| Item #: SCP-144-PT | Level 1/144-PT |
| Object Class: Safe | Classified |
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-144-PT instances are to be kept in storage in Site PT20 in an individual standard containment locker for each unit. Access to the anomaly for the ends of testing, analysis or other, requires clearance from the SCP-144-PT Research Project, currently headed by Dr. João Heitor Casquinha. A digital archive of photographic studies of the artifacts, alongside illustrations and relevant notes are to be kept in the Site's system for free consultation, with a security copy of this information kept in an external drive.
In the case of discovery of a new instance of the anomaly, the SCP-144-PT Research Project is to take charge of the archeological site (if applicable) and proceed with identification and registration of the instance, that will then be moved to competent containment.
Descriptions: SCP-144-PT is a collection of material culture produced by the Abáy People1 in the form of clay jars measuring 1.5 meters in height, accompanied by a stopper. Currently the Lusophone Foundation has 4 iterations (SCP-144-PT-1 to SCP-144-PT-4). From those instances, -1 to 3 are considered typical examples of ceramics and the fourth item is considered abnormal. Traits that constitute a regular instance are the presence of illustrative figures representing the fauna and flora from the Caatinga2 and Amazon, alongside feminine figures and geometric patterns in the base and top of the objects.
The content present in the pieces is diverse, with instances universally manifesting its anomalous proprieties through the material contained in the interior. Historical accounts depict the existence of SCP-144-PT instances containing other materials with different properties of those currently in containment, but the nature of said alleged jars remains unknown. As a universal property, typical instances are capable of regenerating its material content until it returns to their original amount. Tests removing fractions of the material revealed that the prerequisite for the occurrence of anomalous properties is the presence of ~30% of the original volume of SCP-144-PT.
Thaumatological analysis of SCP-144-PT reveals the presence of residual thaumaturgic energy, advening from the Law of Sympathy.3 Using information obtained by the process of analyses, it was discovered that the instances are created individually by artisans and enchanted at the same time as the creation as other earthenware pottery was produced. Additionally, parts of the information collected by divinatory means have been used in an effort of translation of Abáy dialects.4
SCP-144-PT-1 is adorned with a central figure in its pattern in the shape of a woman surrounded by masculine figures of small size, in a position of submission. The feminine figure is decorated by an illustration of a series of leaves, tree branches and numerous animals from the Caatinga’s fauna. The interior contains a tumor of various human tissues weighing 70kg and capable of. breathing, cellular reproduction, expression and movement in response to touch, with laboratory analysis revealing that all this material belongs to a single human female.
After removing ~20 kg or more of the material, the tissue will transfigurate into an articulate humanoid shape capable of animation and gesticulation. Once the entity takes shape, it fallows the individual responsible for its manifestation and gesticulates incessantly, while speaking in Spiral-XC.5 The actions performed by the entity are characteristic of representation of targets of anthropophagy6 rituals. The entity expires after 10 consecutive hours of existence, rotting in an accelerated pace until reduced to a gray dust.
SCP-144-PT-2 possesses tree representations in images of a same feminine figure in different stages of transfiguration in a bat. The first image has only ears and feet of a bed, the second with wings, fur and nose, with the third figure preserving only the original silhouette, but with the figure completely shaped in animal traits. The drawings are interposed by damaged text in Spiral-XC and, as the writing form of the Abáy language is written right to left, the images should theoretically be read as the text, showing the gradual humanization of an zoomorphic figure.
The instance contains 4 liters of a viscous and dense black-colored non-identified liquid, similar to oil. When SCP-144-PT-2 stopper is removed, in regular intervals of ~10 minutes, corpses of non-identified fluvial fish species emerge from the liquid. This process follows for a maximum of 2 hours and, after that, the instance needs to be sealed again for ~10 minutes in order for said property to return to occur.
SCP-144-PT-3 has decoration in the form of geometrical patterns that extend for the totality of the vase, including the stopper, some of those forming the shape of animals. The interior of the instance possesses 12 kg of enchanted clay, from which, – using the Law of Sympathy – the creator of the instance was identified as an Abáy thaumaturge of old age. The patterns and details covering SCP-144-PT-3 were made without the use of tools.7
Once the clay is manipulated by human hands properly segmented from the rest, said segment will spontaneously transfigure to mimetize a small animal.8 Such entity then will animate and start to wander its immediate surroundings, aimlessly and with no apparent sentience. The clay can be easily dismantled with the application of force, which will cease the anomalous properties of the material once ~70% of its mass or above is deformed.
SCP-144-PT-4 had all of its illustrations removed by the application of a new layer of clay and afterwards by being fired. This is shown by the difference in technique of the work of the ceramicist, which is considered amateurish when compared to the remaining of the piece. The internal content of the instance consists of a replica of an Atlantic Woods forest thaumaturgically manifested in the interior of the vessel. Attempts to remove the content from the interior of the item showed itself to be unfruitful. It’s unknown if SCP-144-PT is contemporary of the remainder of the SCP-144-PT objects.
As a collective, SCP-144-PT was discovered in the São Francisco-Xique Xique Archaeological Zone under management by Site PT20.9 This Location of Interest was registered for the first time in Document 144-PT-A10 recovered by researchers of the Academia,11 prior to the founding of the Lusophone Foundation, in the National Library, Rio de Janeiro.
The São Francisco-Xique Xique Archaeological Zone was established by efforts of a team led by Dr. Wilson, investigating a series of encounters by locals with anomalous artifacts identified as originating in native american peoples. Said team took charge of the initial reconnaissance by Mobile Task-Force PT1 – “Winged Eyes” –, that found the region. After the required bureaucracy, the region was identified as an archaeological site found by the bandeirantes12 that wrote Document 144-PT-A, through maps and directions found on the document.
A cover story reporting the Zone as a recently discovered archeological site was developed. The encounters by local residents with anomalies found were maintained as local folklore. Additional searches in the proximity and stratigraphy analysis of the local land were fruitless.
The Mobile Task-Force PT10 – "Ministry of Truth” – confiscated remaining copies of Manuscript 512 in the National Library, replacing these by a fraudulent copy. Disinformation about the relevance of the document and its nature were propagated by Lusophone Foundation miscommunication channels in order to create a series of false narratives and conspiracy theories regarding the material.
Addendum 1: Document 144-PT-A
The following is an expeditionary account dated from 1753, authorship by a group of bandeirantes traversing the territory currently occupied by the state of Bahia. This document was originally discovered in 1839 by Doctor Manuel Ferreira Lagos, geographer, that led the document to the Brazilian Historic and Geographic Institute, from where it was eventually moved to the Academia.
During most of the time the text was known, the exact relevancy of its contents remained in question. Works by philologists showed that the archive was genuine, but it would be only later that its content was attributed to an encounter with a specific native group. After the discovery of SCP-144-PT, said document was recovered by the historiographical work by the team of Dr. Wilson as related to the item.
Later, this source would be identified as an account referring to the Group of Interest known by the Portuguese Colonizers as the River Civilization.13
[…]
We walked 40 leagues to the north of the city where we had stopped to rest before. According to the instructions, the gold of Muribeca14 is in this region or more to the north. It was not long and we found a native village that was abandoned for a long time. There were the remains of a street going out and then to no place at all.
It was a village made of adobe brick houses, no vein immediately apparent to sight. Some houses were ruined, others served as refuge for animals that we'll eat in the next days. In the scenario we found any setback before getting to a good resting place.
Thinking of the place as the location of gold, we excavated. Meanwhile, others searched the surroundings. We found some signs of the devilish magic of the cannibal goldsmiths, remains of men made of clay, altars for the sacrifice of man and other such things that I ordered to be destroyed. We left only remains and shards with great efficiency.
On the dig and in the surroundings, we found a series of jars with bizarre contents. Human flesh, mysterious and ill smelling oils and some more concerning. From one that was opened various jaguars came out and bit the face of our colleagues until we killed them, dying only after much bleeding. I ordered the jars be gathered and destroyed.
At the end of the digging, we had around twelve jars and no gold. Before leaving, since we had much sunlight left, it was decided to demolish all of the profane that was there.
We followed to […]
Addendum 2: Archeological Analysis by Dr. Casquinha
Even with all SCP-144-PT in possession of the Foundation having been found in situ15 the site in question was visited by at least one group after it was abandoned by its original population. The destruction of the previous habitations wasn't done only by nature and the elements, but by the deliberate hand of a colonization project, which damaged the context that could be inferred from SCP-144-PT about the Abáy greatly. To quote Dr. Wilson:
[…] are a Group of Interest difficult to work with precisely because of its nature as a native american population that existed shortly before the arrival of the Portuguese. Only one of the missions previous before Pedro Álvares Cabral shows a possible encounter with the Abáy, but it has not been verified yet.
Even the name that is used to refer to the Group of Interest is something that was established recently by the Lusophone Foundation. A series of nomeclatures were attributed, many of them by Europeans that found the remains of a “civilization” and exaggerated the stories about these people, besides the mass destruction of material culture of the Abáy.
All material produced by the Academia is profoundly eurocentric and the remaining accounts from the time were made by colonizers with very clear objectives: bandeirantes searching for gold from the “muribecanos”, scholars using the civilization as a rhetorical device about their own European reality, the Company of Jesus preoccupied with demonizing the anomalous in the West Indies, which they saw as a world taken by the devil, etc., etc.
In this way, the only chance for the Abáy to express themselves is found in their material culture and in anomalies recovered by the Foundation. But even those were frequently destroyed by the European project […]16
I make a point of this preamble, to put in perspective what the so-called Manuscript 512 demonstrates, not being a unique case, but a tendency and that, in the case of SCP-144-PT, was turned out to be particularly prejudicial to research. At least two habitations were torn down and no exposed artifact survived. Only a lucky few were preserved, as the region was dug in search of gold. Shards of what is estimated to be at least 12 other instances of SCP-144-PT were found.
SCP-144-PT-4 appears to have been discarded, found away from the site, while -1 and -2 where located in a collapsed adobe house and SCP-144-PT-3 was found during layered excavation, seemlight saved by sheer luck while the bandeirantes were looking for gold. Of all, SCP-144-PT-3 is the oldest, buried by unknown reason, maybe ritualistic, maybe casual. The jars appear to have been regular daily objects, created together with non-anomalous pottery, according to findings in the places designated for Abáy pottery production.
About the pottery, two points are extremely notable according to what was found on the workplaces. First, both pisces (anomalous and non-anomalous) received the same level of dedication by the craftsman and occupied the same space during production, not being clear in which moment the pieces were chosen to receive thaumaturgical implements. The second is that, according to what is seen in images found on these sites and others, the making of these jars was organized in a way where a single individual was responsible for the whole project from start to end.
As for the utility of each SCP-144-PT instance for the Abáy People, there are a series of hypotheses. For example the lack of a practical use for SCP-144-PT-4 for any activity, alongside the additional layer of clay that was later added, lead to the idea that the fourth instance was an art form made over an already existing piece. And SCP-144-PT-1 could be a key piece in the anthropophagical rituals of the people, satisfying a symbolic and practical role with its properties.
The use of -2 and -3 is much more abstract because the bibliography is not clear about a possible utility for those. SCP-144-PT-2 is a complete mystery at the moment, with various hypotheses up for debate. The most prevalent idea is that the object could have been a form of recreation or a toy. But, again, this is speculation because of the great lack of information. Both instances could be domestic objects or relevant components for religious ceremonies.
As for the aesthetics of the instances, it can be seen (in the three that were not modified by firing) a logic and common motif for the Group of of Interest: humans transforming into animals, anthropomorphism, relevancy of feminine figures (or with feminine traits) and adorning patterns that work as a companion to the drawing in its composition. It is unknown if there is any precise correlation between the workings of the instances and the represented images, but all of these universally portray characteristics of Abáy ontology, that understood that humans and animals were of the same nature and transitioned between one another constantly.
Due to the own nature of the Abáy People, the investigation by the Foundation about it has huge holes. The remaining artifacts are found by civilians, but their purpose remains unknown. SCP-144-PT as a whole, is a common object from a reality that does not exist anymore.