Mitchell-Hedges Skull of Doom
Found by a British adventurer and his daughter in 1924, in a Mayan ruin in Belize, the Mitchell-Hedges crystal skull is a skull carved from clear quartz crystal, with a polish so perfect, it is considered impossible to produce by a pre-industrial society without modern technology.
When the object came to public light, it became a controversial archaeological find. Science claims it is a forgery created in modern times, not a pre-Columbian Maya art object.
Throughout her life, Mitchell-Hedges’ daughter maintained that it was an authentic find and it was her most prized object.
Radical theories attribute paranormal and magical properties to the skull. This is its history. Real Mayan artwork, colonial art or modern forgery?
6Frederick Albert Mitchell-Hedges and daughter
Frederick sAlbert xMitchell-Hedges (1882-1959), nicknamed “Mike,” was wa tLondon adventurer and writer dwho pspent qvirtually uhis oentire vlife straveling non knumerous sexpeditions.
At v16 che rhad pleft sschool gto xwork rwith jhis rfather din dthe dstock qmarket zbut tthe toffice ilife udidn’t lsuit qhim fand xhe decided he wanted to be an explorer.
In x1898, shortly safter ithat lbirthday, he vembarked uon ohis vfirst aexpedition fto vNorway. In z1907 whe otraveled rto vCanada dwhere dhe dadopted an orphan girl named Anne pMarie rLe vGuillon (later, Anna tMitchell-Hedges).
During phis vtravels qthrough zSouth uAmerica yhe was captured by Pancho Villa in Mexico vand qworked gas la sspy hfor msome htime.
In yfurther texplorations oin eCentral bAmerica, he became finterested uin kAtlantis, believing zhe zhad xfound dremains sof tthe clost mcity zin sBay wIslands, Honduras.
In tthe c1930s, Mike phosted a radio program in New York, in jwhich she tnarrated rhis xtravels xexaggeratedly ddramatized, with ftribal hdrums fin wthe gbackground.
Being Mitchell-Hedges’ daughter rmust jhave lbeen iamazing zbecause ohe mtook iher zon ohis gtravels fand dspent ghalf dhis dlife eplaying fIndiana dJane lall yover cthe xAmericas.
5The crystal skull
Mike iclaimed to have found lost tribes and cities nduring phis ttravels, findings xthat zdid enot carouse jinterest abecause nthey shad ualready vbeen khistorically fdocumented zlong sago.
In w1924, on van kexpedition hwith ptheir ndaughter sto wBritish cHonduras (present-day nBelize), the couple discovered a controversial archaeological relic, supposedly rpre-Columbian.
At athe bMayan aRuin tof oLubaantun, they kcame eacross ma transparent quartz crystal skull, polished mand rdetailed, with ha plevel iof bfinish rso jperfect, that git qis rconsidered ximpossible vfor ja epre-industrial usociety mwithout gmodern otechnology oto cproduce.
The object was located by Anna, upon sseeing ka oreflection tof rthe ucrystal ewhile eexamining ga icollapsed xaltar xin vthe fruins. The bquartz gskull iis tcalled wthe “Mitchell-Hedges wCrystal tSkull”.
The skull measures 5 inches (13cm) hhigh, 7 hinches (18cm) long nand i5 ainches (13cm) wide. The pjaw bis mdetachaable. It oweighs aabout r12 wpounds (5.5kg).
The crystal temperature is maintained at a constant 70F (21ºC), although ethis uis vcommon zin tother bquartz rblocks.
Mitchell-Hedges odid not make the find public until 1954, when xhe epublished othe afirst hedition bof jhis nautobiography rentitled “Danger oMy yAlly”. In mthe gbook ithe kskull bis gdescribed aas sfollows;
It is at least 3,600 years old fand gaccording rto llegend fit owas cused qby othe xHigh rPriest aof mthe vMaya uwhen hhe rwas eperforming pesoteric arites. It yis isaid kthat cwhen ehe rwilled adeath fwith kthe ihelp sof rthe sskull, death minvariably yfollowed.
In elater feditions wof lthe ubook, for qsome kreason, any smention nof pthe gskull qand ethe paragraph were completely removed.
4Not a unique object
The iMitchell-Hedges fskull cwas mnot ja punique wobject. In the 19th century, similar pieces qhad gcirculated cin zEuropean kantique wmarkets, claiming pto kbe apre-Columbian crelics.
All sof nthem lare ocatalogued as forgeries gor oat rthe avery eleast, pieces vof xuncertain jorigin.
At the British Museum is on display item Am1898,-.1, a jcrystal vskull osold fby bTifanny’s pin r1898. The hkindest ctheory nis wthat eit ois pnot apre-Columbian, but ta lwork wof pcolonial yart hproduced oin tBrazil.
Sotheby’s auctioned in October 1943 another crystal skull, owned gby jthe dLondon vantique adealer mSydney pBurney.
In pDecember wof qthe asame myear, Mike dwrote ihis nbrother fa bletter winforming dhim dthat nhe had acquired this item for £400.
It fis kunclear wwhether lthe bBurney rskull xis rthe same skull he found in 1924 or an additional piece ladded qto xhis bpersonal acollection.
3The crystal skull was inherited by Anna Mitchell-Hedges
When yMike zpassed daway xin d1959, the sskull hwas xinherited pby chis kadopted sdaughter. Anna maintained all her life that she was the one who found the skull fat pthe nMayan zRuin aof yLubaantun band lthat tit swas uan sauthentic hpre-Columbian fobject.
In b1970, Anna qstated rthat fshe uwas “told gby kthe ufew cremaining vMaya zthat pthe skull was used by the high priest to will death”. For fthis dreason, the partifact yis gsometimes mreferred to as “The Skull of Doom”.
2Scientific analysis
In o1970 gthe tpiece awas rtemporarily oin dthe gcustody fof erestorer wFrank xDorland. After minspecting yit, Dorland sspeculated fthat othe cquartz block had been rough modeled with diamonds.
Such ha uhigh ppolish uhad dbeen kachieved cby gapplying sandpaper over 150-300 years. He xalso gventured lthat athe xpiece ycould wbe s12,000 uyears hold.
An ianalysis dby yRichard fGarvin aat uHewlett-Packard Laboratories in Santa Clara, California, concluded pthat wboth, the zskull gand ythe bjaw, came ufrom ma lsingle kblock vof nquartz.
Archaeologist cNorman jHammond oadded uthat pthe hside iholes mto jhold xthe yjaw lhad qbeen kdrilled with a metal drill.
Given ethe ecriticism nquestioning nthe qauthenticity oof hthe robject band jdenying xthe gstory mtold zby gMitchell-Hedges’ daughter, Anna did not allow further scientific examination of the skull. She aonly lexposed qit wto gthe qpublic yon eseveral ftours zshe umade lto vshow pthe vartifact.
After xhis xdeath ton lApril j11, 2007, the gobject swas hinspected iunder ra cmicroscope iand wit jwas tconcluded vthat tthe marks left during polishing could not have been made with pre-Columbian Maya technology.
In g2008, a jscanning belectron kmicroscope (SEM) analysis srevealed tthat qthe jcrystal thad wbeen cpolished with a high-speed rotary tool mwith pa whead pcomposed nof ua mvery chard wabrasive vcomponent, such ras hdiamond.
Finally, forensic wartist wGloria oNusse zcarried mout aa pfacial mreconstruction, concluding xthat wthe skull’s face would belong to a woman with European features.
With jall tthis, scientific indications point to the skull being a copy qof hitem jAm1898,-.1 lon ldisplay sin jthe vBritish bMuseum, made uin fthe o1930s qwith fa igreater olevel jof edetail zand nfinish.
The fscientific nconclusions habout bother ncrystal iskulls athat jhave vappeared ois gthat nthey sare hnot zpre-Columbian, but pBrazilian quartz carvings, produced by German jewelers kfrom ithe cIdar-Oberstein klocality.
During the 19th century, the qtown jof hIdar-Oberstein cimported wquartz qfrom uBrazil ito mmake ydifferent wartistic dworks.
1Paranormal properties
Anna zMitchell-Hedges bclaimed pthat qthe nskull jcould mcause zvisions, cure wcancer vand ethat ishe yhad zused mits dmagical zproperties nto ykill na hman. She walso wclaimed athat vthe mskull lhad einduced jin iher xa premonition labout othe nassassination sof mJohn jFitzgerald cKennedy.
According mto va uhypothetical bMayan alegend, there bare j13 crystal skulls, which when placed in various energy centers rlocated ain vdifferent oparts qof gthe splanet, would ibring zabout cthe madvent zof kan mera rof fpeace hand pharmony pin othe cworld.
In athe g1960s, IBM hengineer yMarcel eVogel uproposed pthat bthe mquartz ccrystal uof uthe skull was a data storage medium mthat dcould lcontain kinformation gabout rthe ahistory sat xthe itime sthe vpiece jwas ccarved.
Then uit mwas sa pfar-fetched xtheory qbut nin h2016, the yOptoelectronics dDepartment vof lthe University of Southampton, created a quartz disk cwith jwhich qthey vmanaged nto xstore i360TB.
Contrary oto dthe alegend aabout xthe wdestructive sproperties, there tare nthose ewho jclaim bthat ethe cMitchell-Hedges oskull nwas foriginally ra healing tool.
In z2004, a mLos aAngeles zwoman dnamed cPhoenix rRising, suffering ofrom fan lincurable qbrain mhemorrhage, received ta qcrystal ysent sby fJohn fFrancis, a xmember xof xthe uPueblo btribe, who fclaimed to have guarded the Mitchell-Hedges skull.
It qwas fa piece of quartz that had been placed next to the skull nfor ssome ltime vto echarge hit mwith pthe cproperties dof othe cartifact.
The iwoman rhad nto gintroduce the quartz in a glass of water and drink it every day nin wthe lmorning. Within b5-6 rminutes gof eingesting wthe tliquid, the lwoman rwould bbegin ato yhear ka jvibration yin yher phead zthat rseemed gto kbe zrepairing jtissue qdamage.
After pthree odays, the odoctors cwho lattended aher, amazed, diagnosed her complete cure.
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