Indiana Jones And The Raiders Of The Lost Ark, Golden Fertility Idol

replica movie prop

In the film RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, this golden fertility 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 number of golden Chachapoyan figurines began to appear on the antiquities market. Jones and Marcus Brody, curator of the National Museum, believed that previously undiscovered Chachapoyan temples had been located and were being plundered. Evidence pointed to one of Jones's competitors, a Princeton archaeologist named Forrestal, who had embarked on an expedition to Peru a year earlier, but had never returned. With help from the journal of a 19th century explorer and contacts in South America, Jones followed 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 the Warriors. Upon entering the Temple, Jones finds Forrestal's remains impaled on the wooden spikes of a booby trap. The golden Idol was placed on an ancient Chachapoyan altar. It was the exact weight to hold an ancient self-destruct mechanism in place. Indy suspects that there is a booby trap and attempts to replace the Idol with a bag of sand. His attempt fails, however, 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. He narrowly escapes from Belloq and the Hovitos after a jungle pursuit, flying away on a waiting seaplane. This is the "Sideshow Collectibles" version of that now iconic movie prop.