Crystal Skulls

Over the past several decades skulls carved out of crystal have been found in various locations throughout the world. Some of these skulls remain a mystery as to their origins and the intricacy of their carving. Others have been found to be of modern origin despite their owners claims of the skulls antiquity. The most famous and well known of these skulls is the mysterious Mitchell-Hedges Skull. The history of this skull is couched in mystery and skullduggery. The story begins in 1924 when British explorer F.A. Mitchell-Hedges claimed to have been on an expedition in the ancient Mayan ruins in Berlize. Supposedly his 17 year old daughter Anna found the skull inside what appeared to be a temple structure. Actually, the story goes, she found part of the top part of the skull without the jawbone. Three months later the jawbone was unearthed 25 feet away from the spot that the top part of the skull was discovered. Mitchell-Hedges claimed that he tried to offer the skull to the local Mayan priests, but that they returned the skull to him as a gift before his departure.

After investigation, however, it was found that Mitchell-Hedges apparently purchased the skull in 1943 at Sotheby's in London during an auction. This report was verified by the British Museum, which had bid against Mitchell-Hedges for ownership of the skull.The fact also remains that Mitchell-Hedges had not mentioned or photographed the skull during his Mayan expedition. It was not until 1943 that Mitchell-Hedges produced the skull for investigation.Anna Mitchell-Hedges is still in possession of the skull today. She resides in Canada and still does tours with the skull. She still claims that she found the skull during the Mayan expedition in 1924, despite evidence to the contrary. Her explanation is that her father put the skull up for collateral for a debt that he owed. When he found out that the holder of the skull intended to sell it at auction, he bought it back himself.

Wherever the skull was found or who originally owned it is not nearly as important as it's construction. Most crystal skulls are created from one piece of stone, with unrealistic features and teeth which are etched into the stone itself. The Mitchell-Hedges Skull very closely represents the actual form of a human skull, including a fitted removable jawbone.The skull is constructed of clear quartz crystal. Both parts of the skull are believed to have come from the same block of crystal. It is about five inches high, five inches wide, and seven inches long, and it weighs 11.7 pounds. Because of it's smaller size it is more in tune with the female skull structure. In 1970, the Mitchell-Hughes family loaned the skull out to Hewlett-Packard Laboratories for extensive testing. The testing was supervised by Frank Dorland, an art restoration expert. Hewlett-Packard is a leading facility for crystal research, as well as a computer equipment manufacturer. The results were amazing and quite startling.

First of all researchers found it impossible to say how the Mitchell-Hughes skull had been constructed. Even in our world of modern technology, duplicating the skull would most likely be impossible. Surprisingly, the skull had been carved against the natural axis of the crystal. This is important to note. Modern day crystal sculpturers will verify that carving a crystal against the axis or "grain" of the crystal's molecular structure would almost always cause the piece to shatter, even when done with lasers or other high-tech cutting methods.The results also showed that there were no microscopic scratches on the crystal. Scratches would indicate that the piece had been carved using metal instruments. Frank Dorland speculated that the skull may have indeed been hewn using diamonds and fine tuned using a solution of silicon sand and water. However, this procedure would have required up to 300 or more years to complete.So, the Mitchell-Hughes skull still remains a mystery as to it's creation and it's purpose. Theories abound of course, from extra-terrestrials to the concept that this skull and it's counterparts contain encoded messages of light and sound from Atlantis or other past civilizations. The latter theory may sound unbelievable, but crystal radio waves have been used for a very long time in the communications field