The Eerie Crystal Skulls
Some people with a mystical bend credit them with strange, supernatural powers. Geologists marvel at their size. Archaeologists wonder who made them. And nobody denies that they possess an eerie, horrible beauty unmatched by almost any other objects. They are the crystal skulls.
There have been many replicas of human skulls that have been polished out of a single crystal of quartz rock. Some are ancient, some contemporary. A few have been made from pure quartz and are absolutely clear. A rare few are also life-sized.
Quartz, composed almost entirely of silicon dioxide, is found in almost every type of rock and can form huge crystals that weigh tons. While it is colorless and transparent when pure, when a tiny portion of the silicon atoms are replaced with iron, aluminum, manganese or titanium, the crystal can take on beautiful colors. Amethyst is violet quartz. Jasper is quartz with red, yellow, brown, gray or black coloring. Onyx and Agate are quartz with bans of color. Bloodstone is green with red spots. If a single streak runs through the quartz it might be called Cat's Eye, Tiger's Eye or Rutile.
All crystal is ancient and there are no good ways of guessing how long ago a skull shape was carved or polished out of the quartz. Scientists have examined some of the skulls whose history is not known looking for tiny marks that may tell what type of tools were used to carve them, but this may not always give a reliable age or origin. It does not eliminate contemporary artists using ancient methods.
Probably the two most famous clear crystal skulls are the "Mitchell-Hedges" skull and the skull at the Museum of Mankind.
The Museum of Mankind is a part of British Museum near Piccadilly Circus in London. The skull sits in a case there and is labeled as "possibly of Aztec origin- the colonial period at the earliest." This is mostly guesswork on the part of the museum staff. The museum itself obtained the skull from Tiffany's, the New York jew