SCP-232’s image

SCP-232-ARC (hereafter SCP-232) is an archived SCP about a relief statue that casts harmful shadows. The SCP was first posted on January 13, 2008 and is still present on the SCP Foundation website. It is the oldest known surviving SCP after SCP-173 and of the oldest extant containment fiction articles predating the vast majority of even The Holders Objects.

SCP-232 marks the first use of containment procedures as a literary instrument, and arguably is the moment the modern conception of containment specifications were established. The containment procedures are used a means of thematic foreshadowing, and are careful to give the reader an idea of what the object must be about, but still with enough dearth to encourage further reading; a device notably lacking in earlier attempts, which were strictly explanatory.

Description

SCP-232 is a relief statue of the Sumerian demon Ereshkigal being offered a liver by an utukku (an ancient Mesopotamian demon). The area covered by SCP-232’s shadow is always 10 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit). Anyone who steps into the shadow will experience “feelings of fear, melancholy, hopelessness, and numbness.” Many people who step into the shadow report hearing voices or feeling claws dig into their skin; people who stepped into particularly large or dark shadows have been injured.

As with many other early SCPs, the description followed the format of the original SCP-173 closely, leading off with what Site the object is stored in, and the next sentence explaining its likely origin.

Later versions of the SCP file (the original predates the introduction of D-class personnel) contain an incident report describing a D-class who broke into a kitchen to steel beef organs and who was subdued while trying to break into SCP-232’s containment facilities. The D-class in question was exposed to SCP-232 more than any other test subject and was one of the first people to hear voices.

History

On 4chan

SCP-232 was first posted to the /x/ board of 4chan on January 13, 2007 at 6:48 AM by an anonymous user. The posting occurred in a general SCP thread in which the original poster had asked for SCP-173’s picture; multiple anons, including the anonymous author of SCP-232,  responded by posting their own SCPs. ^[1]scparchives.bluesoul.net/x/scp/432894.xml, post # 434409 (archive) The original text read as follows:

Item#: SCP-232

Special Containment Procedures: Item SCP-232 is to be kept lit at all times. No shadows should be allowed to form in the presence of this object. Should one of the redundant light bulbs burn out, a two agent team may enter to replace the bulb, one to change the bulb and one to carry the lamp to prevent shadows from occuring behind the agent changing the bulb. The lamp is stored in the cabinet outside the room, and must be inspected before each use.

Description: Moved to Site19 5/7/1997. Origin is suspected to be of Sumerian design. SCP-232 is a statue of the goddess Ereshkigal, being offered a liver by what is assumed to be an utukku, or Sumerian demon. When SCP-232 is in the presence of slight shadows, agents may note the sensation of claws dragging lightly against or through their skin. In the presence of heavy shadows, light scratches to deep gouges may appear. The eyes of the statue have been noted to follow teams as they enter.

Blood and viscera left in the presence of the statue have been noted to inexplicably vanish before they may be cleaned, so sanitation staff is not required in the event of activity. Class 2 hazardous containment procedures should be maintained in the event of activity.

In the event of complete power failure, the entry airlock will be sealed automatically.

Addendum:
Those with Level 2 Security Clearance should see document #232-1

Document #232-1: SCP-232 additional procedures
In the event of activity, those directly involved should be monitored as per protocol 11B in the Security clearance database. SCP-232 is suspected to use some of it’s victims to survey the surrounding area.

The original SCP-232 was followed by a number of posts positively responding to all of the SCPs that had been posted; one anon posted a “parody” of SCP-232 which supplanted the SCP’s text with the n-word and stereotypes about black people.

From January 17 through January 19, 2008, there was a surge of massive SCP threads on /x/ that would ultimately result in the creation of the EditThis wiki. The surge started during the evening of January 17 when an anon re-posted an SCP article about the initial SCP-086, a tetrahedron that drove people insane. During the ensuing thread, another anon who had saved 232’s text reposted the SCP.^[2]scparchives.bluesoul.net/x/scp/442692.xml, post # 443098 (archive) SCP-232 would later be reposted on two separate mass threads on January 19.^[3]scparchives.bluesoul.net/x/scp/444231.xml, post # 445799 (archive) & scparchives.bluesoul.net/x/scp/446341.xml, post # 446442 (archive) SCP-232 would later appear on the /b/ board following the creation of the EditThis wiki.^[4]web.archive.org/web/20220211070021/http://archprot.com/scp/b/70544932.html While metadata such as date and time has not been preserved for any b thread contained in the 2006-2008 Jason Scott archive, … Continue reading

On EditThis

On EditThis, SCP-232 was given the title “Sumerian Goddess of the Dead”.^[5]http://scpclassic.wikidot.com/editthis-scps^[6]https://archive.ph/ZXOd8#selection-861.0-863.32^[7]https://web.archive.org/web/20080903043644/http://www.editthis.info:80/scp_wiki/Continue_on Its was given the object class Keter while on EditThis.^[8]https://web.archive.org/web/20080714202513/http://editthis.info/scp_wiki/SCP-232

The text of SCP-232 was presumably copied over to the EditThis wiki shortly after its creation on January 19, 2008. However, the oldest archive of 232 on that wiki was made on April 17, 2008 while the article’s edit history has not been preserved, so it is impossible to determine when this actually occurred.^[9]SCP-232 – Scp Wiki (archive.org)

SCP-232 does not appear to have attracted much attention on the EditThis wiki. There was no discussion page created for the article by the time of its last archive on July 14, 2008.^[10]SCP-232 – Scp Wiki (archive.org) In terms of edits, the SCP was assigned the Keter object class by May 18, 2008 but the text was not otherwise altered.^[11]SCP-232 – Scp Wiki (archive.org)

On Wikidot

Movement to Wikidot and early edits

SCP-232 was copied over to Wikidot on July 26, 2008 at 5:07 PM;^[12]Archived screenshot this occurred the day after FritzWillie publicly revealed the existence of the website to the EditThis community. By this point, the text was still identical to what it had been when originally posted to 4chan (with the exception of the added object class and a single spacing edit).^[13]Archived screenshot. The author of this article compared the two texts using a text comparison website. Previously “Keter”, the object class was changed to Euclid on WikiDot.^[14]http://scpclassic.wikidot.com/scp-232^[15]https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-232-arc

On September 13, 2009, Quikngruvn made some formatting and punctuation edits to the article and removed the word item from “Item SCP-232” in the containment procedures section (the word item was later added back in).^[16]Archived screenshot This would be the only edit of note until May 2011.

Tara Unknown’s rewrite

SCP-232 received its first talk-page comment on May 23, 2011 at 3:04 PM when Wikidot member Robert Sandler posted the following statement:^[17]SCP-232-ARC – SCP Foundation (wikidot.com), (archive)

This looks to be an old one in needing of an update. There’s no explanation as to why the object is keter and some of the containment protocol is in the description.

Throughout the rest of May 2011, a trickle of comments came in from Wikidot members agreeing with Robert Sandler’s assessment of SCP-232.^[18]SCP-232-ARC – SCP Foundation (wikidot.com), (archive) On May 30, another Wikidot member attempted to change the object class of 232 to Euclid, but this was reverted the next day by A Fat Ghost (who later chided that member on 232’s talk page).^[19]Archived screenshot;SCP-232-ARC – SCP Foundation (wikidot.com), (archive) Critical comments regarding the article continued to be posted through August 2011.^[20]SCP-232-ARC – SCP Foundation (wikidot.com), (archive)

On August 22, 2011, Tara Unknown posted in 232’s talk page with a proposed rewrite and a link to a standalone thread requesting feedback.^[21]SCP-232-ARC – SCP Foundation (wikidot.com), (archive); Wanting Feedback – SCP Foundation (wikidot.com) (archive). See also Tara Unknown’s sandbox containing proposed draft (archive) On August 23, 2011 at 3:44 PM, Quikngruvn posted the following in the standalone feedback thread:^[22]Wanting Feedback – SCP Foundation (wikidot.com) (archive)

Ayup, it’s better than what’s there. Go ahead and post the rewrite and let’s see what happens.

On August 23, 2011 at 3:46 PM, Tara Unknown posted their rewrite in the SCP-232 slot.^[23]Screenshot with metadata; screenshot of text only Tara Unknown’s original rewrite was missing the addendum about the D-class attempting to offer beef organs. Additionally, the containment procedures emphasized that in the event of a burnout, free-standing lamps in 232’s containment chamber outside of its range would need to be lighten. The modern text states lights should be replaced using a crawl-space in the ceiling to switch-out the light bulbs from above; the free-standing lamps are to be used solely for testing purposes unless the crawlspace becomes inaccessible. Tara Unknown would add this language to SCP-232’s text on September 29, 2011; the containment procedures change was done done at the suggestion of a commentor on the talk page.^[24]Page with metadata; page without metadata. For comment, see SCP-232-ARC – SCP Foundation (wikidot.com) (archive) Tara made an additional edit on March 12, 2012 merging two sentences in the containment procedures; this resulted in the modern text of SCP-232 currently present on the Wikidot website (with the exception of the arcs after the SCPs number).^[25]Page with metadata; page without metadata.

Community reception of SCP-232

SCP-232 Rating (January 2009 to January 2013)

(Note: data was collected from the Wayback Machine archive of 232’s page and the two “lowest rated” pages.)

The oldest archive of SCP-232 shows it with a net rating of only two upvotes in January 2009. SCP-232 slowly rose to 5 net-upvotes by May 2009. After this, the score stagnated and the SCP only gained a single net-upvote by August 2010.

No data exists through the May-August 2011 period when SCP-232 came under increased criticism and when Tara Unknown posted their rewrite. However, there was general consensus on SCP-232’s talk page that Tara Unknown’s rewrite was an improvement but that the article was still weak. Many members stated that they were retracting downvotes; far fewer stated they were giving upvotes.^[26]SCP-232-ARC – SCP Foundation (wikidot.com) (archive); https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/forum/t-119304/scp-232-arc#post-1237976 (archive) Based on these comments, it can be assumed that SCP-232’s score started to dip somewhat in May 2011 but that Tara Unknown’s rewrite initially salvaged the SCP’s score and brought it back up to baseline. In fact, by the end of 2011, SCP-232 reached its all-time high of 7 net-upvotes.

By March 2012, the SCP had dipped back down to 5 upvotes and continued to decline from there. The SCP had only a single upvote in July 2012 and in August it was listed on the “Lowest Rated SCPs” page with zero net-upvotes.^[27]Lowest Rated SCPs – The SCP Foundation (archive.org)

On September 6, 2012, Communism Will Win made a mod post on 232’s talk page noting the SCP was up for review and encouraging to read, rate, and share their thoughts on 232. The next day, Tara Unknown posted the following in response to the mod pot:^[28]https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/forum/t-119304/scp-232-arc#post-1558380 (archive)

I know this is a mod post, but since I did the most recent rewrite, I figure I can weigh in. I can take another crack at it with some suggestions for tightening/improving. If it dies, I don’t really have that much emotional investment in it.

This would be Tara Unknown’s final involvement with SCP-232.

Throughout September 2012, many negative comments were made to SCP-232’s talk page while the score of the SCP plummeted.^[29]https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/forum/t-119304/scp-232-arc (archive) On September 18, 2012, the SCP was listed on the “Lowest Rated SCPs” page with a score of -5^[30]Lowest Rated Pages – The SCP Foundation (archive.org)

Archival

On September 21, 2012 at 9:01 PM, TroyL nominated SCP-232 for deletion/archival; by this point, the SCP possessed a score of -12. There was unanimous consensus to archive in the ensuing discussion. The staff members did not elaborate on why they voted to archive. However, TroyL noted that the SCP was “ancient” indicating that staff were aware of the SCP’s great age. (The fact that SCP-232 predated EditThis and was possibly the second oldest surviving SCP was only discovered a decade later following the release of an archive of 2006-2008 4chan posts; staff at this time could not have possibly known the significance of 232).

TroyL personally archived SCP-232 later on the 21st; TroyL completed the archival process shortly after 11 PM.^[31]Wayback Machine (archive.org) SCP-232 would undergo a handful of minor edits over the subsequent years: its picture was reformatted in 2014, the word “-arc” was added to the addendum and caption in 2019, and there were routine edits to SCP-232’s tags.^[32]Wayback Machine (archive.org) Beyond these minor edits, SCP-232 has essentially been sitting in archival since 2012.

Image used

The Burney Relief on display with other Mesopotamian artifacts at the British Museum (2017)

See: Burney Relief (Wikipedia)

SCP-232’s image is a photograph of the Burney Relief (a Mesopotamian terracotta sculpture from 1800 to 1750 BC/BCE) which is currently on display at the British Museum in London. The relief depicts either Ereshkigal or Ishtar/Inanna, both of which were Mesopotamian goddesses. The Burney Relief does not have a reputation for being cursed or unlucky.

The same image of the Burney Relief currently used in SCP-232 was present in the earliest archive from the EditThis Wiki.^[33]SCP-232 – Scp Wiki (archive.org) Given that the original text of 232 appears to describe the relief, it is likely that an image of the relief has always been associated with the article.