The Mystery of the Crystal Skulls. Chris Morton
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rituals and dances in front of the skull in the firelight.’
From the depths of the jungle people appeared, as if something had called to them across the forest.
‘It was as though a message of joy had been sent out across the Mayan lands. A lot of Maya came that we never even knew, and they came so quickly and from so far afield that I don’t know how they could possibly have heard of the skull in such a short space of time. But they knew.’
The celebrations around the skull continued for several days and amongst those who came to see it was a very old Mayan from a neighbouring village. He looked at the skull and told Anna and her father that it was Very, very ancient’.
‘The Mayan priests say it is over 100,000 years old. The Mayans told us the skull was made after the head of a great high priest many, many thousands of years ago because this priest was loved very much and they wanted to preserve their truth and wisdom forever. The old man said that the skull could be made to talk, but how it was done he wouldn’t say.’
Both Anna and her father were puzzled by the discovery. What they didn’t know at the time was that the object would prove to be one of the most mysterious ever found, that it would come to change Anna’s life and the lives of many others who have since come into contact with it. For, as we had heard, many have claimed that the skull has magical and mysterious powers. Some maintain, as the legend had said, that it is encoded with sacred knowledge that can enable us to tap into the secrets of the distant past and possibly even the future. Many others simply believe that the skull can profoundly influence the way people think and feel.
Although Frederick Mitchell-Hedges had no idea of the incredible claims that would come to surround the skull, he seemed to have been deeply affected by the reverence the local people showed for it. He was also concerned that, since the discovery, the Mayan workers had been considerably less willing to spend their days toiling on the dig. He gave it much thought and discussed it with Dr Thomas Gann, the consultant anthropologist on the expedition. Anna said, ‘My father decided that the skull was obviously so sacred and so important to the Mayan people that we couldn’t possibly keep it. He said, “We cannot possibly take this skull away from these poor people.” ’
So, with characteristic flourish, he gave it to the Maya. ‘They were very, very glad,’ recalls Anna, who was not so pleased by her father’s generosity, after the danger she had gone through to retrieve the skull. ‘I was very angry because I had risked my life to go down there and get it.’
But, following the gift, excavations were resumed. The pyramid where Anna had found the skull was part of the further explorations and three months later, the separate lower jaw of the skull was found buried beneath an altar in the main chamber of the pyramid. Anna had originally found only the upper cranium. When the Maya added the lower jaw to the skull, the masterpiece was complete. After this, as Anna remembers, ‘They had it for nearly three years and they had fires burning all around it.’
By 1927 the excavations at Lubaantun were drawing to a close. The final items were catalogued and sent off to museums. Mitchell-Hedges and his team had unearthed hundreds of rare and beautiful artefacts, but none could match the beauty of the crystal skull.
As the party prepared to depart, it was a sad moment for Anna. She had lived with a Mayan family who had treated her ‘as well as their own daughter’ and she had ‘shared in their joys and sorrows over the years’. As Anna and her father bade farewell to their Mayan friends, the Mayan chieftain stepped forward and pressed a bundle into Frederick Mitchell-Hedges’ hands. As he unwrapped the bundle, Anna was delighted to find that it was the crystal skull:
‘The Maya presented my father with the skull for all the good work he had done for their people, giving them medical supplies and work and tools and everything. And that’s why they gave it back to us. It was a gift from the Mayan people.’
So fate had it that the crystal skull should accompany Frederick Mitchell-Hedges as he left Lubaantun for England.
Putting his overseas adventures behind him, Mitchell-Hedges was eventually to settle in England. In 1951 he took up residence in the impressive seventeenth-century Farley Castle in Berkshire. There he would lecture guests from overseas about his expeditions and his wonderful antique collection, and show the crystal skull to members of the British aristocracy who were invited to elegant dinner parties in his grand candlelit dining-room.
Frederick Mitchell-Hedges used to delight in telling his guests that it was called ‘the Skull of Doom’. He said, ‘It has been described as the embodiment of all evil’ and that ‘according to legend [it] was used by the High Priest of the Maya’ to will death. ‘It is said that when [the Mayan priest] willed death with the help of the skull, death invariably followed.’6 According to Anna, much of this description could actually be put down to her father’s sense of humour, but he had been told by the high priest of the Maya that if the skull were to fall into the wrong hands, it could be used for evil purposes.
Mitchell-Hedges was no doubt fascinated as lords and ladies gazed upon the awesome image of the skull. Their initially fearful reaction was so very different from that of the Maya who had helped to bring the skull up from the darkness of its tomb. The rich sophisticated Europeans saw only fear where the ‘poor’ ‘uneducated’ Mayans had seen cause for celebration and joy. Was it that in those dying days of the British Empire the skull was a stark reminder that none could escape their fate? No grand titles, no worldly riches could overcome the inevitability of death.
But whatever their initial reaction, the crystal skull soon held Mitchell-Hedges’ guests entranced. They marvelled at its craftsmanship and became seduced by its beauty. They admired the perfectly chiselled beauty of its teeth, the smooth contours of its cheekbones and the way the jaw fitted faultlessly into the cranium. The question on everyone’s lips was, how could such ‘simple’, ‘primitive’ people, living deep in the jungle all those years ago, have created something so accomplished, so perfect?
Over the years many have been particularly captivated by the way the skull seems to hold, channel and reflect light. For it is made in such a way that any source of light from beneath it is refracted into the prisms at the front of the skull. So if the skull is placed in a darkened room and a fire or candle lit beneath it, the light appears shining right out through the eye sockets.
Others have also observed that the skull has two small holes carved into its base, one on either side of the main cranium. These are just the right size and shape for two narrow sticks to be inserted from below, enabling the skull to be suspended over any fire or light source, and allowing the top part of the skull to be moved in relation to the separate lower jaw. In this way, or with the attachment of the lower jaw by string or animal gut, it is possible to move the skull around in such a manner that it gives the impression that it is talking.7
Taking very literally what Mitchell-Hedges had been told about the skull being ‘made to talk’, some have suggested that it may have been used in this way by the ancient Mayans. They have speculated that the skull could have been placed on an altar at the top of the steps of one of the great pyramids, suspended over a fire concealed from view beneath the altar. The skull’s eyes would have blazed fire red as its jaw moved in precise synchronization with the booming voice of a mighty high priest, whose cohorts would have controlled the skull’s movements. The priest might have made a series of oracular announcements, perhaps announcing the names of the next victims for human sacrifice. This would indeed have been a terrifying spectacle to the masses of ordinary people gathered in the plaza below. Thus, some have concluded, the skull appeared thousands of years ago as a terrifying animated talking god-head, used by the priestly class to wield power over their frightened subjects.8
But this is assuming that when the old Mayan said the skull could be ‘made to talk’, he meant it literally. And the idea that it was a tool the Mayan priests used to fool and terrify their subjects is hardly in keeping with the joy the Mayans are said to have demonstrated on seeing it.
One person who became particularly fascinated by the skull was the author Sibley Morrill. He thought it had been ‘made to talk’ in quite a different