Smithsonian anthropologist Jane Walsh examines the 31-pound crystal skull, which may have been cursed, at the museum's media day last Wednesday. PHOTOS BY MATT CAMERON AND BRINKLEY SHARPE

Crystals skulls are believed to have supernatural origins

Date published: 7/17/2008

BY BRINKLEY SHARPE

Spoiler alert: This piece reveals the ending of "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull."

For many, the recent Indiana Jones movie is not far off the mark in the assertions it makes about its title object.

Around the 1960s, the rise of new-age thought and a renewed interest in the supernatural created this following for mythical "crystal skulls."

The story that the intrigue revolved around had no basis in any ancient lore, said Smithsonian anthropologist Jane Walsh at the museum's media event last Wednesday, but instead was a definitively 20th-century creation.

This legend has it that the Mayans spoke of 13 crystal skulls that, when united, would give information necessary to prevent the Apocalypse. Those who believe this see skulls like the Mitchell-Hedges Skull (also known as the "Skull of Doom") as one of the 13. But scientific nay-sayers like Walsh maintain that no truly ancient "crystal skull" has been found, and think, therefore, that the phenomenon is a modern-day hoax. However, those who "believe" have other explanations for the relics' origin:

Perhaps the most prevalent theory is that they come from ancient Mesoamerica. Skull enthusiasts believe that the Mayans created the skulls to pass on their vast knowledge. Scientists say that no crystal skull has ever been found in any archeological dig, and that those that have been labeled such were actually carved by tools invented much more recently.

Others believe that the skulls originated in the lost city of Atlantis. Anna Le Guillon Mitchell-Hedges, the alleged discoverer of the "Skull of Doom," maintained this belief. Despite an obvious refusal from science, believers found their validation from psychic Edgar Cayce.

The third belief is that which Harrison Ford finds to be the truth as he plays the eternal adventurer Indiana Jones. The movie's skull comes from aliens--something psychic Carole Davis claimed to have heard the Mitchell-Hedges skull profess.

Those who really get into the supernatural qualities of the skull tend to have an even more outlandish belief system surrounding it--a combination of all three prevalent theories. This thought, more than all of the others, challenges modern science, saying that the aliens in question gave the skulls to the Atlanteans, who, in turn, gave them to the ancient Mesoamericans when their city became lost.

Walsh said she did not believe that any of her research on the Smithsonian skull would have the least bit of effect on such new-agers.

Brinkley Sharpe is a rising senior at Chancellor High School.

Date published: 7/17/2008