{"it":{"id":"W11A30","kind":"artifact","sub":"Hoax or modern","name":"Crystal skulls","place":"London","mat":"quartz","dims":"Mitchell-Hedges ~13x18x13 cm","loc":"British Museum; Smithsonian; Musee du quai Branly","acc":"n/a","find":"Eugene Boban trade 1860s-80s; Mitchell-Hedges claim 1924","flag":"modern hoax-fabrication","src":[111,472],"lat":51.519,"lon":-0.127,"tags":["Hoax or modern"],"sum":"Crystal skulls appear in films and New Age legend. Every one scientists have examined dates to the 19th century or later.","why":"The British Museum's crystal skull was sold as Aztec work; the museum's own tests point to 19th-century Europe.","nfacts":1,"nsrc":2,"yt":"Compare rotary-wheel tool marks in the published studies.","rel":["MAM-LUB"],"hook":"The British Museum bought its crystal skull in 1897. Tests point to 19th-century Europe."},"S":{"111":["Wikipedia Crystal skull","https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Crystal_skull&oldid=1373473974"],"472":["Wikipedia: Crystal skull","https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_skull"]},"rec":{"id":"W11A30","alias":["ART024"],"ms":[{"a":"mitchell_hedges_dims","v":"13x18x13","u":"cm","unc":"approx","by":"","yr":"","m":"","b":"S","t":"MEASUREMENT","id":"W11M110","s":["W11S69"],"c":"Wikipedia Crystal skull","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Crystal_skull&oldid=1373473974"}],"lab":[{"k":"Materials","v":"quartz (Brazil/Madagascar)","b":"S","s":["W11S69"],"url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Crystal_skull&oldid=1373473974"},{"k":"Lab test","mat":"Tool marks","v":"rotary wheel; corundum/diamond (BM); carborundum (Smithsonian)","m":"SEM + X-ray crystallography","by":"British Museum & Smithsonian 2008","b":"S","s":["W11S69"],"url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Crystal_skull&oldid=1373473974"}],"eng":[],"ori":[],"gaps":[{"a":"find_circumstances","r":"not in staged/legacy artifact record (free sources)"},{"a":"museum_accession","r":"not in staged/legacy artifact record (free sources)"}],"dat":[],"aa":[{"id":"AA102","a":"Pre-Columbian/alien origin","who":"popular AA literature/TV","main":"Rotary-wheel tool marks show modern manufacture (Walsh)","ms":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_skull","st":"contradicted","n":"status from artifacts row; no new lab rows this batch","nl":1},{"id":"AA183","a":"Ancient/alien crystal skulls","who":"Mitchell-Hedges family","main":"SEM: rotary wheel tools; Smithsonian specimen carborundum (1890s+) -> 1950s or later; Brazilian/Madagascan quartz","ms":"W11S69","st":"contradicted","n":"","nl":"1"}],"ac":[],"me":[],"ci":[],"cq":[],"sd":[],"art":{"claimed_anomaly":"Ancient/alien crystal skulls","mainstream_reading":"SEM: rotary wheel tools; Smithsonian specimen carborundum (1890s+) -> 1950s or later; Brazilian/Madagascan quartz","provenance_flag":"modern hoax-fabrication","current_location":"British Museum; Smithsonian; Musee du quai Branly","find_circumstances":"Eugene Boban trade 1860s-80s; Mitchell-Hedges claim 1924","claimant":"Mitchell-Hedges family","status":"contradicted","dimensions":"Mitchell-Hedges ~13x18x13 cm","material":"quartz","date":"","culture":"","museum_accession":"n/a","b":"S","s":["W11S69"]},"alias_rows":[{"id":"ART024","v":"Pre-Columbian/alien origin","main":"Rotary-wheel tool marks show modern manufacture (Walsh)","b":"S","s":[]}],"sub":[],"src":[{"id":"W11S69","t":"Wikipedia Crystal skull","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Crystal_skull&oldid=1373473974"},{"id":"S0465","t":"Wikipedia: Crystal skull","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_skull"},{"id":"VW11A30-3","t":"British Museum collection object Am1898,-.1","u":"https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/E_Am1898-1"},{"id":"VW11A30-4","t":"Journal of Archaeological Science (2008), article S0305440308001052 (ScienceDirect)","u":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0305440308001052"}],"sum":"The British Museum's crystal skull is a life-size skull carved from a single block of rock crystal, 25 cm high and about 4.5 kg. The museum bought it from Tiffany and Company of New York in 1897.\n\nIt had passed through many hands. The mineralogist George F. Kunz wrote in 1890 that a Spanish officer had brought it from Mexico before the French occupation; it then passed to an English collector, the Paris dealer Eugène Boban, and others. When it entered the museum it was widely taken to be pre-Hispanic Mexican work, and for years it was shown beside genuine objects.\n\nWhat is hard to explain is not the skull but its legend. Studies by the museum's scientists found that the teeth were cut with a rotary jeweller's wheel, a tool unknown in the Americas before Europeans came. A 2008 paper in the Journal of Archaeological Science found the quartz came from a metamorphic setting like those of Brazil or Madagascar, far outside pre-Columbian trade, and that Mexico's national museum had rejected the skull as modern when Boban offered it in 1885.\n\nThe paper concluded that the skull was made in Europe in the 19th century. It found a larger white quartz skull at the Smithsonian was carved with a modern synthetic abrasive. Believers still credit crystal skulls with ancient or even supernatural origins, and the museum's own catalogue note ends: \"The question remains open.\"\n\nIf the science points to 19th-century Europe, why does the ancient story keep its hold?","qs":["Tool marks and the quartz itself point to Europe. Why do the legends survive the lab results?","Mexico's national museum turned the skull down in 1885. Why did others buy it as ancient?","Dealers shaped the skull's story. How much of an object's history is sales talk?"],"gal":[{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a7/Crystal_skull_british_museum_random9834672.jpg/1280px-Crystal_skull_british_museum_random9834672.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Crystal_skull_british_museum_random9834672.jpg","title":"Crystal skull british museum random9834672.jpg","lic":"CC BY 3.0","licurl":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0","by":"Unknown","cap":"The crystal skull. Collection of the British Museum in London."},{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/14/Crystal_skull_in_Mus%C3%A9e_du_quai_Branly%2C_Paris.jpg/1280px-Crystal_skull_in_Mus%C3%A9e_du_quai_Branly%2C_Paris.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Crystal_skull_in_Mus%C3%A9e_du_quai_Branly,_Paris.jpg","title":"Crystal skull in Musée du quai Branly, Paris.jpg","lic":"Public domain","licurl":"","by":"Klaus-Dieter Keller","cap":"Crystal skull at the Musée du quai Branly, Paris. Eugène Boban, a controversal antique dealer, sold this piece to Alphonse Pinart, a young explorer. Pinart dona"}]},"img":null,"md":null,"hh":[{"v":"14","u":"kg","h":"The largest of the skulls, 38 cm tall","s":[218]},{"v":"Quartz","h":"Made of","s":[219]},{"v":"British Museum","h":"Held at: British Museum; Smithsonian; Musee du quai Branly","s":[219]}],"hs":{"218":["Wikipedia: Crystal skull (and sources cited there)","https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_skull"],"219":["Wikipedia Crystal skull","https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Crystal_skull&oldid=1373473974"]},"lh":{"s":"img/h/W11A30.webp","w":1280,"h":1921,"o":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a7/Crystal_skull_british_museum_random9834672.jpg/1280px-Crystal_skull_british_museum_random9834672.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail"}}