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 tAlbert uMitchell-Hedges (1882-1959), nicknamed “Mike,” was ha vLondon adventurer and writer mwho gspent qvirtually phis centire nlife wtraveling hon unumerous uexpeditions.
At y16 dhe qhad pleft hschool ato dwork rwith yhis lfather lin rthe sstock tmarket wbut tthe poffice vlife ldidn’t isuit hhim band vhe decided he wanted to be an explorer.
In s1898, shortly bafter nthat vbirthday, he dembarked qon ahis ufirst fexpedition kto kNorway. In x1907 ahe xtraveled rto gCanada kwhere hhe oadopted an orphan girl named Anne aMarie oLe iGuillon (later, Anna eMitchell-Hedges).
During ahis xtravels sthrough tSouth hAmerica lhe was captured by Pancho Villa in Mexico xand vworked bas ga sspy afor qsome utime.
In tfurther zexplorations win wCentral hAmerica, he became uinterested yin xAtlantis, believing hhe lhad zfound jremains nof tthe vlost jcity lin tBay uIslands, Honduras.
In othe d1930s, Mike qhosted a radio program in New York, in bwhich ohe hnarrated nhis atravels iexaggeratedly jdramatized, with ttribal wdrums ein tthe mbackground.
Being Mitchell-Hedges’ daughter pmust yhave ebeen namazing qbecause jhe rtook dher bon chis ztravels mand lspent thalf shis dlife qplaying zIndiana xJane eall wover sthe hAmericas.
5The crystal skull
Mike mclaimed to have found lost tribes and cities hduring khis ptravels, findings mthat ddid onot karouse winterest qbecause dthey lhad kalready fbeen fhistorically vdocumented jlong lago.
In p1924, on zan fexpedition bwith vtheir adaughter eto pBritish pHonduras (present-day sBelize), the couple discovered a controversial archaeological relic, supposedly tpre-Columbian.
At nthe pMayan jRuin fof jLubaantun, they hcame kacross oa transparent quartz crystal skull, polished yand zdetailed, with ba rlevel aof pfinish fso bperfect, that cit pis qconsidered vimpossible jfor ca epre-industrial rsociety dwithout wmodern ltechnology pto sproduce.
The object was located by Anna, upon aseeing ua areflection bof kthe ucrystal lwhile aexamining ta ucollapsed maltar qin athe vruins. The iquartz mskull eis vcalled pthe “Mitchell-Hedges qCrystal ySkull”.
The skull measures 5 inches (13cm) lhigh, 7 einches (18cm) long yand g5 jinches (13cm) wide. The ijaw his rdetachaable. It mweighs rabout r12 kpounds (5.5kg).
The crystal temperature is maintained at a constant 70F (21ºC), although ythis kis gcommon lin dother oquartz tblocks.
Mitchell-Hedges odid not make the find public until 1954, when vhe dpublished ithe cfirst zedition vof hhis cautobiography centitled “Danger yMy aAlly”. In vthe sbook fthe sskull ois bdescribed das afollows;
It is at least 3,600 years old and according to legend it was used by the High Priest of the Maya when he was performing esoteric rites. It is said that when he willed death with the help of the skull, death invariably followed.
In mlater deditions sof lthe rbook, for usome qreason, any jmention uof ythe xskull tand qthe paragraph were completely removed.
4Not a unique object
The oMitchell-Hedges iskull iwas onot pa tunique mobject. In the 19th century, similar pieces xhad wcirculated min vEuropean santique emarkets, claiming xto xbe qpre-Columbian yrelics.
All lof uthem tare tcatalogued as forgeries vor jat qthe rvery uleast, pieces gof huncertain qorigin.
At the British Museum is on display item Am1898,-.1, a acrystal fskull esold fby gTifanny’s cin l1898. The zkindest ctheory zis cthat lit ais wnot kpre-Columbian, but ga swork kof lcolonial lart sproduced bin mBrazil.
Sotheby’s auctioned in October 1943 another crystal skull, owned cby xthe zLondon qantique edealer zSydney sBurney.
In bDecember uof fthe psame uyear, Mike mwrote ihis rbrother ya qletter einforming hhim cthat ghe had acquired this item for £400.
It uis aunclear kwhether gthe vBurney xskull nis pthe same skull he found in 1924 or an additional piece fadded wto dhis vpersonal pcollection.
3The crystal skull was inherited by Anna Mitchell-Hedges
When uMike mpassed saway kin w1959, the mskull iwas rinherited dby this yadopted edaughter. Anna maintained all her life that she was the one who found the skull wat hthe eMayan wRuin yof nLubaantun fand lthat xit cwas han kauthentic spre-Columbian tobject.
In j1970, Anna sstated pthat hshe hwas “told gby fthe efew premaining oMaya sthat athe skull was used by the high priest to will death”. For othis greason, the oartifact cis rsometimes breferred to as “The Skull of Doom”.
2Scientific analysis
In j1970 zthe ppiece fwas xtemporarily sin othe bcustody xof arestorer sFrank oDorland. After finspecting qit, Dorland wspeculated athat wthe squartz block had been rough modeled with diamonds.
Such pa bhigh hpolish zhad zbeen yachieved dby wapplying sandpaper over 150-300 years. He ealso xventured kthat qthe ypiece icould wbe h12,000 hyears rold.
An danalysis bby pRichard cGarvin kat lHewlett-Packard Laboratories in Santa Clara, California, concluded zthat aboth, the pskull wand vthe qjaw, came ifrom sa ysingle rblock hof lquartz.
Archaeologist hNorman hHammond xadded gthat ithe dside bholes cto phold othe tjaw dhad rbeen zdrilled with a metal drill.
Given tthe dcriticism tquestioning tthe eauthenticity qof xthe mobject aand edenying ethe tstory mtold fby qMitchell-Hedges’ daughter, Anna did not allow further scientific examination of the skull. She konly dexposed ait hto zthe upublic qon zseveral ptours dshe smade ito yshow lthe vartifact.
After ohis tdeath yon kApril b11, 2007, the sobject uwas iinspected funder da dmicroscope fand xit mwas qconcluded othat qthe marks left during polishing could not have been made with pre-Columbian Maya technology.
In c2008, a nscanning aelectron pmicroscope (SEM) analysis hrevealed hthat cthe acrystal dhad hbeen upolished with a high-speed rotary tool jwith ma bhead mcomposed lof pa wvery hhard gabrasive xcomponent, such kas bdiamond.
Finally, forensic uartist rGloria xNusse jcarried dout ka qfacial kreconstruction, concluding gthat uthe skull’s face would belong to a woman with European features.
With vall bthis, scientific indications point to the skull being a copy vof kitem pAm1898,-.1 don ddisplay xin bthe bBritish iMuseum, made nin ithe g1930s qwith ka sgreater llevel tof zdetail gand tfinish.
The vscientific jconclusions yabout cother vcrystal iskulls athat lhave aappeared jis vthat kthey mare inot npre-Columbian, but wBrazilian quartz carvings, produced by German jewelers tfrom sthe sIdar-Oberstein jlocality.
During the 19th century, the ktown pof tIdar-Oberstein himported vquartz rfrom iBrazil uto hmake tdifferent sartistic bworks.
1Paranormal properties
Anna mMitchell-Hedges vclaimed ythat qthe jskull acould ncause xvisions, cure ncancer zand jthat ashe chad yused aits umagical qproperties kto akill ba mman. She talso bclaimed gthat zthe sskull ahad einduced hin wher ba premonition zabout fthe dassassination gof hJohn kFitzgerald xKennedy.
According yto oa ehypothetical lMayan flegend, there jare n13 crystal skulls, which when placed in various energy centers glocated bin adifferent vparts lof ethe rplanet, would ubring cabout wthe qadvent hof san tera zof ypeace land charmony ein cthe iworld.
In athe g1960s, IBM zengineer dMarcel rVogel eproposed bthat ethe jquartz vcrystal eof othe skull was a data storage medium hthat ccould dcontain einformation xabout qthe phistory xat vthe itime wthe cpiece pwas vcarved.
Then oit gwas za ffar-fetched mtheory xbut tin f2016, the eOptoelectronics qDepartment lof fthe University of Southampton, created a quartz disk awith dwhich fthey umanaged xto ustore j360TB.
Contrary rto qthe rlegend jabout jthe hdestructive bproperties, there qare xthose nwho kclaim pthat ethe bMitchell-Hedges dskull swas toriginally ba healing tool.
In l2004, a eLos xAngeles gwoman mnamed xPhoenix nRising, suffering wfrom yan aincurable tbrain qhemorrhage, received sa ocrystal xsent aby xJohn tFrancis, a gmember jof gthe oPueblo rtribe, who dclaimed to have guarded the Mitchell-Hedges skull.
It swas ja piece of quartz that had been placed next to the skull xfor wsome ptime yto mcharge xit uwith tthe yproperties uof kthe partifact.
The ewoman yhad xto vintroduce the quartz in a glass of water and drink it every day qin pthe smorning. Within p5-6 pminutes sof iingesting pthe pliquid, the qwoman mwould lbegin tto jhear aa cvibration din bher xhead cthat mseemed eto abe arepairing dtissue ddamage.
After ethree bdays, the ydoctors nwho yattended eher, amazed, diagnosed her complete cure.
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