The Crystal Skull: Mystical, or Modern?
Is the crystal skull truly an ancient Mayan artifact with mysterious powers?
Filed under Aliens & UFOs, Ancient Mysteries, Paranormal
| Skeptoid #98 April 29, 2008 Podcast transcript | Listen | Subscribe |
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By Brian Dunning, Skeptoid Podcast
Episode 98, April 29, 2008
http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4098
It was 1926 when Anna Mitchell-Hedges, adoptive daughter of British adventurer and author Frederick Albert Mitchell-Hedges, was something of a real life Lara Croft. She was crawling through an ancient Mayan temple in Belize, long ago wrecked by the ages and the ravages of the encroaching jungle. Beneath a crumbled altar, she unearthed perhaps the most curious artifact from the ancient world: A perfectly clear crystal skull, expertly carved, and immaculately preserved, and about two thirds the size of a real skull. For nearly 30 years the Mitchell-Hedges family kept the crystal skull a secret, until F.A. Mitchell-Hedges mentioned it briefly in his book Danger My Ally. In this book he said the skull was 3,600 years old, and was used by Mayan priests to strike people dead by the force of their own will. After her father's death, Anna took this so-called "Skull of Doom" on tour throughout the world, and its strange powers became well known. Arthur C. Clarke even used the Mitchell-Hedges skull as the logo for his television series Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World. The fourth Indiana Jones movie is about a crystal skull with mystical qualities, and furthers the theme originally proposed by Mitchell-Hedges that crystal skulls are alien in origin, coming from Atlantis or Roswell or some alien world. In fact, practically every reference to a crystal skull over the past 40 years or so has usually been specifically about the Mitchell-Hedges skull.
Some believers in mystical energy feel that the crystal skulls have a broad range of powers. They can be used to aid in divination, in healing, and even psychic communication. Others claim that they have refractive properties unlike other crystals. They are said to remain at exactly 70 degrees no matter what temperature they are exposed to. They possess spiritual auras that can be photographed. Some even speculate that when all the crystal skulls are brought together, it will bring about the end of the world.
Now, I'm reluctant to burst anyone's bubble, but before going further it's necessary to clear up a few misconceptions. The Mitchell-Hedges skull is not quite 3,600 years old, and Mitchell-Hedges found it a little closer to home than Belize. In fact, he bought it from Sydney Burney, a London art dealer, through a Sotheby's auction on October 15, 1943, as determined in hard black and white by investigator Joe Nickell and others. This explains why neither Mitchell-Hedges nor his daughter ever said anything about it following their alleged 1926 discovery. They had never heard of it, until they bought it 18 years later, and then invented their Mayan altar story.
So this Sydney Burney character, perhaps he was the one who actually found the skull in a Mayan ruin, and traced its history back to the Atlanteans? Well, there is additional hard evidence that Burney owned the skull as far back as 1933, because he wrote a letter about it to the American Museum of Natural History, which they still have. Three years later, the British anthropological journal Man published an article about Burney's skull, and this 1936 article remains the earliest known documentation of any crystal skull. (I've since received an 1887 New York Times article in which a paper was presented about a skull -- see next paragraph. -BD)
It seems clear, but has never been never proven, that Burney bought the skull from French collector Eugene Boban. The timing was right; the two men knew each other; and Boban is known to have sold at least two other crystal skulls about the same time Burney acquired his. If Mitchell-Hedges was the real Indiana Jones, Eugene Boban was the real Belloq. He was even French. And, like Belloq, he didn't actually go into the jungle tombs personally to acquire his artifacts. In Boban's case, he simple purchased them in bulk from the manufacturer. This time, the manufacturer was Germany's so-called "capital of the gemstone industry" Idar-Oberstein, a bucolic hamlet where artisans and craftsmen chip away at semi-precious stones in their workshops like so many Gepettos. In the 1870's, craftsmen in Idar-Oberstein made a large purchase of quartz crystals from Brazil, from which to make carvings. Nobody has ever found documented proof, but at about the time the Idar-Oberstein craftsmen were selling their cunningly carved art objects of Brazilian quartz, Eugene Boban left from there with at least three, and possibly as many as thirteen, freshly carved skulls made from Brazilian quartz. Any connection you choose to draw is purely speculative. According to documents found by Jane Walsh, a Smithsonian archivist, Boban sold one of his skulls to Tiffany's in New York City, which in turn sold it to the British Museum in 1897. Boban sold a second skull to a collector who then donated it to the Museum of Man in Paris. (An 1887 New York Times article describes the British Museum skull then in the hands of New York collector George H. Sisson, who had bought it from Eugene Boban. After this article, Sisson sold this skull to Tiffany's. -BD)
For decades, the British Museum and the Museum of Man displayed their crystal skulls with the provenances originally provided by Eugene Boban, which was that the skulls came from pre-Columbian Aztec origin. But then, in separate studies in the 1990's, both the British Museum and the Smithsonian examined a number of crystal skulls, including all of those in museum collections attributed to Eugene Boban. Analysis of the cut and polish marks by electron microscope proved that they were made using 19th century rotary cutting tools, identical to those in use in Idar-Oberstein at that time. The British Museum now lists their skull as "probably European, 19th century," and "not an authentic pre-Columbian artifact."
The Paris skull, also from Boban, was subjected to even better tests in 2008, confirming that its polishing was done using modern tools. In addition, particle accelerator tests found traces of water used during the cutting and polishing, occluded within the quartz, that positively dated the carving to between 1867 and 1886.
Neither the Mitchell-Hedges nor their skull's current owner, family friend Bill Homann, ever allowed the Mitchell-Hedges skull to be tested with modern equipment; nor have any of the owners of other famous crystal skulls like the one called Max in Texas. The privately owned skulls now confine themselves to touring to mysticism conventions, New Age hotbeds like Sedona, and charging for private viewings and sessions. So far as I've been able to find, no private crystal skull owner has ever allowed controlled tests of their claims of any mystical powers they say their skull has. If they'd like to, this is my personal guarantee to fast-track them to the James Randi Educational Foundation's million dollar prize.
There is enough of a gap in the early history of the Mitchell-Hedges skull that we cannot absolutely trace its lineage from the Idar-Oberstein workshops in the 1870's to the hands of Sydney Burney in 1933. Everything known about the skull is consistent with that history, and no evidence has ever been presented that the skull might have any other origin. There is the Mitchell-Hedges' own story of having found the skull in their pulp-fiction Mayan tomb adventure, but that story has been conclusively proven to be a fabrication by documentation from Sotheby's and Burney.
All of this makes it rather difficult to form an opinion about the mystical powers of crystal skulls. If these powers are attributed to their Mayan, Atlantean, or alien origin, then that attribution is conclusively false, but that doesn't mean the mystical power itself doesn't exist. The first thing the claimants would need to do is articulate exactly what the supernatural power is, and then demonstrate it under controlled conditions. Neither of these has ever been done, so a truly critical analysis has nothing to advance it beyond a null hypothesis. And so there we have it: All known crystal skulls are of modern origin, with no unusual properties, and no coherent or testable claims of anything out of the ordinary. Indiana Jones might make great entertainment, but it makes poor archaelogical history.
© 2008 Skeptoid Media, Inc.
References & Further Reading
Carroll, Robert Todd. The Skeptic's Dictionary. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2003. 92, 93.
Craddock, Paul. Scientific Investigation of Copies, Fakes and Forgeries. Burlington, MA: Butterworth-Heinemann, 2009. 414, 415.
Garvin, Richard. The Crystal Skull: The Story of the Mystery, Myth and Magic of the Mitchell-Hedges Crystal Skull Discovered in a Lost Mayan City During a Search for Atlantis. New York: Doubleday, 1973. 75-76.
Morrill, S. Ambrose Bierce, F.A. Mitchell-Hedges and the Crystal Skull. San Francisco: Cadleon Press, 1972.
Nickell, Joe. "Riddle of the Crystal Skulls." Skeptical Inquirer. 1 Jul. 2006, Volume 30.4.
Walsh, J.M. "Legend of the Crystal Skulls." Archaeology. 1 May 2008, Volume 61, Number 3: 36-41.
Welfare, S., Fairley, J. Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World. New York: A&W Publishers, 1980.
Reference this article:
Dunning, B.
"The Crystal Skull: Mystical, or Modern?" Skeptoid Podcast. Skeptoid Media, Inc.,
29 Apr 2008. Web.
23 May 2013. <http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4098>
Discuss!
10 most recent comments | Show all 36 comments
"Further, any testing performed on them can't prove when they were carved, but only show evidence of the last time someone decided to chip away at them" Todd G
I love that! Testing can only show the last time someone chipped away at the skull, but not show when it was originally chipped away at. This is presumably because it was carved with space lasers!
Greg, Vancouver
August 18, 2011 12:03pm
Greg, or that polishes werent as advanced as the manufacture method.
Compare this to a wonderful rendition of Brians about ancient papers quite recently.
An apologist will always bring that argument into the fray when positive evidence is missing.
You can say no to all of the people some of the time..
Muddie, Waiting for rugby Semi\'s, Oz
October 14, 2011 10:24pm
Hey Guys - I just want to point out a little fact you might find interesting.
It's pretty common knowledge to people that look into Nostradamus that his quatraines named three people as "Antichrists." The first, many believe to be Alexandre of Macedonia, The Second Napoleon Bonaparte, and the last one... Well, that's where things get interesting. You see, he literally used the name of the person he claimed would be the "final antichrist." In his writings he stated that it would be a man named "Himmler." SS Commader Heinrich Himmler is commonly believed to be the man refered to, but most historians, and conspiracy theorists think (or thought) that it was a more or less a close guess, and that Nostradamus really meant it was going to be Hitler. Well... In March of this year (2011) A cache of belongings from Heinrich Himmler was discovered, and among them was the 13th and final Crystal skull.
Not only that, but there are Mayan texts to back the skulls, detailing a "skull ritual" which was last performed before the Mayan people existed.
But go ahead, skeptics.. I mean, when you're a skeptic you can read an article like this, which offers absolutely no evidence to back up it's claims, and tell people that they need to provide proof or they're wrong. Well... There IS evidence that would hold sway in a court of law, and that is pretty much the definition of proof.
Lastly, I just want to say I don't think anything will happen 2012, I just thought the OP was ridiculously dumb.
Gage, None of your Business
November 01, 2011 2:12am
@Gage... I think you'll find (with a 2 second Google search) that there is no mention of Himmler in Nostradamus writings.
Maybe you are referring to his use of the word "Hifter" ?(or more correctly Hister)... which most "believers" like to morph into Hitler. Did he have a skull too ?
Gary, Dublin
February 23, 2012 1:42am
Some time ago they did a big documentary on the crystal skulls come to find out they are all fakes. A man in england the name escapes me atm. They were crafted in England and said found in some Mayan ruins.
Rhett, Colorado
June 13, 2012 12:56pm
Jeeps Hister is almost my real name!!! lose a vowel, add a consonant and move another. The tried and true method of Nostradamus interpretation I may add.
I wish someone could misspell a billion dollars my way seeing I just realist I am the intachrysler.
oK I would settle for free beer..
Just while we are on this aside, Alexander of Macedon?? What was on Nostradamus' plate that particular night? He was out by @300 years.
Come to think of it, thats about as accurate as he has ever been.
mud, Forbidden state, Oz
June 13, 2012 1:02pm
I saw an interesting tv documentary on the (hedges) crystal skull I believe on NATGO.
Yes they did mention the auction in england selling a crystal skull that bore a remarkable similarity.
But one interesting fact they also pointed out throws SERIOUS doubt as to the valitity of this.
The producers paid a gifted and know crystal skull for profit maker to recreate the hedges skull. They have a large amount of money and EXACT dimensions to follow.
Well when the final product was paid for two astounding facts came to light.
One was the creator (while on of the best) using modern tools/polishing FAILED to make an exact duplicate. In fact for all his work the scientist easily found discrepencies.
Two and most shocking. The microscopic examination showed that the modern technique of cutting and polishing came no where close to matching the hedges' skull. In fact the modern one (when compaired to the origional) actually showed the hedges skull was much more refined and smoother than the modern one.
The story of exactly how the skull was found may be in question.
I guess I find it hardly case closed when modern techniques cannot recreate the skull to the level of perfection the origional has and the only evidence saying is is "modern made" is a picture/listing at an auction site.
Eric, Northern IL USA
August 27, 2012 3:58am
Face it: if the skull is made of quartz, amethyst, citrine, or rose quartz IT IS REAL and IT IS MILLIONS OF YEARS OLD. So what if it was cut from the quartz crystal yesterday? It would still be incredible and ancient because the living quartz crystal is LIVONG and ANCIENT. Find out for yourself by picking one up! Go to a rock shop or metaphysical store in your area. If your are in New York City, check out ROCK STAR CRYSTALS. They have crystal skulls, even LIFE-SIZE crystal skulls and crystal skull pendents. They do not sell on the internet or do mail order, so to visit a REAL CRYSTAL SKULL go to www.rockstarcrystalsmanhattan.com or call 212 675 3065.
Walter, New York
February 02, 2013 8:37pm
You mean my Basalt 8 ball is worth..
Hang on..
Mud, Sin City, Oz
March 19, 2013 8:30pm
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So Todd, despite it coming from a workshop in the 1870s, that made that kind of model, with the techniques used to make the darned thing, and NO evidence to suggest it was "chipped away at", and not "made" you don't think the skull was a product of the modern age.
Well, the null hypothosis is this: It was made where the trail starts, in the hands of a mason in the 1870s. If you want to claim we are "overlooking" evidence, maybe supply some to be overlooked?
There is nothing to be glossed over, ignored, or explained away, because there is exactly zero evidence to suggest the skull was not created at the start of the evidence trail. Which is NOT in atlantis, but the modern age.
Tom H, Kent
June 20, 2011 9:13am