Crystal skull
With crystal skulls is made of rock crystal and other precious stones crafted replicas of human skulls , are claimed, they were products of Central or South American civilizations ( Inca , Maya and Aztec ). The attribution to Native American high cultures is based purely on allegations and is not supported by verifiable archaeological findings or independent historical documents. The age and the exact origin of these crystal skulls are therefore still controversial, and crystal skulls exhibited in museums have repeatedly been identified as fakes.
Well-known crystal skulls
Many scientists consider the crystal skulls to be more modern productions, which were made in the 19th century in Idar-Oberstein , a center of European crystal cutting, in what is now the Rhineland-Palatinate . The electron microscopic examination of the London crystal skull unearthed traces of processing such as are only caused by modern grinding tools. The earliest evidence of the existence of such a crystal object dates back to the 19th century.
The controversy over whether it is ancient artifacts or modern fakes continues to this day. One reason for this is that the age of crystal processing cannot be precisely dated. An attempt is made to determine this by means of traces of very regular abrasion and polishing traces that can only be produced by machines.
Mitchell Hedges crystal skull
Probably the most famous, life-size crystal skull with a weight of 5.3 kg was allegedly discovered in 1924 in Lubaantun in what was then British Honduras (now Belize ) by the 17-year-old Anna Mitchell-Hedges when she gave her adoptive father Frederick Albert Mitchell-Hedges (1882 –1959) during an excavation during which he was convinced that he had discovered " Atlantis ". According to another source, Mitchell-Hedges bought the crystal skull at Sotheby’s from previous owner Sidney Burney in 1943 for £ 400 . In addition to its almost perfect workmanship, it is particularly noteworthy that, unlike most other crystal skulls, it has a removable lower jaw that is made from the same piece of crystal as the skull. This fact and the great similarity to the better studied London skull (below) lead scientists to the assumption that this is also a fake.
Frank Dorland, one of the authors who presented the skulls to a wide audience, came to the conclusion: If supernatural powers or processing techniques that are no longer known today were left out of play, the Maya would have had to process the crystal skull with manual polishing for centuries. With around twelve hours of work per day on the object, according to this theory, the skull would only have been completed after 1,600 years. However, the processing of rock crystal is rather unproblematic. In Europe, the techniques for processing have been known for centuries, such as drinking vessels made of rock crystal from the Baroque period , which are shown in the Dresden Green Vault .
London crystal skull
The London crystal skull is very similar to the "Mitchell Hedges skull", but does not have a detachable lower jaw. It was reportedly discovered in Mexico in the 19th century and is on display in the Welcome Gallery of the British Museum .
A team of experts from the British Museum published findings that question the Native American origin of the London skull. Electron microscopic analyzes showed traces on the crystal surface that indicate the use of grinding wheels, which in turn were not used in the American civilizations. The team also pointed out that the crystal type of skull does not occur in Mexico , but is well known from Brazil . Against the background of these findings, the team came to the conclusion that it was a work from the 19th century, which may have been carried out in Germany and sold as an allegedly real find of Aztec culture.
Parisian crystal skull
This skull is significantly smaller than life size, consists of cloudy quartz and is also more coarsely made than the Mitchell-Hedges and London skulls. It is located in the Musée du quai Branly . It was also allegedly discovered in a grave in Central America, but traces of iron have now shown that the skull was machined with modern milling machines. In addition, iron was still unknown to the pre-Columbian peoples. In addition, the conspicuous hole that was drilled vertically through the skull speaks against an Aztec origin, since these pierced the skulls of their victims horizontally. Presumably the skull was forged by the antiquarian Eugène Boban and imported to France.
Pop Culture
Crystal skulls are a popular topic in pop culture, especially in adventure stories and in relation to pre-astronautics science fiction . They are assigned special powers there.
- A comic series related to the topic is The Gods from Space , a series of eight comic books by Polish authors between 1978 and 1983.
- In the Eldorado series of the monthly comic magazine Mosaik , Wido Wexelgelt , a companion of the Abrafaxe , receives a golden statue containing a crystal skull with magical properties as a gift from a South American Indian tribe.
- In the science fiction series Stargate - Command SG-1 , the episode " The Crystal Skull " from 2000 is about the subject.
- The American metal band Mastodon (band) dealt musically with the topic in 2006 in the album Blood Mountain .
- The topic gained particular fame through the adventure film Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull by Steven Spielberg from 2008.
- In the fourth part of the six-volume fantasy series The Secrets of Nicholas Flamel , The Eerie Haunted Caller from 2010 features crystal skulls.
literature
- Frank Dorland: The crystal skull from Lubaantun . in: Antike Welt 6th year, issue 3/1975.
- Peter James and Nick Thorpe: Halley, Hünen, Hinkelstein . Zurich 2001, pp. 398–402 (critical comments on the subject).
- Jane Maclaren Walsh: Crystal Skulls and Other Problems Or: "Don't Look It in the Eye" . in: Amy Henderson / Adrienne L. Kaeppler (eds.): Exhibiting Dilemmas. Issues of Representation at the Smithsonian. Washington / London: Smithsonian Institution Press 1997, pp. 116-139 ISBN 1-56098-690-5 .
- Joe Nickell and John F. Fischer: Secrets of the Supernatural: Investigating the World's Occult Mysteries . Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1988.
- Wilfried Rosendahl, Sina Steglich: The myth of the crystal skull. in: Alfried Wieczorek, Wilfried Rosendahl (ed.): Skull cult: head and skull in the cultural history of man. Schnell and Steiner Verlag, Regensburg 2011, pp. 211-215 ISBN 978-3795424541 .
- Margaret Sax, Jane M. Walsh, Ian C. Freestone, Andrew H. Rankin and Nigel D. Meeks: The origins of two purportedly pre-Columbian Mexican crystal skulls . in: Journal of Archaeological Science. 35.10 (October 2008), pp. 2751-2760 doi : 10.1016 / j.jas.2008.05.007 .
Web links
- Article crystal skull from the "Skeptic's Dictionary"
- Legend of the Crystal Skulls , by Jane MacLaren Walsh, published in: Archeology, Volume 61 Number 3, May / June 2008.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b The skull with the “supernatural” power ( Memento of the original from April 30, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. - Article on ORF .at
- ^ (1926) Photograph by Mitchell-Hedges in London with a Maya girl. Retrieved June 4, 2020 .
- ↑ Sandra Bowen, Joshua Shapiro, FR Nocerino: Mysteries of the Crystal Skulls Revealed , J&S Aquarian Networking
- ^ NZZ Online: Lazy Magic, Real Fraud , May 20, 2008
