The most famous crystal skull was found in 1927 by the English explorer Frederick Mitchell-Hedges among the ruins of a Mayan temple in Lubaantuna (present-day Belize).
Another version, the scientist bought this item at Sotheby's in London in 1943. Be that as it may in reality, the skull of rock crystal is made so perfectly that it is a priceless work of art.
How old is the find?
The skull, found in Belize, weighs just over five kilograms and, being an exact replica of a female skull, is perfect in every way. According to experts, such an ideal is difficult to achieve even with the use of modern technologies. The skull is perfectly polished, the jaw is a separate structure from the rest, which is attached with a hinge. One of the unexplained facts is the fact that this skull is made from a single piece of quartz and therefore has a Mohs scale of seven (a scale of hardness of minerals from 0 to 10). Also, scientists stated that the processing was carried out without the use of any cutting tools. Studies of the skull, which were carried out by the American company Hewlett-Packard in the 1970s, showed that in order to make a similar anatomical specimen,it should have been sanded for 300 years. The approximate age of the find is 10 thousand years. But the descendants of the ancient Maya claim that the skull is more than 100 thousand years old. This means that the ancient Indians, whose civilization disappeared in the first half of the second millennium, existed for three and a half thousand years, could not have made it.
Another crystal skull, known as the "Boban Skull" (named after the antique dealer Eugene Boban, who found this skull somewhere in Mexico, is now kept in the British Museum of Natural History), is 500 years old. And the skull "Max", which the current owner Joan Parke inherited from a Tibetan monk, according to scientists, was made about seven hundred years ago. But it is impossible to name the exact date of the origin of the crystal skulls. How, for example, can you determine the age of a diamond? It is only known that this stone “grows” for millions of years under a pressure of at least 50,000 atmospheres, which gives the stone such hardness. Mountain quartz, which has a slightly lower hardness, also “grows” for more than one year. So determining the age of crystal skulls is as difficult as figuring out what they are.
Engineers and technicians also discovered something interesting. It turned out that in the depths of the sockets of some of the skulls found there are very skillfully made lenses and prisms. And if the skull is illuminated with a candle from below, then thin rays of light will stream from the eye sockets.
Some time ago, several scientists from the Smithsonian Institution expressed their own version of the purpose of crystal skulls. Some of them noticed that rock quartz crystals are used in computer memory chips. They are capable of storing gigabytes of information. How much information can you put into a crystal weighing five kilograms”? And if modern earthly science is not yet capable of this, this does not mean that it is generally impossible. Or maybe the crystal skulls are nothing more than foreign computers?
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The version of scientists, although it cannot be called absolutely scientific, should not be dismissed either. The impact of crystal skulls on humans is an established fact. For example, a Tibetan monk who handed over the skull "Max" to Joan Parker before his death used it to heal people. And the owner of another skull, the so-called alien skull, Joquet von Ditan claims that the artifact cured her of a brain tumor. The doctors confirm that the tumor was, and then disappeared. But they cannot explain how this happened.
From heaven to earth
Recently, however, any information about crystal skulls has been severely criticized. For example, the skull that Indiana Jones was hunted for was deemed a hoax. The exposing publication was timed by art critics to the release of the fourth film about the adventures of the professor of archeology. In addition, two skulls - one from the British Museum, the other from the Smithsonian Institution - were seriously examined by a group of scientists.
Using an electron microscope and X-ray diffraction spectroscopy, the researchers found that the British sample had traces of a rotating abrasive wheel, and the American sample had traces of carborundum.
Since the ancient Indians did not have such devices, but in the 19th century they already did, the commission attributed the skulls to our time. English in the nineteenth century, and American in the fifties of the twentieth.
A suspect in counterfeiting was also found: the 19th century French antiquary Eugene Boban. It became known that a skull from the British Museum was exhibited in his shop in 1881 and was called "Aztec crystal skull". It was acquired by the jewelry firm Tiffany and C ° for $ 950 and resold to the British Museum in 1897.
Another skull was sold by the French to the ethnographer Alphonse Pinard, and now it is in the Branly Museum in Paris. In 2007, the Center for Research and Restoration of Museums of France studied the relic and came to disappointing conclusions: the surface of the rock crystal was processed with modern tools.
Roughly the same thing happened with the British skull: examinations carried out in 1996 and 2004 concluded that it was made using jewelry tools of the late 19th century: the surface was processed using a rotating circle with diamond and corundum chips, and fine details were drawn drill.
However, supporters of the version about the ancient origin of the skulls also have their trump cards. For example, researchers in a research laboratory examining one of the skulls found it carved against the direction of crystal growth. And if so, then a legitimate question arises - why did the skull not fall apart during manufacture? Based on this information, antique restorer Frank Dorland concluded that the quartz piece was first roughed, probably with the help of diamonds, and then ground and polished with water and sand. This diligent, unhurried work should, according to Dorland, last about 300 years. So it is theoretically quite possible that the skulls were made many centuries ago.
Bounty hunters
By the way, not only scientists and archaeologists hunted for crystal skulls. In Lucas and Spielberg's film, Soviet intelligence takes an interest in artifacts. Or rather, Stalin's personal mystic with great powers. The events of the film take place in the late 50s, at the very beginning of the Cold War. So the choice of "carriers of evil" lay on the surface. However, much earlier, and this is no longer a scriptwriter's fantasy, but a real fact, the Ahnenerbe agents (a research unit of the SS troops, which, among other things, was engaged in the collection and study of ancient artifacts), were actively interested in crystal skulls. Hitler was very susceptible to mysticism and seriously believed that ancient knowledge would help him conquer the world. In 1943, agents of this organization were arrested in Brazil while trying to rob a local museum. As it turned out,they were taken to South America on a secret German intelligence ship. During interrogation, they testified that the task of the group was to find and remove the crystal skulls. And already in our time in Honduras, literally from under the noses of archaeologists, a crystal skull called "Rose Quartz" was stolen. This artifact in its perfection was not inferior to the "Mitchell-Hedges skull" and also had a movable lower jaw. However, they did not have time to study it. According to one version, the skull was stolen by the servants of a certain mystical cult. This artifact in its perfection was not inferior to the "Mitchell-Hedges skull" and also had a movable lower jaw. However, they did not have time to study it. According to one version, the skull was stolen by the servants of a certain mystical cult. This artifact in its perfection was not inferior to the "Mitchell-Hedges skull" and also had a movable lower jaw. However, they did not have time to study it. According to one version, the skull was stolen by the servants of a certain mystical cult.
Magazine: Mysteries of History No. 10-C, Victoria Shapovalova