Item #: SCP-645
Object Class: Safe
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-645 is to be kept inside a containment cell with dimensions of 4 meters height by .5 meters width by 4 meters length. All personnel near/around SCP-645 are to refrain from behaviors which may be considered untruthful. Those who fail to follow the aforementioned requirements are to refrain from inserting any appendage into SCP-645. SCP-645 may be transported safely by any and all personnel with Level 1 or above clearance, but it is preferable that Class D personnel be used to transport SCP-645 between locations.
SCP-645 is to be cleaned after each activation.
Description: SCP-645 is a large disk of Pavonazzetto marble with a humanoid face carved into it, similar to the famous Bocca della Verità carving in the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin in Rome, Italy. As with the Bocca carving, the 'mouth' and 'eyes' are empty holes; unlike with the Bocca carving, however, subjects who place their hands inside SCP-645's mouth describe it as 'warm' and 'moist'.
SCP-645 embodies, and has been hypothesized by Foundation folklorists to be the origin of, the "lie-detection" properties attributed to the Bocca carving since medieval times: any subject who tells a lie while their hand is within the carving's mouth will "awaken" the carving, which will then bite off and swallow the subject's hand. [See experiment log 645-31-C for parameters of what is considered a 'lie'.] The ultimate fate of these severed hands is unknown, as probes of the carving's mouth in its inert state have revealed no esophagus.
Recovery: SCP-645 was discovered during routine archaeological excavations in ██████, Italy, in 19██ . The slab of marble bearing the carving was not attached to any building, and had been bricked over; archaeologist ████████ ██████ expressed the opinion that it seemed to have been deliberately buried.
48 hours after being discovered, SCP-645 mutilated a graduate student who had been participating in the excavation; Foundation agents in the Italian Ministry of [REDACTED] intercepted the injury reports and retrieved the object.
