Crystal Skull

Ancient Mayan skull shaped from rock crystal, discovered at Lubaantun, British Honduras, in 1927 by explorer F. A. Mitchell-Hedges. The skull may be anywhere from 3,600 to 12,000 years old, and is believed to have been laboriously shaped by a succession of Mayan priests from a large block of pure rock-crystal by rubbing with sand. Such a method might have taken many years to complete.

Like the so-called curse of the Pharaohs, the skull is supposed to bring doom upon those who mock it. Reliable observers have reported extraordinary light effects, sounds and odors, suggesting occult properties. Extensive laboratory tests by the Hewlett-Packard Company, Santa Clara, California, revealed that the skull had remarkable optical properties that it would be virtually impossible to duplicate with modern equipment.

The only counterpart to this strange artifact is a rock crystal skull in the British Museum discovered in Mexico in 1889. It is much cruder in execution than the Mitchell-Hedges skull, and may have been a rough model for it. After the death of Mitchell-Hedges in 1959, the skull became the property of his adopted daughter Anna Le Guillon Mitchell-Hedges.

Sources:

Bowen, Sandra, F. R. Nick Nocerino, and Joshua Shapiro. Mysteries of the Crystal Skulls Revealed. Pacifica, Calif.: Aquarian Networking, 1887. Revised edition, 1988.

Mitchell-Hedges, F. A. Danger My Ally. Boston: Little-Brown, 1955.

Morrill, Sibley. Ambrose Bierce, F. A. Mitchell-Hedges and the Crystal Skull. San Francisco: Cadleon Press, 1972.

Garvin, Richard. The Crystal Skull. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1973. Reprint, New York: Pocket Books, 1974.