The legend of crystal skulls captivates the imagination, interweaving tales of ancient wisdom, extraterrestrial artifacts, and mystical powers. However, a closer examination reveals that many of these claims are steeped in modern invention rather than historical fact. Frederick meticulously investigates the origins of the most notorious crystal skulls, notably the Mitchell-Hedges Skull, which has been venerated by some as an ancient artifact with supernatural qualities. Contrary to popular belief, extensive research indicates that these skulls were likely manufactured in Germany, utilizing modern tools and techniques that were not available to ancient civilizations.

Throughout this captivating exploration, Frederick addresses the pseudoscientific narratives that have proliferated around these skulls, exposing the lack of credible evidence supporting their supposed ancient origins. The episode further critiques the appropriation of Indigenous cultures in the promotion of these myths, spotlighting how New Age movements often fabricate connections to Native American spiritual practices to enhance the allure of these artifacts. The discussion serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of misrepresenting cultural histories and the commercialization of spiritual beliefs, reminding listeners that the enchanting stories surrounding crystal skulls are often just that—stories—rather than grounded realities. Ultimately, this episode calls for a more nuanced understanding of these artifacts, advocating for recognition of their artistic value while dispelling the myths that have overshadowed their true origins.

A fully sourced transcript can be found at the episode page at: https://diggingupancientaliens.com/episode-72-the-crystal-skulls

Remember to visit Real-Archaeology.com to learn more about the event, which will take place between October 25 and October 27, 2024!

Chapters:

• 00:00 - Introduction to the Podcast
• 00:43 - Exploring the Crystal Skulls
• 02:45 - The Myth of the Crystal Skulls
• 06:15 - The Mitchell-Hedges Skull Story
• 14:05 - Debunking the Myths: Scientific Analysis
• 18:26 - Plastic Shamanism and Cultural Misappropriation
• 20:53 - Commercialization of Crystal Myths
• 26:11 - Conclusion: Fact vs Fiction
• 30:02 - Outro and Acknowledgments

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You're listening to the Archaeology podcast network. Welcome to digging up ancient aliens. This is the podcast where we examine alternative history and ancient alien narratives in popular media.

Do these claims hold water to an archaeologist? Are there better explanations out there? We are now on episode 72 and I am Frederick, your guide into the world of pseudo archaeology.

This time we will look at the mysterious crystal skulls. Yeah its those crystal skulls. Are they connected to the Mayans? Do they have magical powers?

Well better question is to start to see if they are authentic. Maybe join me as we will explore this topic together and I want to thank all of those who supporting the show financially. Like trees for example.

You are really helping out, helping me out producing this content.

I'm humbled and grateful for your support and if you want to help out, I will tell you how to do that and how to get some bonus stuff at the end of this episode. And also remember that you find sources, resources and reading suggestions on our website diggingup ancientaliens.com.

there you can also find contact info if you notice any mistakes or have any suggestions. And if you like the podcast, I would really appreciate it if you left one of those fancy five star reviews that I heard so much about.

Now before I get into the episode itself, I just want to mention one more thing. Thing. And as so happens, I'm part of an online project promoting good archaeology.

There's many awesome creators who will participate in an online event taking place on the between the 25th and the 27 October. Just head over to real dash archaeology.com.

that's real dash archaeology.com where you can find all the information about this project, who will participating when and everything like that, or follow the links in the show notes. Now with that we have finished our preparation and let's dig into the episode.

So the crystal skulls, I think most people have actually heard about these at the one point or another.

They are featured in the Indiana Jones movie we don't really like to talk about, but if you aren't familiar with these objects, the story that ancient aliens and the other usually present is that these crystal objects are powerful for some reason. According to these modern legends, there are supposed to be 13 of these crystal skulls in the world, but only twelve of them has been found so far.

But if these 13 crystal skulls would be brought together, something magical or powerful would happen. The effect would differ or differ depending on who is telling the story.

That's not great when you have these large discrepancies between stories, but some will say that it can very well control nature, while others claim you get it, you unlock, store information inside the skulls and some claims that this is some kind of superweapon. As you might suspect, this is just pure fiction. These skulls are modern inventions that can be traced back to a man called Mitchell Hedges.

And I will circle back to him and his story a little bit later.

Something worth acknowledging, and something that ancient aliens even mention in their episode is that there are thousands, there's thousands of crystal skulls out there, all of them created in our modern time. Philip Koppens even seemed to have a moment of sober reflection in the show. As we hear here, the crystal skulls.

Have become so famous that the field has been flooded with dozens of modern skulls. And on a number of occasions, people who have possessed these skulls are trying to pretend as if their skull is ancient.

And this, of course, is very difficult because at the same time we have the skeptics, the scientists, who basically say it is all fake. And so as a result of which we really confronted with a mixture of crystal skulls and a very difficult situation.

So while the ancient alien people seem prepared to admit that, well, at least most of them are fakes, they still claim that, well, twelve of them are real. And if you are happy with fakes, there are sites that will sell you kits of all 13 skulls. You don't even have to go out and look for them yourself.

You can just set them up at home and get all the medical powers you want because apparently it doesnt really matter when they were created for some reason. But what skulls are classified as authentic to these believers?

Well, again, they are not too specific due to, well, the chance of an authentic skull being disproven. I believe they seem to agree that the Mitchell Hedges is authentic or genuine, at least according to the believers.

Even if, as we will see in a bit, this seems to no longer be the case or it was never authentic. But we will get to that in a moment. So what is this Mitchell hedge skull? Sometimes it's referred to as the skull of doom.

And, well, where did it came from? If we listen to the alien narrative, we often get a story that goes something like this.

Anna going into one of these abandoned temples, looking with just a flashlight, and she encounters this rubble of a collapsed altar at the back of one of these abandoned temples. She goes up and starts to move these lumps to the side and there she discovers a crystal skull.

The issue with this story is that neither of the Mitchell had just mentioned this in any of their notes from the expedition.

Or rather, well Frederick Mitchell hedgings dont mention any of these in his notes from this expedition, nor does any other that were present at the Lubantun at the time mention this discovery or the event for that matter. The first time Mitchell Hadjis mentioned this. Well senior Mitchell Hadyard mentioned this is in a letter.

And Sidney Burney got his hand on the skull not from some explorer returning from a maya temple, but from a french art collector named Eugene Boban, or supposed to have gotten this from Eugene Boban. Boban has sold at least two skulls that we know for sure that he was in possession of, according to an archivist at a Smithsonian named Jane Walshe.

You might ask Frederick, could it not be that this bourbon fellow just got it from an expedition in the guatemalan jungles? While its plausible, the evidence seems to point to the fact that these skulls originated in Germany, specifically the town of Edar Oberstein.

And this town is renown for its gemstone refinery. And they also worked quite a lot with crystals. Unfortunately, we don't have hard evidence that Bernie got the skull from Buban.

It's not like we have a received or little detail in this trade, but we have enough circumstantial evidence to at least argue a decent case that Buban is the origin. And since we know that Buban got his other skulls from Germany, we can fairly surely claim that Mitchell Hedgeskull is also from Germany.

The section is however removed in later editions of this book. And most of the stories we hear today are told by his daughter Anna.

And she is definitely the one who made the skull famous and brought it out into the larger new age audience. So what we can say for sure is that this skull was traded in the art scene in the early 19 hundreds.

And a reasonable question to ask here if, is it's been scientifically studied because toolmarks could actually help us determine when the skull was created and maybe even the origin of this piece of crystal. Now, the ancient alien expert have this to claim about that particular part. Listen here.

In all of those occasions, what was found was that it was almost impossible for a human being to make this.

Is this really what the studies have revealed? Well, first of all, Anna Mitchell Hadjes never, never let the skull be scientifically tested during her lifetime using modern equipment.

Now, we have this guy, Frank Dorland, and he was a freelance art restorer, and he kinda got to examine it. And while doing that, he also later did numerous claims about the skulls.

But we should note that he did not do a scientific testing of the skull with modern equipment. He did, however, mention that he noticed mechanical grinding on the teeth of the skull.

And this grinding was possibly made by tools tipped with diamonds. It was also suggested that the skull was made of a composite of quartz. It was several pieces put together.

And based on his observation, Dorland indicated that the skull was likely 10,000 years old.

Now, during Dorland's caretaking of the skull, it caught the attention of a writer named Richard Garvin, who managed Havlet Packard's advertising accounts. Now, Garvin organized tests at HP's crystal Labs in Santa Clara.

The labs discovered that, contrary to Dorlands belief, the skull and its detachable yaw was carved from a single piece of quartz crystal. Notably, HP did not investigate how it was made or try to determine the age of the piece.

Later, mayan archaeologist Norman Hammond, who seemed to have an opportunity to examine the skull, also reporting that he could see some holes that he thinks were made by metallic drill. But this was the extent of the examination during Anna Mitchell Hedges lifetime.

The one who was being put in charge of the test is Jane McLaren Walsh, an anthropologist whose expertise is in discovering fake pre columbian objects. And she was the one who was going to perform the analysis of this crystal skull. And the tests were all performed at the Smithsonian Institute.

And this would demonstrate that, as Wals put it, it seems reasonable to conclude from the SEM images that the Mitchell Hedgeskull was carved in modern times with high speed diamond coated rotary burning and cutting tools of minute dimension. Analysis of other skulls has shown similar results. In the Christoskoal found at the Smithsonian, wall found a deposit of silicon carbide.

For example, a very nice looking quartz goblet that I hope to have up on the website.

The two marks we find there are in line with the tools available to the people of the time, and differs entirely from what we see in these more modern crystal skulls. It might be good to mention that no archaeologists have since discovered a crystal skull at any excavation.

We have no good in sea to find ova crystal skull, so to say. And all of those found in museums are later creations. Each one thats been examined all indicate a modern origin.

And I would suspect that this go for the other suppose goals that we find in private collections.

Of course, the ancient alien people claim that an advanced civilization or aliens could have had its tools, and they tried to prove this by using historical or legendary sources. So let's see what Chris Morton has to say.

Several native american tribes will have similar stories about ancient crystal skulls that were said to have been left behind by the earliest ancestors way back in the midst of time. Some believe that these are ancient artifacts left behind by extraterrestrials, or that they were remnants left over from the lost civilizations.

So we have yet again a claim that Native Americans, or as we learned in previous episodes, any indigenous people, have legends. Clearly fitting with what we see on the television screen. A huge, huge issue here for Morton is that, well, it's just not true.

This is an invention by the new age people and the ancient astronaut theorists themselves.

While some Native Americans might have incorporated these ideas in their belief today, these claims were not present before the new age authors started to make these claims. And authors, historians, religion experts have all looked at these claims, and none of them have been able to find their origin.

And as usual, ancient aliens dont give you a source for where or which group telling these stories.

And we have discussed the use of plastic shamanism in the past, the appropriation of native american spirituality, especially by new age groups where ancient aliens have strong ties, and it has a long and problematic history.

These self proclaimed spiritual leaders often fabricate stories about being taught by native american elders despite lacking genuine connection to these cultures.

A prominent example is, for example, Lynn Andrews, who claims mentorship from a fictional Cree medicine woman, reflecting a typical pattern in such narrative.

The new age movement differs from traditional religious in lacking formal doctrines, membership, or structure, and it mainly attracts white middle aged participant who pay for books, classes, and workshops, which often is led by other white individuals posing and dressing as shamans.

These portrayals rely on stereotypes and cherry picked elements of indigenous tradition, distorting the true meaning of both the culture and the spiritual value these tribes rely on. Claims of native american legends like the crystal skulls, for example, are inventions with no basis in authentic indigenous history.

These myths emerge in a modern new age literature rather than pre existing native american tradition.

The ongoing misrepresentation of native culture, even in popular media, perpetuates a cycle of exploitation and misunderstanding that undermines the depth and diversity of indigenous spirituality. But this is nothing new in the ancient Alien series, and this episode will. Well, it will become worse.

We meet in this episode a woman named Sherry Whitfield, who is the owner of a crystal skull that she has named Synergy. She claimed to have gotten this from a businessman.

How she got it, really, the episode doesnt tell you us, but what the show leaves out, but Jason Colavito doesnt, is that Whitfield believes the skull to be from Lemuria.

Well, older Atlantis Koloveto writes that she is in fact used it as a source of income, selling merchandise and pimping out its alleged sacred mysteries for cash, all while the unnamed tribe is supposedly believing this object is so sacred that they can't even talk about it. Now Whitfield says in the episode.

And he said he brought the photos and he brought the little skull to the shaman and the chief and everything stopped and they declared 24 hours of feasting and telling stories about the skulls. It was really cool because really, they don't talk that much about the skulls in their everyday life.

It's part of their sacred secrets and their teachings. Now, they say that they didn't make the skull, that it was passed to them as a legacy. So it's an ancestral object.

Their legend is that their tribe was started by a white man and a black man, twins. Their whole religion revolves around twinsd, and they have the twin of this skull.

Their legends are that there were two of these skulls made identical. There's a powerful spirit in crystal skulls.

And this narrative presents several problematic aspects that warrant critical examination.

Firstly, it seems to misrepresent, or maybe even oversimplify indigenous belief by suggesting that an entire tribes religion revolves solely around twinsd, and their origins can be traced back to a white man and a black man. This seemed to impose an external narrative on these unnamed tribes history and perpetuates a cultural stereotype and inaccuracy.

Secondly, the emphasis on the crystal skull possessing powerful spirits align with debunked myth of them, propagated by pseudo scientific theories lacking credible historical or archaeological.

As we've seen evidence, such sensation lives not only spreads misinformation, but also disrespect the sacred tradition of these cultures by divulging supposed secret without consent.

Ultimately, this account exemplifies how exotic and a disregard for cultural sensitivity that can lead to, well, as we have learned throughout the series, harmful and misleading portrayals of indigenous people and their rich histories. In case Whitfield saying is actually true to start with. Finally, the show is trying to claim that crystals have magical powers in general.

In this, they invoke the legendary druids. Jonathan Jung says the druids used crystal to tell fortunes, to read the future.

To do ecstatic mystical rituals. The Scott Highlanders called the stones of power.

Again, this is based on pure, again, pure fiction and fantasy. Friends, this seems to not have been the case. And the expert I've contacted have not heard that this ever been a thing.

They haven't even heard this claim before. But it sounds good, and it creates a good historical narratives that some believe it, but in the end, it's nothing more than fiction.

But it shows how the ancient astronaut theorists or similar types, they are not beyond making up arguments or evidence, for that matter. That's why it's so important to fact check what you see online. And I'm not saying that you should take even my words face value.

You should go to my sources you should read them and see. Do I give you a proper representation of what they are saying or am I also trying to sell you something?

But for a layperson this can be very difficult. So while you should try to always go and check the sources, you to some extent also need to trust the experts.

And I'm always open when I'm out of my death, as you know. And you're more than welcome to call me on stuff that you've find that I got wrong or might have misrepresented. You know, things happen.

You can't be perfect all the time, even if I try. Even if I try. But to sum up, all the skulls we have found and examined are modern creation.

Many are great works of art and should be displayed in that capacity. But when it comes to the claims about the crystal skulls origins and potential powers, these are all just made up.

Every time someone investigates them from a scientific and neutral perspective, things are shown to be, well, very far from what the fanciful story tells us.

While its material for great fiction, plausible except for that in the Anaons movie, there are no evidence of alien interference or lost technology and that will close out the episode.

Now if you enjoy the show, I hope that you leave a positive review on platforms like iTunes or Spotify, or just recommend a couple episodes to your friends. That's the best way to get people into this.

And if you want more information about the podcast or about me, you can go to diggingup ancient aliens.com where you also find a transcript with all the sources that I use to create this episode.

Now if you want to support the show like the lovely trees, head over to patreon.com diggingup ancient aliens or head over to diggingup ancient aliens.com support and sign up through the membership portal. There you will get bonus episode, you get extended episodes and well, you can even leave suggestions depending on your tier and a lot of extra stuff.

There's ad free episode, there's a lot of stuff there. And I also want you to go over to the archaeologicalpodcastnetwork.com where you find a many more creations and good archaeology shows.

And as I said, go and check out realarchaeology over at real dash archaeology.com.

there you can find more information about the upcoming event on the 25th to 27th October and if you want to contact me you can find my email on the website or just head over to Facebook, x, Twitter, whatever it's called at this point, TikTok and I've been a bit slow on all social media sites recently and it is. I've unfortunately been struggling with a bit of mental health crisis at the moment, but I'm getting back there.

I will just try to push things out again. But yeah, it's been a bit much recently but yeah, I'm feeling better now.

But I can't close out this episode until I have mentioned who has created the music. That's Sanre Martalor, who created the inter music.

And our outro is by the amazing band called Traskul, who is currently on tour throughout, well, Sweden. If you're here, make sure to go and catch them. They're playing with one of my favorite bands called Vor Nagel, but they're singing fully hot.

Links to these artists can be found in the show notes. Until next time, keep shouting that. Science me. Take it out the night with the name but your heart only.