The Crystal Skull

The Crystal Skull by Richard Garvin, 1973.

In the 1920s, F. A. Mitchell-Hedges and his adopted daughter, Anna, discovered a mysterious skull made of quartz crystal in the ruins called Lubaantun in Honduras. Since then, people have speculated about the origins of the skull and what its purpose was. It has been the inspiration for many books and movies, including Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. This book in particular was the inspiration for a children's mystery/fantasy story called Dance of the Crystal Skull by Norma Lehr.  (I haven't reviewed this particular book on my children's book blog, but I am familiar with the series that it is part of.)

It's possible that the skull was part of a hoax perpetrated by Mitchell-Hedges, but it could also have been an object of worship for the ancient Mayans. Some of the people who have studied the skull have described its hypnotic effect on viewers and even claimed to have seen auras around it and visions inside it.  The book gives some history of the Mayans and Central America but also much speculation about the skull's occult significance and psychic phenomena, including Mitchell-Hedges's personal belief that it was connected to the lost continent of Atlantis.

The section I found most interesting was the study of the skull in the labs of Hewlett-Packard, which processes crystals for use in electronic devices. Their conclusions (keeping in mind that this study was done with 1970s technology) were the that the skull and its detachable jaw were formed from the same unusually large piece of clear crystal. The skull appears to have been shaped first by chiseling and then by the use of tiny pieces of sand and crystal as an abrasive. This effort, done by hand, would have taken about 300 years to complete, even assuming that it was a full-time project. It also appeared to them that the makers did not try to take the natural axis of the crystal into account in their carving, which means that it was amazing that they didn't shatter the crystal by accident. However, none of the people who studied the skull were unable to determine definitely the makers or origin of the crystal.  (According to National Geographic, the British Museum and the Smithsonian Institution drew different conclusions from their studies of crystal skulls.) The book also includes some nice black-and-white photos of the skull, comparing it with other, more crudely-shaped crystals skulls found in Central America.

Personally, I don't really believe that the skull has any particular psychic powers or any connection to Atlantis, but having seen Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and read the children's book that centered around the idea of crystal skulls and psychic abilities being linked, I was curious to read about the skull that inspired the stories.  Although I don't believe some of the more occult speculations about the skull, it is still a fascinating piece of art, and I can enjoy imagining the possible stories behind its creation.

This book is out of print, and I haven't been able to find a copy on Internet Archive, but there are still plenty of used copies available through Amazon.