SCP-2937
A Pottery Set
Sketch attached to letter L-2937-2
Special Containment Procedures
The 113 items composing SCP-2937 are to be stored in 45 standard secure lockboxes in Site-50's High Value Item Storage Facility. Security Clearance Level 2-2937 is needed to remove any item from its lockbox for research purposes or to perform laboratory testings.
REVISION 25/04/2012: SCP-2937-23, -48, -57, -65, -66, -67, -81, -89, -94, -103, -105 and -111 are to be buried at a depth of at least 5 meters in a location no less than 1 kilometer apart from any building inside Area-30. Security Clearance Level 3-2937 is needed to retrieve any of them, and no more than one of the items can be retrieved at once. If new items belonging to SCP-2937 with painted motifs are retrieved they are likewise to be buried near Area 30.
Given the political difficulty in directly acting in the People's Republic of China, efforts are to be focused in disinformation and in indirectly influencing and/or negotiating with the PRC's government. Continuing procedures to dissuade from further public interest in the archaeological history of the Oroqen Autonomous Banner1 are to be carried out. Periodically, specialist papers denying the possibilities of any prehistorical civilization in the wider area are to be published, as are rebuttals to any thesis proposing such ideas. Agents and contacts inside the PRC's government are to lobby for the constitution of nature preserves and for the obstruction of archaeological excavations, further development, and inhabitation expansion in the area.
The highest priority is the location of the missing items and, if possible, their retrieval; otherwise, a strengthening of the measures preventing human activity near the location. For that end, satellite observing and, if feasible, aerial drone exploration, are to be carried on in search for remains of IJA/IJAMEA activities. Human exploration in the area where the missing items are supposed to rest is to be avoided.
If any object with typological similarities with the SCP-2937 items appears in private/public collections/markets it is to be acquired. In the case of discovery in archaeological contexts, a obfuscation and disinformation campaign is to be carried on and the object is to be retrieved.
In the case of the discovery of any number of corpses with blackened sclera and iris but otherwise unidentified cause of death inside the territory of the PRC, the opening of talks with the PRC's government is authorized and Protocol 2937-Yomi is to be carried out.
Recovery of further information on Operation Izanami is a top-priority effort, as is the discovery of the fates of Professor Shimobe, General Okakura, and General Kurata.
Description
SCP-2937 consists of a set of brown to reddish-brown earthenware pottery. The total number of items is unknown; there are currently 113 items under control of the Foundation (39 full pieces and 74 shards; SCP-2937-1 through SCP-2937-113). These items range in size from a 173 centimeters tall jar to a 5 centimeters long shard. Stylistical analysis show the 113 items to belong to a single archaeological culture, termed Xing'an culture. Typological studies have established a continuous succession of 10 styles, divided into Early-Middle-Late Xing'an2. It has also been pointed out the presence of stylistical elements also seen in the Jomon and Chulmun pottery styles3. Thermoluminiscence dating has dated the items to a period from █████ to █████ years before present.
12 of the items (the shards SCP-2937-23, -48, -57, -65, -66, -67, -81, -89, -94, -103, -105 and -111) show illustrated motifs painted with black pigment. The fragmentary nature of the pieces makes their interpretation difficult. Since retrieval, these motifs have been shifting inside their corresponding shard at an irregular pace but averaging around 1 centimeter/year, the pattern moving until a certain point in the shard and then back; every motif seems to have its own fixed pattern of movement. Analysis of the pigment have turned out mostly inconclusive/contradictory results; it is only clear that it doesn't correspond to any known substance.
Recovery: The items composing SCP-2937 were discovered in the northeastern part of the then Xing'an province of Manchukuo (current Oroqen Autonomous Banner) during 1937-1945 by the Imperial Japanese Abnormal Matters Examination Agency (IJAMEA). After the end of the Second World War and the dissolution of the IJAMEA, SCP-2937 (along with a majority of the anomalous objects under IJAMEA control) was transferred to Foundation control and stored in the newly built Site-50 in Kyoto prefecture.
Recovered Documents 2937-1: Correspondence concerning the Hsingan Culture and the Project Izanami
The following documents were recovered alongside SCP-2937 on 1945-10-17. Translated from Japanese.
October 12, 1937
Dear General Kurata
As per your directives, the gentlemen from the Abnormal Matters Examination Agency have arrived. They immediately started examining the retrieved pottery pieces. Professor Shimobe S. is certain that they are related to the Stone Age pottery from the homeland, but is also convinced that these pieces precede the homeland ones in antiquity. He says that this is proof of the existence of a prehistorical Pan-asian civilization; it may be worth investigating more so as to get more supporting evidence against those who doubt the legitimacy of our Co-Prosperity Sphere (of course, the official line will be that these remains were produced by ancestors of the Yamato race).
Prof. Shimobe has tentatively classified these pottery pieces under the "Hsingan" style.
Sincerely,
General Okakura K.
Notes: Professor Shimobe S. was a professor from Tokyo University attached to the IJAMEA. Records show him being sent to the 79th Infantry Division of the IJA, based in northern Manchukuo, in 1937. General Okakura K. was a general in charge of a unidentified regiment of the 79th Infantry Division. After September 1945 there are no more records concerning him and his final fate is unknown. General Kurata M. was an official in the government of Japan from 1934-1945, and is thought to have been a high-ranking officer of the IJAMEA. His fate after September 7, 1945 is unknown.
Addendum 2937-1 On 25/04/2012, Junior Researcher Iijima suddenly died during lunch in Site-50. Her sclera and iris had turned black, and no cause of death could be found. At the same time, █████████ ████, a clerk in ███████, Fukuoka Prefecture, also died of unknown causes and with black sclera and iris. After this incident, inspection of SCP-2937 showed that the painted motifs in the corresponding items were shifting at a pace of around 1 centimeter/hour (the remaining items showed no change). Following this incident, the items with painted motifs were transferred to Area-30.