The Skull of Doom - Archaeology Magazine Archive

Fact, fiction, and the creation of myth surrounding the Mitchell-Hedges crystal skull

Crystal Skulls have long had a fringe following, but were [need intro sentence, generic crystal skulls & reference:, May/June 2008]

The most famous "crystal skull" is named for Frederick A. Mitchell-Hedges, who claimed to have found it somewhere in Central America in the 1930s. But his adopted daughter Anna said she found it under a fallen altar or inside a pyramid at the Maya site of Lubaantun in British Honduras (now Belize) some time in the 1920s. Neither account is true. Like all the other crystal skulls thus far examined, it is a modern creation, despite its nearly mythical place in the minds of devotees (see "Legend of the Crystal Skulls").

I have had two opportunities to examine the Mitchell-Hedges skull closely and to take silicone molds of carved and polished elements, which I have analyzed under high-power light and scanning-electron microscopes. I have also evaluated the documentary evidence, newspaper stories about Mitchell-Hedges, his memoirs Land of Wonder and Fear (1931) and Danger My Ally (1954), and a file of letters Anna Mitchell-Hedges wrote to Frederick Dockstader, then director of the Museum of the American Indian in New York City, which I recently found.

The microscopic evidence presented here indicates that the skull was not a Maya artifact but carved with high-speed, modern, diamond-coated lapidary tools. It first appeared in London in 1933 and was purchased a decade later by Mitchell-Hedges, who claimed the crystal skull was an authentic pre-Columbian artifact. The archival evidence suggests Anna was later involved in the evolution of tall tales about the skull's origins, providing a fascinating look at the creation of a popular mythology in service of a profitable business venture.

PHOTO HERE	Under the Microscope
PHOTO HERE	Acquisition History
PHOTO HERE	Fictionalized History
PHOTO HERE	Just the Facts
PHOTO HERE	Conclusion
	References

Jane MacLaren Walsh is an anthropologist at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of National History. Using her expertise in Mexican archaeological collections, she is seeking to understand how museum collections are formed, and what artifacts, including fake artifacts, can tell us about the evolution of our knowledge and understanding of other cultures.