Crystal Skulls Mysterious and Beautiful

by Judy Ellis

I'm sure that you've heard of the famed Crystal Skulls, which have been a source of mystery and controversy for decades. The handful of known skulls have defied even the most advanced scientific efforts to determine who made them, when, and most puzzling, how.

Here at WireJewelry we've recently begun carrying a NEW line of Swarovski Crystal Skull beads which are beautiful and mysterious, and I thought today we'd take a look at the history surrounding these mysterious skulls and while your reading, perhaps you can decide how you will use our NEW Swarovski Crystal Skulls in your next project!

Instructions

Interesting points about the Crystal Skulls:

Crystal skulls are not uncommon or terribly mysterious.

The crystal skulls are human skull hardstone carvings made of clear or milky white quartz, known in art history as “rock crystal”, claimed to be pre-Columbian Mesoamerican artifacts by their alleged finders; however, none of the specimens made available for scientific study have been authenticated as pre-Columbian in origin.

Thousands are produced every year in Brazil, China, and Germany. But there are a handful of these rather macabre objects that have fueled intense interest and controversy among archaeologists, scientists, spiritualists, and museum officials for more than a century.

There are perhaps a dozen of these rare crystal skulls in private and public collections. Some are crystal clear, others of smoky or colored quartz.

Some are actual human size and of very fine detail, while others are smaller and less refined.

Many believe these skulls were carved thousands or even tens of thousands of years ago.

Although nearly all of the crystal skulls have at times been identified as Aztec, Toltec, Mixtec, or occasionally Maya, they do not reflect the artistic or stylistic characteristics of any of these cultures.

The Mixtec occasionally fabricated skulls in gold, but these representations are more precisely described as skull-like faces with intact eyes, noses, and ears.

The Maya also carved skulls, but in relief on limestone. Often these skulls, depicted in profile, represent days of their calendars.

The most famous Crystal Skull:

The most famous and enigmatic skull was allegedly discovered in 1924 by Anna Le Guillon Mitchell-Hedges.

Anna Hedges claimed that she found the skull buried under a collapsed altar inside a temple in Lubaantun, in British Honduras, now Belize.

The skull is made from a block of clear quartz about the size of a small human cranium, measuring some 5 inches (13 cm) high, 7 inches (18 cm) long and 5 inches wide. The lower jaw is detached.

In the early 1970s it came under the temporary care of freelance art restorer Frank Dorland, who claimed upon inspecting it that it had been “carved” with total disregard to the natural crystal axis, and without the use of metal tools. It currently resides with Bill Homann, the husband of the late Anna Mitchell-Hedges.

The Mitchell-Hedges skull (left) and the British Museum skull (right) were the subject of a series of 1936 articles in which British Museum curator Adrian Digby and physical anthropologist G. M. Morant debated whether the two were based on the same original skull, which Digby posited was perhaps revered as a Mesoamerican “death god.”

Judy Ellis's Crystal Skulls Mysterious and Beautiful - , General Education, Design, Crystal skull

Do they posses Supernatural Powers?

Claims of the healing and supernatural powers of crystal skulls have no support in the scientific community, which has found no evidence of any unusual phenomena associated with the skulls nor any reason for further investigation, other than the confirmation of their provenance and method of manufacture

You can decide…

I hope I’ve peaked your interest in the Crystal Skull beads!