The Mystique of the Crystal Skulls

Part 3

THE MYSTIQUE OF THE CRYSTAL SKULLS

Believers in paranormal phenomena claim that the Crystal Skulls can produce a variety of miracles. Anna Mitchell-Hedges said the skull she claims she discovered could cause visions, cure cancer and, once, its magical properties were used to kill a man; on another occasion, Anna would have had a premonition of the assassination of J.F.Kennedy.
Naturally, these statements find no support from the scientific community which has not observed any anomalous phenomenon associated with the skulls examined, and has not had particular reasons to continue the investigation after confirming the origin and manufacturing method of the objects.
Another historically unfounded hypothesis is the legend that the skulls are somehow connected to the end of the Baktun cycle of the Mayan calendar; in fact, it was said that if on December 21, 2012 all the 13 skulls (this is the known total number of existing objects) had been gathered in a mystical circle, the catastrophe predicted with the end of the Mayan calendar would have been avoided.
In 2008 a SciFi Channel documentary titled "The Mystery of the Crystal Skulls" interviewed many experts in the paranormal and mystery industry including Richard Hoagland, who attempted an unlikely connection between the skulls, the Mayans and life on Mars, and David H. Childress, author of books on the lost civilization of Atlantis and anti-gravity.

The Crystal Skulls are also mentioned in the book Serpent of Light by writer Drunvalo Melchizedek. He writes that he came into contact with Mayan descendants who would possess crystal skulls that would be used in the temples of the Yucatan; according to Melkizedek, the skulls contain the souls of ancient Maya who are waiting for the right moment to distribute the ancient wisdom in the world.
Similarly, the alleged association of skulls with Native American mythology, as advanced by neo-shamanic writer Jamie Sams, finds no basis.
Instead, as Philip Jenkins has pointed out, the mythology of the Crystal Skulls can, if anything, be traced to the "baroque legends" initially circulated by F.A. Mitchell-Hedges and then multiplied on various communication channels. In the 1970s, the Crystal Skulls had already entered the New Age mythology as powerful relics of the lost continent of Atlantis, acquiring various mystical properties starting with their total number: 13.

None of this would have been connected with Native American affairs if some New Age writers had not taken an interest in the subject.
Certainly, crystals have particular powers: it now seems proven that they can stimulate the perceptive and intellectual faculties, sharpen the senses, but also generate tranquility and relaxation. They are minerals with extensive healing properties that have given rise to a real modern holistic discipline, crystal therapy.
It is possible that the Crystal Skulls were created as an alchemical project by scholars in the field who attempted to gather the energy of the crystal into a human form (the head as the seat of the brain but also of the senses.) The alchemical hypothesis was never raised but the 19th Century was the century of spiritualism and discussions on the paranormal, a legacy of the alchemical tradition of the previous two centuries.

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THE SCIENCE ABOUT CRYSTAL SKULLS

An interesting article published in June 2008 (Vol 61, N. 3) on the online section of the Archaeological Institute of America is written by Jane MacLaren Walsh, the anthropologist of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History who will first analyzed the Mitchell-Hedges’s skull. The article preceded the release of the blockbuster "The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," an episode of the Indiana Jones saga.
Walsh recounts how, in 1992, a heavy package destined for the non-existent “Smithsonian Institute Curator, Mezo American Museum, Washington, D.C.” was delivered to the National Museum of American History. It was accompanied by a letter that read: "This Aztec Crystal Skull, apparently part of the collection of Porfirio Diaz, was acquired in Mexico in 1960 ... I am offering it to the Smithsonian unconditionally."
Richard Ahlborn, curator of the Hispanic-American collections at the time, knew of Walsh's experience with Mexican archeology and contacted her asking if she knew anything about the object - a sinister milky-white Crystal Skull, much larger than a human skull.
Walsh said he knew of a skull on display in the British Museum and a smaller replica that had been on display at the Smithsonian for some time as a fake. Ahlborn asked if the Anthropology Department might not be interested in accepting the object for national collections, and Walsh said yes, in the hopes that the skull might turn out to be an authentic pre-Columbian artifact.

In the following years, Walsh conducted extensive research far beyond his initial expectations: from the history of pre-Columbian collections in museums around the world, to contacting with scientists and museum curators who had somehow dealt with the Crystal Skulls . The study of these objects has also led to the development of new methods of investigation in the stone artifacts of the pre-Columbian era, in particular on their technology applied to semi-precious stones (jadeite and quartz.) The Crystal Skulls have been carefully studied but one cannot fail to notice how they excite the popular imagination since they are objects as unique as they are mysterious. Theories about their origin and use abound; some believe they are Mayan or Aztec objects, others that they possess occult properties, whether they are of Extraterrestrial origin or relics from the lost continent of Atlantis.
Walsh acknowledges that such sculptures are usually attributed to pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures but, in the case of the Crystal Skulls, none of them come from documented excavations nor do they have any connection to pre-Columbian representations of skulls, which were an important element of the Mesoamerican iconography (an example is the Aztec God of Death Miclantecuhtli, represented as a living skeleton, or the Maya god A depicted with a skull face in the Codex Dresden.)


In popular iconography, the skulls have been adopted without interruption by the various hippies and New Age groups who certainly do not give away their supernatural powers, and the important role they play in the energy balance of the planet.
Science, on the other hand, must be based on far more concrete facts. Museums began collecting the Crystal Skulls during the second half of the 19th Century, when no archaeological excavations had been performed in Mexico and knowledge of authentic pre-Columbian artifacts was still scarce. Perhaps precisely because of these limitations, the period was also characterized by a flourishing manufacturing industry of pre-Columbian forgeries.
Smithsonian archaeologist W.H.Holmes visited Mexico City in 1884, and noted how every corner of the city was occupied by shops selling "relics", that is, false ceramics, false whistles, false figurines. Holmes' observations converged in a rather critical article published in Science in 1886 ("The Trade in Spurious Mexican Antiquities".)

The first Mexican Crystal Skull came to light just before the French intervention of 1863, when Louis Napoleon's army invaded the nation and installed Maximilian von Hapsburg of Austria as emperor. The skulls are usually small, less than 4 cm in height; the first of its kind appears to be the one exhibited in the British Museum, of about 3 cm high, which may have been purchased in 1856 by the British banker Herny Christy.
Two other specimens were exhibited in 1867 at the Exposition Universelle in Paris as part of the collection of Eugene Boban, who is perhaps the most mysterious figure in the history of the Crystal Skulls. Boban was a Frenchman who served in Maximilian's Mexican court as an official archaeologist; he was also a member of the French Scientific Commission in Mexico, whose work was to be highlighted precisely at the Exposition Universelle (an exhibition that was not exactly successful, since its opening coincided with the execution of Maximilian by the forces of Mexican president Benito Juárez.)
 A small Crystal Skull was purchased in 1874 for 28 Pesos from the National Museum in Mexico City through the collector Luis Costantino, and another for 30 Pesos in 1880. In 1886, the Smithsonian purchased a small skull from the collection of Augustin Fischer which had been secretary to the Emperor Maximilian. This skull mysteriously disappeared after 1973, after being on display along with other archaeological forgeries following the discovery by Willian Foshag, a Smithsonian minerologist, in 1950 that it had been created with a modern rotary instrument to gem cutting.
These small objects represent the "first generation" of Crystal Skulls, and each of them have a circular perforation that runs through them entirely in the center. The hole may in fact be of pre-Columbian origin and the skulls may have been simple quartz crystal beads later reshaped into the shape of skulls for the European market.
During his investigation of the Crystal Skulls, Walsh repeatedly encountered Boban's name. He came to Mexico as a teenager and spent a carefree youth leading his own archaeological expeditions and collecting exotic birds. Boban literally fell in love with the Mexican culture, acquiring a thorough knowledge of Spanish and the Aztec Nahuatl language, and began to make a living selling archaeological finds and natural species through his family business in Mexico City.
After his return to France, Boban opened an antique shop in Paris in 1870 and sold a large part of his original Mexican collection to Alphonse Pinart, a French explorer and ethnographer. In 1878, Pinart donated his collection (including 3 Crystal Skulls) to the Trocadero, the forerunner of the Musee de l'Homme. Boban had added the third skull in the Pinart collection after his return to Paris. It is a much larger skull than the others of the first period, as it measures about 10 cm in height. This skull is now in the Musee du Quai Branly, and has the same vertical hole in the center that the first generation skulls. There is also another similar but smaller (6.30 cm) skull held in a private collection. It serves as the basis for a crucifix and perhaps the skull at Quai Branly may have served the same function.