Genetic disc - truth or fiction?

You've probably never heard of such an artefact, but it exists and some scientists claim it is the most mysterious find in the world. So, is the Genetic Disc true or false? It is 27 cm in diameter, weighs about 2 kg, and, as archeologists assure, is made from a mineral called lidite and contains illustrations of the intrauterine development of humans at all its stages. The disc shows spermatozoa, eggs, embryos, etc.

However, is the story associated with this artefact really true?

Genetic disc - truth or fiction?

Getting ahead of ourselves, we will immediately exclaim - False! And here's why... First of all, there is not a single study that shows that this artefact is 6 000 years old and does not belong to any past civilisation. Secondly, the disc is not made of lidite. Last but not least, the man responsible for identifying this material, a Colombian named Jaime Gutiérrez Lega, never provided any proof of the origin of the material, where exactly he found it (or from whom he bought it), no analyses were made by archaeological or anthropological centres or institutes that would confirm this hypothesis.

In fact, the only analysis report we have indicates just the opposite. To give you a better understanding of this story, we will tell it later.

Who is Jaime Gutiérrez Lega? Jaime Gutiérrez Lega is a Colombian industrial designer and architect. He has no academic training in archaeology or anthropology, but that has not stopped him from taking part in lectures, conferences and documentaries about alleged ancient artefacts that some websites claim have been discovered "near" Bogotá, the capital of Colombia.

A disc 10 million years old?

Lega gave a lecture in 2013 and it is interesting in that Jaime claimed that there were many analyses and photographs of the disc, as the artefact was world famous. To study the "archaeologist's" report verbatim, one only has to go online and find the subject. During the lecture, Jaime even claimed, without presenting any research, that the artefact was 10,000 years old. Soon afterwards "he corrected himself" and said that the disc is 10 million years old.

Curiously, almost seven years later almost nothing is known about this disc. For example, there is no analysis showing that the artefact is authentic and ancient, or that it demonstrates intra-uterine human development at all stages.

Jaime Gutiérrez Lega "has no idea" of the origin of the disc

At a previous conference attended by Jaime he stated that he was not responsible for finding this disc, but that he would buy it from the "huaqueros".
And herein lies a huge problem, because 'ouakero' is nothing more than a term used to define archaeological relic hunters, who in practice are nothing more than looters. Does this mean that the artefact is real? No! 'Wackeros' often sell fake artefacts designed to look ancient and sold as genuine. Thus, without further analysis of the material and without knowing exactly where it came from (or whether it was created to pass itself off as genuine), there is no credible context for research.

Incidentally, this whole affair of showing illustrations of intrauterine human development has come solely and only from the head and imagination of Jaime Gutiérrez Leguy. He has already stated with false authority that, because he is an industrial designer, he has the technical capacity to carry out such an evaluation.

Anyway! And that brings us to a man called Klaus Dona. Who is Klaus Dona? Klaus Dona is an Austrian citizen who presents himself as a "spiritual archaeologist". What does that mean? It means that the scholar is a kind of connoisseur of the spiritual origins of ancient cultures and the deeper meaning behind the material evidence. In other words, pseudoscience or mystification, whichever you prefer.

Despite his pompous self-definition, Klaus Dona has no academic training in archaeology or anthropology. In his German Wikipedia entry, Klaus is defined as an exhibition organiser and author of pseudoscientific works. He even believes he has the means to prove the existence of an ancient global civilisation which, among other things, built the first pyramids.

Klaus Don's delusion was so great that he claimed to possess the bones of giants who inhabited the Earth and who were almost 8 metres tall. And, before you believe it and start searching for information about this race, let's say straight away - no, giants did not exist, but that's a conversation for another article.
Klaus Dona claims to have been the curator of art at the Habsburg Haus ('House of the Habsburgs'). And that's interesting, because 'Habsburg House' is not a museum or an art gallery, but the name of the royal family of the Austrian Empire, which was one of the most important and influential in European history from the 13th to the 20th century. It just doesn't make sense!

Anyway! Even lying about being a curator of art in a non-existent place has not stopped him from lecturing and appearing on videos with the appearance of authority to spread his unsubstantiated theories about various artefacts, including the so-called "6,000-year-old genetic disc".

An example of this was the "Hidden History" conference he attended in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in 2014:

What is Klaus Don's involvement in this story? Apparently, the paths of Jaime Gutiérrez Lega and Klaus Don crossed in the early 2000s, when the "genetic disc" was on display at the Natural History Museum in Vienna, Austria.

Several websites devoted to the subject state that the artefact was analysed by an expert named Vera M.F. Hammer, widely known as a geologist. Somehow she managed to date the disc and apparently attribute it to the pre-Columbian culture of the Muisca people. The problem, again, is that there is no written or any other evidence of Dr. Vera M. F. Hammer's research or analysis, rather the opposite.

A few years ago, the ArchyFantasies website contacted Dr Vera Hammer, who has been a mineralogist and curator of the mineralogy and petrography department of the Natural History Museum in Vienna since 1992. Here is what she said:

In 2001, Mr. Klaus Dona, who was responsible for the "Unsolved Mysteries" exhibition that year in Vienna, invited me to perform an X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis on some of the exhibited objects. Most of the objects included new materials and I said they were fake, but that was not what he wanted to hear. Even other scientists in our museum told the owners and Mr Klaus Don that all these objects were not what they thought they were.

Some of them were simply natural curiosities, while others were made of modern material that could be bought in any tourist shop. In any case, our comment about the so-called "genetic disk" was only that it was composed of feldspar, quartz and mica, as proved by XRD.

My former director, who was a petrologist, said that this rock could be a lydite or an artificial product made from these minerals. I have never attributed the disc or any of these items to a particular cultural period and have not made any claims about age, as that is not my area of expertise. This was the only information we provided, nothing beyond that! All interpretations of symbols and signs, ages or anything else came from the head of the owner and/or the person in charge of the exhibition! There was not a single author in the catalogue for 'Unsolved Mysteries'. So I don't know who wrote all this nonsense!".

Where does Klaus Don's supposed "credibility" come from? Klaus Don's supposed credibility is due only to the blind faith of those who, due to their own prejudices, want to believe what he says and ignore some basic details. Klaus Don, for example, has never cited any scientific, archaeological or anthropological evidence to support such claims about the disc. Absolutely nothing.

On his old website, Klaus said:

"Geologists at the University of Bogotá attribute it to prehistoric times. Later examinations have found no evidence of tampering. Could the strange find belong to a lost advanced culture? Was their knowledge the same as ours?".

However, he has never mentioned the names of these geologists or provided any evidence. All this suggests that this is nothing more than a fabrication by Klaus Don in addition to the version previously circulated by Jaime Gutiérrez Lega.

Conclusion

So the conclusion is obvious - False! Firstly, there is not a single study that shows that this alleged artefact is 6,000 years old and belonged to any past civilisation. Secondly, the disc is not made of lidite. Last but not least, the man responsible for identifying this material, a Colombian named Jaime Gutiérrez Lega, never provided any evidence of the origin of the material, where exactly he found it, or any analyses by archaeological or anthropological centres or institutes to support this version.

In fact, this whole story of showing illustrations of intra-uterine human development originated only and exclusively in the mind and imagination Jaime Gutiérrez Leguy.