EXPLAINEDCRAFT · PAINTINGS & MANUSCRIPTS
The Dečani 'Spaceships'
c. 1350 · Visoki Dečani Monastery · Kosovo
WHAT IT IS
Above the Crucifixion, two capsules streak across the sky with a figure in each, leaning forward like a pilot.
THE ALIEN READING
First published in the 1960s by the French UFO magazine Spoutnik as 'without any doubt spaceships with crew', and repeated ever since.
WHAT THE RECORD SAYS
They are the Sun and the Moon, personified as human busts inside comet-shaped haloes and mourning at the Crucifixion. The motif is standard in Byzantine and medieval art (Cuoghi; Polidoro, Skeptical Inquirer 2005).
WHERE IT STANDS
Explained. Historians and archaeologists account for what it shows. The alien reading is a modern one.
STATUS IS OUR CURRENT ASSESSMENT, NOT A VERDICT · REVIEWED 3 OCT 2026
THE RECORD
- DATE
- c. 1350
- PLACE
- Visoki Dečani Monastery · Kosovo
- MADE BY
- Byzantine-tradition fresco painters
- MEDIUM
- Paintings
- TECHNICAL
- Fresco · Visoki Dečani Monastery (UNESCO, Medieval Monuments in Kosovo) · detail
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FOLIO 16 · EXPLAINED
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FOLIO 19 · DISPUTED
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FOLIO 20 · DISPUTED
The Hollow Ship, Bakin's Version
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FOLIO 13 · EXPLAINED
The Palenque 'Astronaut'
683 CE
FOLIO 22 · EXPLAINED
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