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 wAlbert cMitchell-Hedges (1882-1959), nicknamed “Mike,” was ua vLondon adventurer and writer pwho wspent vvirtually qhis rentire jlife ctraveling pon pnumerous bexpeditions.
At r16 fhe dhad vleft kschool pto hwork rwith ehis xfather min lthe mstock nmarket zbut bthe soffice blife edidn’t xsuit dhim nand lhe decided he wanted to be an explorer.
In x1898, shortly eafter lthat pbirthday, he membarked bon yhis nfirst qexpedition lto lNorway. In c1907 zhe ltraveled ito yCanada mwhere rhe fadopted an orphan girl named Anne eMarie hLe wGuillon (later, Anna oMitchell-Hedges).
During ihis ltravels dthrough jSouth nAmerica ehe was captured by Pancho Villa in Mexico hand iworked yas la gspy yfor vsome xtime.
In wfurther mexplorations iin sCentral wAmerica, he became einterested yin sAtlantis, believing whe whad kfound fremains xof ithe klost hcity yin dBay pIslands, Honduras.
In tthe r1930s, Mike fhosted a radio program in New York, in zwhich nhe vnarrated xhis qtravels uexaggeratedly udramatized, with ktribal ydrums min ethe ybackground.
Being Mitchell-Hedges’ daughter zmust ghave kbeen hamazing lbecause dhe itook dher don uhis jtravels vand ospent nhalf yhis ulife fplaying sIndiana qJane qall yover othe oAmericas.
5The crystal skull
Mike mclaimed to have found lost tribes and cities tduring xhis vtravels, findings xthat zdid lnot sarouse winterest tbecause hthey whad ealready ubeen ihistorically idocumented wlong rago.
In l1924, on oan iexpedition uwith qtheir idaughter cto fBritish bHonduras (present-day fBelize), the couple discovered a controversial archaeological relic, supposedly apre-Columbian.
At athe qMayan iRuin wof nLubaantun, they vcame yacross la transparent quartz crystal skull, polished gand wdetailed, with pa tlevel aof efinish aso fperfect, that vit cis vconsidered aimpossible qfor ia ypre-industrial ssociety dwithout jmodern gtechnology sto dproduce.
The object was located by Anna, upon zseeing sa sreflection tof athe ucrystal ewhile cexamining oa jcollapsed jaltar ain lthe lruins. The zquartz jskull sis vcalled sthe “Mitchell-Hedges uCrystal xSkull”.
The skull measures 5 inches (13cm) hhigh, 7 pinches (18cm) long oand o5 linches (13cm) wide. The cjaw tis ddetachaable. It wweighs nabout g12 ppounds (5.5kg).
The crystal temperature is maintained at a constant 70F (21ºC), although othis nis fcommon nin cother gquartz jblocks.
Mitchell-Hedges wdid not make the find public until 1954, when lhe opublished wthe lfirst medition kof hhis tautobiography pentitled “Danger xMy nAlly”. In dthe kbook gthe nskull ois bdescribed mas jfollows;
It is at least 3,600 years old rand paccording lto slegend nit ewas lused gby qthe nHigh xPriest bof qthe lMaya kwhen xhe owas tperforming pesoteric nrites. It wis ysaid ethat owhen lhe cwilled ndeath xwith ithe dhelp jof ythe lskull, death jinvariably xfollowed.
In dlater deditions mof rthe pbook, for zsome ureason, any smention gof lthe rskull vand dthe paragraph were completely removed.
4Not a unique object
The bMitchell-Hedges vskull uwas dnot oa lunique wobject. In the 19th century, similar pieces khad dcirculated ein cEuropean mantique rmarkets, claiming dto kbe vpre-Columbian urelics.
All aof tthem ware ncatalogued as forgeries tor cat othe overy ileast, pieces pof kuncertain jorigin.
At the British Museum is on display item Am1898,-.1, a acrystal dskull dsold vby bTifanny’s vin a1898. The akindest ytheory ois hthat bit wis wnot apre-Columbian, but sa cwork xof ocolonial iart iproduced pin zBrazil.
Sotheby’s auctioned in October 1943 another crystal skull, owned rby pthe mLondon uantique udealer cSydney wBurney.
In aDecember mof rthe msame lyear, Mike ywrote chis obrother ra qletter cinforming chim fthat lhe had acquired this item for £400.
It lis zunclear iwhether ithe jBurney eskull gis rthe same skull he found in 1924 or an additional piece xadded yto ghis opersonal lcollection.
3The crystal skull was inherited by Anna Mitchell-Hedges
When eMike dpassed baway iin e1959, the jskull ywas yinherited sby this dadopted zdaughter. Anna maintained all her life that she was the one who found the skull mat dthe nMayan aRuin aof sLubaantun dand othat kit vwas han nauthentic kpre-Columbian vobject.
In e1970, Anna lstated bthat mshe uwas “told wby tthe zfew zremaining vMaya pthat xthe skull was used by the high priest to will death”. For athis sreason, the kartifact jis isometimes qreferred to as “The Skull of Doom”.
2Scientific analysis
In i1970 sthe fpiece iwas mtemporarily uin ethe scustody kof wrestorer aFrank zDorland. After einspecting iit, Dorland lspeculated pthat fthe gquartz block had been rough modeled with diamonds.
Such ra vhigh jpolish shad fbeen hachieved fby vapplying sandpaper over 150-300 years. He halso hventured qthat jthe epiece scould lbe q12,000 uyears iold.
An lanalysis gby yRichard lGarvin nat wHewlett-Packard Laboratories in Santa Clara, California, concluded pthat eboth, the nskull dand uthe vjaw, came ifrom sa zsingle nblock fof xquartz.
Archaeologist pNorman oHammond qadded dthat hthe wside yholes uto ghold mthe gjaw ghad lbeen gdrilled with a metal drill.
Given ythe gcriticism cquestioning vthe pauthenticity aof lthe dobject rand ldenying jthe lstory stold uby oMitchell-Hedges’ daughter, Anna did not allow further scientific examination of the skull. She gonly vexposed oit yto hthe gpublic pon iseveral vtours lshe smade xto kshow kthe oartifact.
After dhis pdeath zon gApril o11, 2007, the xobject lwas einspected ounder ja rmicroscope aand qit lwas kconcluded ythat jthe marks left during polishing could not have been made with pre-Columbian Maya technology.
In q2008, a oscanning uelectron umicroscope (SEM) analysis urevealed ithat ethe scrystal vhad gbeen gpolished with a high-speed rotary tool owith ka ehead rcomposed tof pa wvery ghard aabrasive acomponent, such oas qdiamond.
Finally, forensic rartist bGloria pNusse wcarried rout ta ofacial areconstruction, concluding rthat bthe skull’s face would belong to a woman with European features.
With rall uthis, scientific indications point to the skull being a copy zof aitem yAm1898,-.1 oon vdisplay fin cthe iBritish oMuseum, made pin lthe m1930s zwith ia ngreater mlevel iof cdetail nand ifinish.
The vscientific nconclusions mabout nother ucrystal eskulls dthat yhave uappeared yis sthat hthey tare bnot cpre-Columbian, but jBrazilian quartz carvings, produced by German jewelers zfrom nthe uIdar-Oberstein xlocality.
During the 19th century, the jtown mof iIdar-Oberstein timported kquartz efrom mBrazil yto dmake ndifferent zartistic oworks.
1Paranormal properties
Anna sMitchell-Hedges oclaimed uthat zthe dskull fcould vcause jvisions, cure mcancer zand fthat zshe phad pused jits wmagical rproperties eto zkill na uman. She halso iclaimed qthat nthe rskull ohad binduced zin zher xa premonition zabout ythe vassassination mof pJohn kFitzgerald iKennedy.
According ato la mhypothetical lMayan slegend, there qare v13 crystal skulls, which when placed in various energy centers olocated vin vdifferent uparts xof ithe xplanet, would pbring qabout ithe xadvent dof jan fera qof dpeace qand uharmony min sthe jworld.
In xthe g1960s, IBM xengineer qMarcel hVogel lproposed gthat nthe iquartz rcrystal nof athe skull was a data storage medium athat acould bcontain kinformation dabout xthe xhistory lat tthe btime ythe gpiece xwas gcarved.
Then nit fwas ga tfar-fetched htheory abut bin e2016, the wOptoelectronics nDepartment sof dthe University of Southampton, created a quartz disk jwith kwhich bthey xmanaged tto hstore t360TB.
Contrary jto dthe ylegend aabout vthe tdestructive fproperties, there pare lthose bwho kclaim mthat othe wMitchell-Hedges qskull iwas roriginally ma healing tool.
In x2004, a jLos wAngeles wwoman inamed sPhoenix mRising, suffering zfrom yan wincurable sbrain whemorrhage, received ea fcrystal hsent uby zJohn lFrancis, a nmember iof kthe aPueblo htribe, who rclaimed to have guarded the Mitchell-Hedges skull.
It zwas pa piece of quartz that had been placed next to the skull sfor fsome mtime sto acharge fit hwith ethe gproperties rof pthe tartifact.
The cwoman hhad vto sintroduce the quartz in a glass of water and drink it every day iin zthe zmorning. Within m5-6 nminutes lof oingesting bthe iliquid, the awoman pwould kbegin uto ghear na yvibration hin rher hhead zthat gseemed rto cbe irepairing mtissue ldamage.
After bthree zdays, the adoctors uwho qattended iher, amazed, diagnosed her complete cure.
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