiquities market. Jones and Marcus Brody, curator of the National Museum, believed that hitherto undiscovered Chachapoyan temples had been located and were being plundered. Evidence pointed to one of Jones's competitors, a Princeton archaeologist named Forrestal (another fictional character), who had embarked on an expedition to Peru a year earlier and never returned. With help from the journal of a 19th century explorer and contacts in South America, Jones follows in Forrestal's footsteps, determined to acquire the real prize: a golden representation of the Chachapoyan goddess of fertility and childbirth, said to be secreted in the heart of the Temple of Warriors. While penetrating the Temple of Warriors, Jones finds Forrestal's remains impaled on the wooden spikes of a booby trap.^[5]

The golden idol was placed upon an ancient Chachapoyan altar. It was the exact weight to hold an ancient self-destruct mechanism in place.^[5] Jones knows of the booby trap and attempts to replace the idol with a bag of sand. His attempt fails when he incorrectly estimates the weight of the idol. After escaping the many traps set by the Chachapoyans including a giant boulder, he finds rival archaeologist Rene Belloq waiting outside with a group of Hovitos, the local natives. Surrounded and outnumbered, Jones is forced to give up the artifact to Belloq. Jones escapes from Belloq and the Hovitos after a jungle pursuit, flying away on a waiting seaplane.

As related in the Indiana Jones comics, years later, Indy regains the idol from a black market antiquities dealer located in Marrakesh, Morocco. However, also on the trail for the idol is Xomec, a descendant of the Chachapoyans, and Ilsa Toht, sister of Gestapo agent Arnold Toht. The two want to use the idol to unite Amazonian tribes and disrupt wartime rubber production in South America, as well as lure Jones to his death.^[5]

In popular culture

The "Golden Idol" appears in the fictional in-film movie Sand Pirates of the Sahara from the feature film The Majestic (2001). It was also shown briefly in S01E07 of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in Jadzia Dax's quarters.

References

1. ^ "Tlazolteotl (photo of Dumbarton Oaks idol)". The Guardian. Guardian News and Media Limited. 2009. http://arts.guardian.co.uk/pictures/image/0,8543,-10404540027,00.html. Retrieved 20 July 2009. 
2. ^ Walsh, Jane MacLaren (May–June 2008). "Legend of the Crystal Skulls". Archaeology 61 (3). http://www.archaeology.org/0805/etc/indy.html. Retrieved 2009-07-20. "the Tlazolteotl idol, like the crystal skulls, is a 19th century fake." 
3. ^ Walsh, Jane MacLaren (2008). "La Tlazolteotl de Dumbarton Oaks: un regard sous la surface.English: The Dumbarton Oaks Tlazolteotl: looking beneath the surface" (in French) (English abstract). Journal of the Society of Américanistes (Société des Américanistes/ Society of Americanism.) 94 (1): 7–43. http://jsa.revues.org/index8623.html. Retrieved 2009-07-20. 
4. ^ Kubler, George. "Ancient American Gods and Their Living Impersonators". Dumbarton Oaks. http://www.doaks.org/publications/doaks_online_publications/DOaks.pdf. Retrieved 2009-07-20. 
5. ^ ^{a b c} Luceno, James (2008). Indiana Jones: The Ultimate Guide. New York: DK Publishing. pp. P. 58–61. ISBN 978-0-7566-3500-8.