the green crystal/pane in the big head room

No one really knows what the green crystal is. One things is certain, the crystal was originally a cup (like the sacrificial engineer used in the beginning of the movie) in the trailers. [url=http://www.prometheus-movie.com/community/forums/topic/7872]Strange post-production edits; SJ Sacrificial cups changed to giant green crystals.[/url]

When Holloway walks up to it, he says something like, it's another tomb, which means 'grave' or a 'monument over a grave'...But does he mean that the tomb is behind the mural? or does he mean that the tomb is the thing that the green crystal rests on top of?

UNDER THE GREEN CRYSTAL, I like it - adds yet another layer to the great Prometheus layer cake of 'obfuscation'. Nice.

BEHIND THE MURAL - I'd love it if the panel slid up and something nasty was lurking in there.

Well i think the Original in the Trailers that had the same Sacrificial Ceremonial Bowl had more significance. You see we connected the Bowl with the Sacrificial Engineer, he ultimately drank a Substance from that Bowl that broke down his genetics/DNA into a substance that then fell into the Water and Fused/Mutated basic life forms and bacteria to then Evolve into advanced lifeforms that contained Engineer DNA. When i look at the Mural behind the Bowl Originally in the Scene, the pose of the Xeno is in the same as Christ on the Cross. Now Christ let him self be Crucified as a SACRIFICE, when people usually talk about the significance of Christ on the Cross they say it was him Sacrificing himself for us. So the common thing here is Sacrifice... Sacrifice of Christ on the Cross. Xeno in similar pose... means Xeno Sacrificed? This Mural of Xeno in Sacrificial Christ pose had the same Sacrificial Bowl the Engineer had drank from at the start of the movie... Maybe its just me but i make a connection... So what other Connection is there well the Bowl + Engineer made a substance that then fused/mutated and evolved basic lifeforms that then Evolved to take on Engineer DNA. We see another substance in the movie that mutates and evolves lifeforms but takes on Xeno DNA, this substance is within the Urns. In the Room with the Xeno Mural. Life on Earth did not come from the Substance within the Bowl, it came from the substance that was produced from the broken Down Engineer once he had drank from the Bowl.. thus that substance he drank broke him down into a substance that then diluted into the Water. So i think maybe the significance of the similarity in what the stuff in the Urns does and what the broken down Engineers DNA/Material did, and then the connection with his Sacrifice and the Sacrificial pose of the Xeno on the Mural and then finally how originally the Green Orb was the Sacrificial Bowl. All leads me to conclude that maybe the Xeno was Sacrificed to create the substance in the Urns that alters and mutates/evolves organisms to take on Xeno DNA and Traits. And this substance in the Urns was obtained via the same process that the Sacrificial Engineer had taken. In context of the movie, could it not had been possible to had placed the Engineer in a VAT and then have him drink from the Bowl and then the broken down material he broke down into could then be collected and stored into containers etc? Then it would be possible for the stuff in said containers to be poured into Water and we would see the same thing happen that happened at the start of the movie? Flip this round and could instead of the Engineer, if we took a Xeno at the Waterfall and it consumed the stuff in the Bowl, we would then see the Xeno break down and fall into the Water and then the basic organisms would then mutate and Evolve into life that would carry Xeno DNA and traits? Thats the connection i make when i look at the Mural and why it had the Sacrificial Bowl in front of it originally.

If the Big Head Room contained a bowl of sacrifice soup, that would have simplified the story quite a bit. But they didn't run with that idea, and showed a green crystal instead. I would dearly like to know where the green crystal came from, and what it contains. Maybe it's an ancient and precious gem found by the Engineers that contains the earliest form of the goop (the glassy vials in the urns are also green). As to where that came from...

I think many of the changes made add to the confusion. If they had gone with the Original idea of the Xeno Fifield, if the Mural had the Bowl and not Crystal, if they kept the full Sacrificial Scene and Full David and Engineer scene. Then things would had been more easy to fit together. I base a lot of my theories on the things removed or changed, as i think some of the things they had originally and concepts they was originally using until last minute shooting all added together, but the replacements add to the confusion and so did the editing job on some scenes that made the movie not flow right. Now that we do have to contend with the Crystal maybe we would get answers and maybe that means we must in following with the Story ignore we even saw the Sacrificial Bowl near the Mural. I suppose like the deleted Alien Scenes, in which people was being turned to Eggs, these was removed and so i guess ignored as being part of the Story and this then allowed Cameron to explore and add that a Xeno Queen creates Eggs.

As far as the Green Thing well it sits on top of what looks like a Alter that has groves in it if i remember correct and Holloway shines his torch/flash light at it and seems intrigued by it but then he shines the light to the Mural. There must be some connection... If we take the Original and the Bowl then it makes some connection with the Bowl and Sacrificial Pose Xeno. Now replacing the Bowl with this Crystal must make some connection between it and the Xeno Mural and if i then try and link to why change the Bowl to the Orb the only thing that makes sense is what if the Bowl was some way to connect the DNA of the Xeno with the Bowl Somehow and my theory is the contents in the Bowl breaks down Xeno DNA and i come to this conclusion because of the effects in the Engineer scene being different to the Urns. So maybe they thought that kind of connection would be difficult to grasp, so maybe instead of the Bowl we get the Crystal Orb like say a piece of Amber. Maybe to lead us to connect that something could be in cased in that Crystal that has DNA related to the Xeno? Certainly would be interesting to find out the connection as far as to the changes they made. I think we would have to wait until after Prometheus 3 before we find out what the Mural was for and the connection that temple has with the Xeno and the Urns.