January 30, 2014 • 33 mins
Back in the early 20th-century mysterious skulls made from polished crystals began to enter the collections of private enthusiasts of the occult. Discovered by adventurers raiding sacred areas of the ancient world, these skulls were said to possess unusual supernatural powers and their owners, who could use them to "will death" to others. Learn about the strange history of these curious and suspect archaeological finds in this lost episode of Stuff You Should Know.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, Chuck, yo, we're in the present time, yes, which
means that we need to take this opportunity to do
a little bit of an intro for the episode. Everybody's
about to hear because it's a yeah, this has never
happened us before. But you said, hey, I thought we
already recorded one on Crystal Skulls. Yeah, I think you're right,
(00:22):
and Jerry went, oh, it's right here in my desk drawer.
We forgot to publish it. Yeah, so this is a
long lost episode and we decided to publish it anyway,
and just with a little caveat because it might. I'm
sure there's some stuff that sounds stated. It stated right
off the bat. We talked about whether the world's gonna
end or knowledge it doesn't as well, that's kind of
the dead giveaway. There's some dating to it. But yeah,
(00:42):
so it's a lost episode. And thanks to whoever it
was on Twitter that suggested a Crystal Skulls episode, because
that's what started this whole thing in the in the
first place. Well you certainly gave them their due, but
calling them whoever it was, thanks whoever? Alright, so cool,
So here we go with Crystal Skulls Welcome to Stuff
you Should Know from house stuff Works dot com. Hey,
(01:11):
and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck,
Oh my god, everything's coming to it, and Brian that
makes this stuff you should know? Right? How you doing?
I shouldn't even ask. My life is a little upside
down right now. I'll be all right. It's not like
it's my in and it's twenty twelve or anything. Well,
(01:32):
we've already done that one. And I guess we know
that the the world isn't necessarily gonna end in twenty twelve,
so that kind of presupposes how we feel about this podcast.
I guess right. That's actually but let me let me
give some news first. And you know this because you
found this and it's literally today's news. Yeah, that has
done often happen. Yeah. Um, but we're talking about crystal skulls.
(01:54):
And there was a piece on crystal skull that was
found recently in a home in a Bavarian village. Um
and this crystal skull, it weighs I think nine pounds. Um,
it's life size. No, it was nearly twenty pounds. It's
life size, maybe a little bigger. Uh. It matches the
death's head insignia worn by Nazi SS officers UM, which
(02:19):
is appropriate because this crystal skull apparently belonged to Heinrich Himmler,
that's right, who was the chief of the s S. Yeah,
and I wrote an article we should podcast on that
sometime about the Nazis interest in archaeology. They were like
all the Indiana Jones stuff was right on the money.
They had all sorts of programs, archaeology programs basically to
try and prove through historical research that the Aryan race
(02:43):
was superior. Right, Yes, that was behind it all. And
supposedly the UM the Nazi Party arose from some sort
of kind of like UM good time sex cult that
like all of the people who were eventually like the
head of the Nazi Party were members of Hitler comes
along as like, you guys are freaks, but I'm going
to use this to my advantage and bada boomboada being
(03:05):
under fere and everything starts to go horribly horribly awry.
But back to UM Today's news, a crystal skull was found,
which is a very unusual thing, and it was found
hidden on a rafter in the attic of this house.
In Bavaria. Um that belonged to a woman who had
(03:27):
been married to a high ranking SS officer, and it's
now in the possession of Swiss journalist Luke Bergen. Yeah,
he makes quite a claim. He claims that quote, I
am sure that this is one of the skulls of
the Mayans, but we need clarity and all available tests
will be carried out to ascertain authenticity. So what what
Luke um Bergen has just said is that he's about
(03:49):
to be very very disappointed. It's spoken like a man
who just got his first crystal skull. Yeah, exactly, and
it's done zero research on it. Basically, Um, the the
prevailing chuck, we should hold on. Let's bring spring sarcasm down. Uh.
The the the legend behind the crystal skulls, and anybody
(04:10):
who has not seen crystal skulls type them into your
favorite search engine and um find an image and you'll
be like, oh, yeah, crystal skull, crystal skull. Um. The
there's supposedly thirteen of them that were crafted by the
Mayans um and they were scattered throughout the globe and
um nine of them were colored to represent the races
(04:32):
of man, and then four of them were clear to
represent the animals that crawl, walk, slither, slides, and fly,
um and you. Basically, the world's supposed to end on
December twenty one at eleven eleven am. And if the
(04:54):
these thirteen skulls aren't reunited, discovered and reunited in a
specific alignment I would imagine probably at some sort of
Mayan temple um, then the world will end. If we
can get them aligned in this proper alignment by this time,
we can prevent the world from ending. The problem is, though, Josh,
there's a lot more than thirteen of these things floating
(05:14):
around the world. Yes, and so there's some doubts as
to their legitimacy and if it depending on what this
skull looks like. I don't know if the The Daily
Mirror was the news source that you got this from.
It they're not exactly They're tabloid. There are tabloids tabloid actually, well,
(05:34):
I believe that this skull was found, I'm sure, But
the picture that they've used, I don't know if that's
the skull that was supposedly found or whatever. But um,
there are some telltale signs that a skull might be
a fake, that it could be real. Let's start digging in, Chuck,
Let's dig into crystal skulls. Uh. Well, they can vary
(05:54):
in size and appearance. Some of them are sort of
crudely shaped. Some of them are really detailed. Some of
them are beautiful and clear. Some of them are hazy
and colored. Some of them have detached jaws, some of
them do not. Some of them have I sockets, some
of them don't write. That's just a brief off for you.
That's there's crystal skulls of the appearance, and some people
believe that they are, you know, from the ancient Mayans,
(06:17):
descendants of the h what's the underwater Atlantis? Atlantis? Is
that where the minds came from? Some people say that,
some say they're a direct ascens of of Atlantis, But
I don't know. So this, this whole idea that the
the Mayans creating crystal skulls, or that these crystal skulls
are of Mayan descent, are based somewhat on fact the
(06:41):
Miyands did. Um they do reference crystal skulls in their
creation myth. Yeah, So I mean like that's not like
somebody's like crystal skull and Maya. There's there's there's definitely
a legitimate connection between the two. But whether the crystal
skulls that are in existence right now are Mayan in
origin is what what's up for debate and not really
(07:03):
up for debate, and whether or not they have they're
a rumor to have healing properties. Um, the visions like
a crystal ball that you can see into the future,
into the past. It's like a crystal ball but cooler.
What else is there they say they can do? They
make sounds, yes, choir, I think it's mainly healing and visions.
(07:24):
That's pretty good ones enlightenment of some sort. Um. The
but the world of crystal skulls that when you start
to kind of dig into it is what It doesn't
really matter what you believe. It's a really interesting world
filled by almost caricatures of people, adventurers and broadsters and bucksters.
(07:45):
To talk about him. Yeah, so let's let's start with um,
I guess the most famous crystal skull of all the
Mitchell Hedges skull. This one kind of set the tone
for most other Basically, the Mitchell Hedges said, this is
what Crystal Skull study is going to be all about.
We're going to provide all the character for it and
(08:06):
everybody else following our footsteps. Okay, that's right. And supposedly
it was discovered and we're gonna say allegedly and supposedly
a lot because these stories are not verified as fat
and out of reverence for a dead one year old
woman who Anna, she's dead now A seven? Really yeah,
that's a bummer. Uh yeah. So it was discovered allegedly
(08:27):
in the nineteen twenties by who we just referenced, Anna
Mitchell Hedges, who is the adopted daughter of F. A.
Mitchell Hedges World Adventurer. Yeah and he really was too. Yeah,
from the from the sounds of it, he was. Um.
She says that she found the skull beneath the Mayan
temple at an Altar and uh lu Batan. He pronounced
(08:48):
that that's what I took. Have you seen the pictures
of that place, like a ruined Mayan city and believes
it's awesome. It's like overgrown temples and stuff like that.
It's very neat, I like the mind temples. So anyway,
Anna says that she found this thing near Belize on
her seventeenth birthday, and she said that the Mayan's actually
told her that it was a skull used to will
(09:09):
death so a priest would be too old to continue
his priesting and he would lie down and transfer his
knowledge to a younger priest via the powers of the
skull and then die. Right. So that's her story. That's
what the skull was for. That's what she says, um,
and said, sorry, that's right. So the and the Mitchell
(09:31):
Hedges skull is like the it's a trendsetting skull in
another way in that it's pretty much the pinnacle of
craftsmanship of crystal skulls. It's clear courts crystal is very pretty. Um,
it's life size, um. It had it's about five inches high,
five inches wide, eight inches long, UM. Totally transparent, twelve
(09:52):
pounds UM. It's got the the ridges and cheekbones and
nose socket and eye sockets that are like very anatomically correct.
And as far as I know, it's the only one
that has a detachable jawbone, which is really anatomically correct.
Like this is just an amazing work of art, you know,
(10:13):
and that's how they should be viewed. Josh, right, did
I just ruin it? Do you want to poke some
holes in Anna's story? Yeah? Um, First of all, in
nineteen thirty six, m a description of this skull was
in a British journal called Man, but they said it
was owned by a guy named Sydney. Bernie Anna says,
oh no wait, my dad Um f A UM gave
(10:35):
it to Sydney and he um auctioned it off to
pay a debt in the in the forties and then
we bought it from Sotheby's from him to get it
back in the family, right like it came down to
the wire at the Southebeast all. So basically what you
can take from that story is that f A. Mitchell
Hedges acquired this Mitchell Hedges skull at South Beast. That
(10:57):
part is completely documentable and um but that they they
think that that may be where he got it for
the first time, probably because in that nineteen thirty six journal,
Um the the author, I guess Bernie UM wrote a
letter that was I'm sorry it was quoted later, but
but Um Bernie, the guy who actually had that Mitchell
(11:19):
Hedges skull before Mitchell Hedges, said that he acquired it
from a collector who had it for several years, and
Um that collector bought it from another collector who had
it for several years. No mention of F. A. Mitchell,
who was not a collector, he was an adventurer. He
probably called it the Bernie Skull to Yeah, I'm sure
and um so that that that was in nineteen thirty three,
(11:40):
which by this time F. A. Mitchell had just supposedly
already had it or owned it. Um and then the
other well, there's several other weird parts. Uh Mitchell hedges
fa we'll just call him or faugh um he he
only wrote about the skull once. This is my favorite
part of this article. In the name of his book taken.
(12:02):
He wrote a book about his adventures, I guess, some
sort of memoir and it was called danger My ally
that's the way you say it too. And that was
from nine fifty four, I think. And in that book
that's the first and only mentioned he makes of the
crystal skull. By this time it was in his possession,
he owned it. Seems like he would have mentioned it,
yeah prior to this he he um. He says chuck
(12:25):
that it dates back at least thirty six hundred years,
that it took about a hundred and fifty years to
rub down with sand from a single block of courts.
So he alleges it was not it was shaped from
rubbing sand on it and not actually carved with tools
over the period of a hundred and fifty years, which
I mean that's a lot of dedicated people, a lot
(12:46):
of sand rubbing. Yeah. Um. He never mentions that his
adopted daughter find found it. He actually says that he
has reason to not mention how it came in his possession. Yeah.
He warns very forebodingly about several people have cynically laughed
at it and died. Others have been stricken ill. So
(13:06):
he says, how I got it, I have reasons to
not tell you. This is a really easy way to
get around not telling people. Um, that's what That's what
we should say whenever somebody wants to know, like, what's
what's your backstory? How did you guys meet? We have
reasons to not tell you. We have very important reason
because it's very important. Um. And then also, Chuck, there
(13:26):
were two people so f a Mitchell head just did
actually go down to lu Batan and he was there
in that's documented. There's plenty of photos of the dig
two friends who went with them, who later wrote about this.
This experience never mentioned Anna being there certainly never mentioned
(13:47):
the crystal skull. Yeah. Lady Richmond Brown and Dr Thomas
Gan and then lastly Anna Um in different interviews, gave
different dates of when she acquired the skull, never the
correct one. So um, there's a lot of holes in
her story. Yet up to her deaths she alleged that
this was the truth. Um. And she had what I
(14:09):
take to be an indomitable spirit, like you could tell
her just about anything, but she knew what was right
with the crystal skull. Yeah. And she also claimed um
not verified, but claimed that it had been used for
healing a number of times and she didn't get very
specific with that, and that she hoped one day it
would go to an institution where it could be studied
and that might happen. Um. If you go on to
(14:32):
Mitchell Hedges skull dot com or Mitchell Hedges dot com,
I think there's a hyphen in there, not Benson and Hedges. Um.
The The skull is now in the possession of its
newest owner, Bill Hollman, who is very dashing guy, likes
to wear like in Indiana Jones hat Um. He loves
posing with the crystal skull. It's very cool. But his
(14:54):
aim is to build a museum for the skull in Sedona, Arizona,
so they can be study ead and and basically be
available to the public all the time, which is pretty cool.
Where he would sell tickets, I don't know. I'm sure
he would. Who knows. There's not a free museum. Actually
that's not true. It's plenty of free museums. I take
that back completely, okay, but there's plenty that aren't as well.
(15:15):
I agree with you. So that's what that's what's going
on with the Mitchell Hedges skull right now. Bill Hollman
has it here in the US, and there may be
Ah well, I don't know if it will be reunited.
Surely people who own crystal skulls are going to take
them to Mexico or something in November. See what happens. Right,
(15:36):
Um So, Mitchell Heades skull is is the most famous,
but it's far from the only one, right, Yeah, there's
one another famous one in the British Museum, and I
believe they just called this the British Museum skull, right, Yeah,
it's kind of let down. They called the Paris skull
the Paris skull, and it's also life size. It's not
quite as detailed as the Mitchell hedges, and the jaw
(16:00):
does detach as you say, and it's cloudy courts. It's
not completely clear. And this was purchased. We know a
little bit about the real back story on this one.
It was purchased by the museum from Tiffany and Company
in supposedly came from Mexico. And here is where we
have a guy entered the picture named Eugene Bouban. Yeah,
(16:21):
he's kind of an important character as well. Yeah, he's
a French art dealer and a lot of these skulls
seemed to have passed through his ownership at one point
or another, which isn't necessarily fishing in and of itself.
Like a dealer can specialize in something, and Boban specialized
in Mayan relics another and the pre Columbian stuff. So yeah,
(16:42):
it's not like that makes it hinky. I'm just pointing
that out. Then you got the pair of skull and
it's a more crude still than the other two and
has a hole cut in the top that they think
it is supposed to hold across. Yes, and that is
in Paris at the a You're gonna pronounce that one
for me, the muse de lom okay, the Museum of
the Museum of Man. Is that what it is? Do
(17:05):
you speak French? Um, I'm piquito. I used to do that.
It took German in high school and then learned just
sort of rough Spanish by working in the Mexican restaurants.
And I would always mixed German and Spanish up in
my college days. I was mixing up a lot back
(17:27):
then though, anyway. Uh. And then in this one's a
little weird in the Smithsonian received a crystal skull in
the mail anonymous Yeah, with an anonymous note that said, hey,
this is Aztec. I bought it in nineteen sixty in
Mexico City and do what you will with it. Brought
(17:47):
me nothing but bad luck. Yeah, maybe please don't ever
try to track me down. And that one is hollow,
which is slightly unique as well. Yeah. Um, so here's
there's a couple of points that you've just brought up.
One Eugene boban remember um um. Secondly, this anonymous skull
is thought to be as Tech or was mentioned as Aztec.
(18:07):
The British Museum skull is possibly considered as tech possibly,
so that kind of knocks the mayan Um legend out
a little bit. Let's do that some more. Okay, um, Well,
first let's talk about some more um crystal skulls real quick.
There's there's uh again, there's a whole world of crystal
(18:29):
skull collectors and some people have a few, some people
have one, but all of them are pretty like if
you have a crystal skull, like you're a well known individual. Yeah,
it's not like a being a commemorative plate collector, right
like Joanne Parks who owns Max the Texas Crystal skull. Um.
She apparently got it in the eighties and it's supposed
(18:53):
to be from Guatemala, which is my end. Yeah, we've
been there. And Jake Jake van Deeton, who suposedly owns
a few of them, joke, joke, yoke, what I call him? Jake? Yea?
This is she? Okay? Now? She says that her skull
et healed her brain tumor. That's right, and that's a
(19:14):
pretty cool name for a skull. If you're a skull owner,
I would say a movie fan. And then what else
is there? There's Shanna Ra not shann Annah, and it's
a big one. It weighs about thirteen pounds, owned by
Nick no Serino, and he is a self described expert,
which are a favorite kind of experts in crystal skulls,
and he claims he found that one in Mexico. And
(19:36):
then lastly there's an amethyst goal called amy am I
or me if you're speaking French, um, and that is
supposedly has a squiggly white line around the circumference of
this skull. No idea what that means, and supposedly mine. Yeah.
And then there's a bunch of smaller skulls like little
(19:57):
ones um that are about an inch in diameter, have
holes drilled through them, and they think that they were
ambulance or pendants or some sort of They were worn
as necklaces. They were sold at the gift shop, the
crystal skull get shop back in the day. So is
the deal do all these people think they have one
of the thirteen? Is that? Is that pretty much what's
going on here? That's the impression I have, Okay, um,
(20:19):
especially if you if you're if you consider your crystal
skull is the source of the healing of your brain
tumor and chuck, there's it's there's a certain um, there's
a certain rationale to the idea that a crystal skull
can allow you to see visions, and there's just something
more going on there besides it being just a lump
(20:41):
of courts. And that actually is um one found in
one of the properties of courts, which is piezza electricity.
You want to say, it's kind of Italian pizza electric right,
So that is um the property of courts in particular,
but generally crystals and ceramics to be able to generate
(21:02):
an electrical charge just from pressure from like a what's
called um mechanical uh energy stress stress. So basically just
rubbing a like a piece of courts crystal skull, you
should be able to generate electricity. And the harder you rub,
(21:23):
the more electricity you generate. So that no one's ever
been able to say, well, then that's why you would
heal your brains from or anything like that. But the
fact that courts is piezzo electric is one of the
things that people who believe in the healing powers of
these crystal skulls point to, and crystals in general. Yeah
(21:44):
that you know Little five Points has had that crystal
shop forever, is it's still around. Yeah, I think. So
people go in there and they buy their crystal and
hanging around their neck, and they believe it has healing
properties or energy property, or at the very least it
generates a mild electrical current. Yeah. Yeah. Um. Then there's
also slightly wilder claims that UM that these these the
(22:06):
Piazzo electricity isn't necessarily for healing. It's to um facilitate
time travel or UM it serves as some sort of
communication device between UM, the aliens who brought it here
or Atlantis. We just haven't figured out how to tap
it or unlock it yet. Yeah. What is it they
compare it to is like a a computer chip potentially
(22:30):
that has all this uh ancient wisdom and facts and
knowledge just waiting, just waiting. We just don't know how
to access. It's like the lunar doomsday are but in
crystal skull form exactly. So speaking of Mitchell Hedges, which
we weren't uh speaking of, but I'm bringing up in anyway,
she UM has loaned it out for study a couple
(22:54):
of times. Yeah. Some some people who own skulls are
cool with them them being studied, But more frequent the
ones that are in possession of a biomuseum. Those are
the ones that have been studied. The most uh in
vent and art restore named Frank Dorland studied the Mitchell
head of skull for six years and he said he
heard ringing bells, the sound of choir singing, he saw
(23:16):
auras around the skull, and he could see images when
gazing into it. Yeah, and this is an art restore.
He's not necessarily like a crystal skull devote, right. But
he also claimed, on the other hand, that it showed
signs of mechanical grinding and holes drilled that we're obviously
using modern techniques of metal drill. So he sort of
(23:36):
sort of said it was mystical in some ways, and
also said, well, but this thing is an ancient because
it was clearly made with you know, modern technology. Um.
He also supposedly took it to Hewlett Packard's laboratories. Yeah,
I thought this was interesting. He said there that they
performed a test on it um to to find out
if it was pure courts, and they dropped it in
(23:58):
benzel alcohol and it disappeared. Yes, it vanished because benzo
alcohol and courts have the same diffraction coefficient, which means
they bend light at the same angle, which means that
if you immerse one and the other is going to
disappear and turn invisible. Right. Um. The they also found
(24:19):
at Hewlett Packer that was carved from a single piece
of crystal, and it was carved against the green, which
is very unusual. Um. The problem is Helt Packer has
absolutely no record of of these tests being performed. It's
possible that that dore Lyn had a friend who you know,
said come on buy, we'll have some beers and test
(24:40):
your skull, and it wasn't like an official project or
he didn't really take it there. This is such a
weird claim. Uh. And on a TV show in the
eight and nine Arthur C. Clark had a show called
Mysterious World and there was a gem expert name Alan
Jobbins who also studied the crystal skull the Till Hedges
when and said that he thought that it was from crystal,
(25:04):
Brazilian crystal from seventeen hundreds, which would not make it ancient. Right, Um,
that's not my skull that they think are as possibly Brazilian.
The Paris skull and the British Museum skull they think
are probably Brazilian, no mines in Brazil. And like you said,
after the seventeen hundreds, this is post Columbia, not just
(25:25):
post contact. This is like there's revolution stirring in America
by this time, and these things were made, right, and
all all signs start pointing further further back to Jean Boban. Yeah,
and they also thought it was they were carved in
Germany most of these, yes, which kind of the Himler
thing all of a sudden makes sense apparent. But I
(25:47):
would I would venture to guess that Himmler would have
never thought that it was made in Germany. I'm sure
he thought it was like one of the thirteen Mins skulls.
They were very superstitious, those Nazis. Alright, So back to Boban. So,
Bob Bonn had his hands on like several of these,
um he uh you mentioned Germany. Um, apparently there's a
(26:07):
lot of Brazilian crystal that was being worked in Germany
in the seventeen hundreds, right or no, the nineteenth century,
eight hundreds, um. And apparently Boban got his hands on
these things, sold them. But it's not clear whether he
knew that they were frauds or not, because I mean,
there was a lot of money to be made during
(26:27):
the museum period. There was a big boom in artifacts
and museums and and auctions like this. So you know,
obviously if you're claiming it's one of the original things,
you're gonna get top dollar for it exactly, which is
how the British Museum came about. It's um skull. It
was purchased, like you said, in eight from Tiffany and Company,
probably the age of the museum when people would pay
(26:49):
a pretty penny for these things. But I guess to
its credit, the British Museum led the way in proving
that these things were fakes. And I just made air
quotes because there's still amazing works of art. They were.
They were made by master craftsman in the eight hundreds.
Just call it that. That's what I say, what works
(27:09):
of art? Yeah, so they can be admired and not
and not kind of poked fun at by nonbelievers. Well
that's why that school still in the British Museum. They're like,
this thing isn't mine, but still check it out exactly,
And I'm staring to the aura. Now, the Mitchell Heads
of School doesn't fall into that because there's no there's
been no UM, I guess acceptance that it was made recently. Yeah,
(27:34):
and she and at one point she kind of withdrew
it from further investigation in that, right. Yeah, So the
British Museum concluded that there's there's was made um using
a jeweler's wheel after the European arrival in the America's uh,
it's high polish indicates it was carved using traditional European techniques.
(27:54):
And then in two thousand five, Jane Walsh, who was
an anthropologist with the smith Oonian took the Smithsonian skull
to the British Museum and said, hey, look look at
this one to do an electron microscope, and they did
in there like it's the same thing. They may have
actually been made by the same craftsman. Yeah, they said
that there's you know, there would have been pretty clear
(28:14):
evidence that it was made with ancient tools by the
fact that wouldn't be nearly a smooth it would be
scratch marks things like that. But it bore none of those, right,
And they found, you know, the tell tale signs of
modern tool use, right, they didn't. Yeah, they there were
no signs of the ancient tool use again if you're
(28:35):
a believer in crystal skulls. While these things are they
were made over a hundred and fifty years. Of course
you're not gonna find as marks or whatever you hack, right,
It's a hundred and fifty years of sand rubbin right
doing that kind of work. But this is the thing
that I like the most. There are out there very
(28:57):
crude um crystal skulls. There are some that don't. They
don't look like they were made um from a jeweler's
wheel and janney in the nineteenth century. So you're saying
those are the ones. Who knows, you know, my favorite
part is danger and my ally stuff. So we have
(29:18):
to mention a few pop culture references UM, starting with
Stargate SG one, and then it's been in some video
games Nancy Drew Legend of the Crystal Skull, Pirates of
the Caribbean third greatest selling video Games two thousand six.
And then obviously the biggest reference UM would have to
be The Abominable and Forgettable. I said it Indiana Jones
(29:43):
and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. And man, I've
never wanted to love a movie so much in my life,
and I've never been as disappointed. And I'm on record,
I'm saying this. I know, and I feel bad because
you know, I know that it hurts when we're criticized.
We're like, we're doing our best. I'm sure that they
really wanted to put out a great movie. They were
(30:05):
the Mark. Supposedly they're going to do another one, and
I heard I think if Steven Spielberg, if you're listening,
Mr Lucas, get back to basics, brothers. That's what I say.
Forget all the comparison for can do is on stunts though,
forget all the c g I monkeys and uh killer
ants and all that silliness. Just get back to basics. Yeah,
(30:27):
I agree, go practical And that's that for Chuck. That's
it all right? Yes. Uh. If you want to learn
more about crystal skulls and see some cool images and
crystal skulls, type Crystal skull into the handy search bart
how stuff works dot com. Uh. And since I said that,
Chuck's got a letter in his hand and that means
it's time for a listener mail. That's right, Josh. A
(30:51):
few weeks ago you asked for a call for if
you have any ways, you're trying to better humanity. And
we got quite a few of these, and so we're
gonna read some of them over the next few episodes.
This one I'm partial to because i just think it's neat.
This from Rachel. She's written in before. I have a
project which I'm attempting to improve humanity. Almost every day
for the past three years, I've written a pep talk
(31:12):
at my website website either one website daily pep talk
from a best Friend dot com. My goal is to
improve the reader's self esteem by telling them what their
best friend might say in a moment of crisis. Type
your issue into the handy dandy search bar, find yourself
a pep talk. There's more than eight hundred of these,
(31:33):
and I'm pretty sure I've covered whatever has you blue
or befuddled. So if I haven't covered a particular topic,
readers can write to me and request at pep talk
also do shout outs for anything a reader wants to celebrate.
And I have a podcast called your Effing Awesome e
F F I n G. That's how I'm trying to
improve humanity. If you were to mention this, I would
(31:54):
be thrilled. I'm forever looking to share the pep and traffic,
like self esteem can always use boost. Uh. And then
she gives an example of a pep talk and it's
kind of cool. You know, I showed this stimily. She
liked it as well. It's very cool. It's almost like, um,
a daily horoscope or fortune cookie, but much better because
it's a fortune cookie. Well you know how a fortune
(32:17):
cookie it's much less vague. Yeah, I mean it gives
you a pep talk. It's you could choose your own
adventure fortune cookie. So that's Rachel. The website is daily
pep Talk from a best Friend dot com. And it's
just it's positive, it's it's neat. I'm glad she's doing it.
That's the bad Boys that has a lot of work.
I know, I wouldn't figure it to be a need
for more than like six different kinds of pep talks. Yeah,
(32:37):
I wonder if it's one of those things where she
thought that too, and then started to really think about
it and kept going and going, and she went mad
along the way and ended up killing housecats and then
like coming back from the brink and then had to
write pep talks about all those exactly. Yeah, and now
she's done. Okay. If you have something that you need
a pep talk on, ask chucking me and if we
(32:59):
can't do it, maybe we'll just send you to um
what is it daily pep talk from a best friend
dot com? Yes? Uh, send us an email. You can
address it to Stuff podcast at discovery dot com. For
more on this and thousands of other topics, visit how
(33:20):
Stuff works dot com. This episode of Stuff You Should
Know is brought to you by Linda dot Com. Linda
dot com offers thousands of engaging, easy to follow video
tutorials taught by industry experts to help you learn software,
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(33:42):
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s y s k
Hey, Chuck, yo, we're in the present time, yes, which
means that we need to take this opportunity to do
a little bit of an intro for the episode. Everybody's
about to hear because it's a yeah, this has never
happened us before. But you said, hey, I thought we
already recorded one on Crystal Skulls. Yeah, I think you're right,
(00:22):
and Jerry went, oh, it's right here in my desk drawer.
We forgot to publish it. Yeah, so this is a
long lost episode and we decided to publish it anyway,
and just with a little caveat because it might. I'm
sure there's some stuff that sounds stated. It stated right
off the bat. We talked about whether the world's gonna
end or knowledge it doesn't as well, that's kind of
the dead giveaway. There's some dating to it. But yeah,
(00:42):
so it's a lost episode. And thanks to whoever it
was on Twitter that suggested a Crystal Skulls episode, because
that's what started this whole thing in the in the
first place. Well you certainly gave them their due, but
calling them whoever it was, thanks whoever? Alright, so cool,
So here we go with Crystal Skulls Welcome to Stuff
you Should Know from house stuff Works dot com. Hey,
(01:11):
and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck,
Oh my god, everything's coming to it, and Brian that
makes this stuff you should know? Right? How you doing?
I shouldn't even ask. My life is a little upside
down right now. I'll be all right. It's not like
it's my in and it's twenty twelve or anything. Well,
(01:32):
we've already done that one. And I guess we know
that the the world isn't necessarily gonna end in twenty twelve,
so that kind of presupposes how we feel about this podcast.
I guess right. That's actually but let me let me
give some news first. And you know this because you
found this and it's literally today's news. Yeah, that has
done often happen. Yeah. Um, but we're talking about crystal skulls.
(01:54):
And there was a piece on crystal skull that was
found recently in a home in a Bavarian village. Um
and this crystal skull, it weighs I think nine pounds. Um,
it's life size. No, it was nearly twenty pounds. It's
life size, maybe a little bigger. Uh. It matches the
death's head insignia worn by Nazi SS officers UM, which
(02:19):
is appropriate because this crystal skull apparently belonged to Heinrich Himmler,
that's right, who was the chief of the s S. Yeah,
and I wrote an article we should podcast on that
sometime about the Nazis interest in archaeology. They were like
all the Indiana Jones stuff was right on the money.
They had all sorts of programs, archaeology programs basically to
try and prove through historical research that the Aryan race
(02:43):
was superior. Right, Yes, that was behind it all. And
supposedly the UM the Nazi Party arose from some sort
of kind of like UM good time sex cult that
like all of the people who were eventually like the
head of the Nazi Party were members of Hitler comes
along as like, you guys are freaks, but I'm going
to use this to my advantage and bada boomboada being
(03:05):
under fere and everything starts to go horribly horribly awry.
But back to UM Today's news, a crystal skull was found,
which is a very unusual thing, and it was found
hidden on a rafter in the attic of this house.
In Bavaria. Um that belonged to a woman who had
(03:27):
been married to a high ranking SS officer, and it's
now in the possession of Swiss journalist Luke Bergen. Yeah,
he makes quite a claim. He claims that quote, I
am sure that this is one of the skulls of
the Mayans, but we need clarity and all available tests
will be carried out to ascertain authenticity. So what what
Luke um Bergen has just said is that he's about
(03:49):
to be very very disappointed. It's spoken like a man
who just got his first crystal skull. Yeah, exactly, and
it's done zero research on it. Basically, Um, the the
prevailing chuck, we should hold on. Let's bring spring sarcasm down. Uh.
The the the legend behind the crystal skulls, and anybody
(04:10):
who has not seen crystal skulls type them into your
favorite search engine and um find an image and you'll
be like, oh, yeah, crystal skull, crystal skull. Um. The
there's supposedly thirteen of them that were crafted by the
Mayans um and they were scattered throughout the globe and
um nine of them were colored to represent the races
(04:32):
of man, and then four of them were clear to
represent the animals that crawl, walk, slither, slides, and fly,
um and you. Basically, the world's supposed to end on
December twenty one at eleven eleven am. And if the
(04:54):
these thirteen skulls aren't reunited, discovered and reunited in a
specific alignment I would imagine probably at some sort of
Mayan temple um, then the world will end. If we
can get them aligned in this proper alignment by this time,
we can prevent the world from ending. The problem is, though, Josh,
there's a lot more than thirteen of these things floating
(05:14):
around the world. Yes, and so there's some doubts as
to their legitimacy and if it depending on what this
skull looks like. I don't know if the The Daily
Mirror was the news source that you got this from.
It they're not exactly They're tabloid. There are tabloids tabloid actually, well,
(05:34):
I believe that this skull was found, I'm sure, But
the picture that they've used, I don't know if that's
the skull that was supposedly found or whatever. But um,
there are some telltale signs that a skull might be
a fake, that it could be real. Let's start digging in, Chuck,
Let's dig into crystal skulls. Uh. Well, they can vary
(05:54):
in size and appearance. Some of them are sort of
crudely shaped. Some of them are really detailed. Some of
them are beautiful and clear. Some of them are hazy
and colored. Some of them have detached jaws, some of
them do not. Some of them have I sockets, some
of them don't write. That's just a brief off for you.
That's there's crystal skulls of the appearance, and some people
believe that they are, you know, from the ancient Mayans,
(06:17):
descendants of the h what's the underwater Atlantis? Atlantis? Is
that where the minds came from? Some people say that,
some say they're a direct ascens of of Atlantis, But
I don't know. So this, this whole idea that the
the Mayans creating crystal skulls, or that these crystal skulls
are of Mayan descent, are based somewhat on fact the
(06:41):
Miyands did. Um they do reference crystal skulls in their
creation myth. Yeah, So I mean like that's not like
somebody's like crystal skull and Maya. There's there's there's definitely
a legitimate connection between the two. But whether the crystal
skulls that are in existence right now are Mayan in
origin is what what's up for debate and not really
(07:03):
up for debate, and whether or not they have they're
a rumor to have healing properties. Um, the visions like
a crystal ball that you can see into the future,
into the past. It's like a crystal ball but cooler.
What else is there they say they can do? They
make sounds, yes, choir, I think it's mainly healing and visions.
(07:24):
That's pretty good ones enlightenment of some sort. Um. The
but the world of crystal skulls that when you start
to kind of dig into it is what It doesn't
really matter what you believe. It's a really interesting world
filled by almost caricatures of people, adventurers and broadsters and bucksters.
(07:45):
To talk about him. Yeah, so let's let's start with um,
I guess the most famous crystal skull of all the
Mitchell Hedges skull. This one kind of set the tone
for most other Basically, the Mitchell Hedges said, this is
what Crystal Skull study is going to be all about.
We're going to provide all the character for it and
(08:06):
everybody else following our footsteps. Okay, that's right. And supposedly
it was discovered and we're gonna say allegedly and supposedly
a lot because these stories are not verified as fat
and out of reverence for a dead one year old
woman who Anna, she's dead now A seven? Really yeah,
that's a bummer. Uh yeah. So it was discovered allegedly
(08:27):
in the nineteen twenties by who we just referenced, Anna
Mitchell Hedges, who is the adopted daughter of F. A.
Mitchell Hedges World Adventurer. Yeah and he really was too. Yeah,
from the from the sounds of it, he was. Um.
She says that she found the skull beneath the Mayan
temple at an Altar and uh lu Batan. He pronounced
(08:48):
that that's what I took. Have you seen the pictures
of that place, like a ruined Mayan city and believes
it's awesome. It's like overgrown temples and stuff like that.
It's very neat, I like the mind temples. So anyway,
Anna says that she found this thing near Belize on
her seventeenth birthday, and she said that the Mayan's actually
told her that it was a skull used to will
(09:09):
death so a priest would be too old to continue
his priesting and he would lie down and transfer his
knowledge to a younger priest via the powers of the
skull and then die. Right. So that's her story. That's
what the skull was for. That's what she says, um,
and said, sorry, that's right. So the and the Mitchell
(09:31):
Hedges skull is like the it's a trendsetting skull in
another way in that it's pretty much the pinnacle of
craftsmanship of crystal skulls. It's clear courts crystal is very pretty. Um,
it's life size, um. It had it's about five inches high,
five inches wide, eight inches long, UM. Totally transparent, twelve
(09:52):
pounds UM. It's got the the ridges and cheekbones and
nose socket and eye sockets that are like very anatomically correct.
And as far as I know, it's the only one
that has a detachable jawbone, which is really anatomically correct.
Like this is just an amazing work of art, you know,
(10:13):
and that's how they should be viewed. Josh, right, did
I just ruin it? Do you want to poke some
holes in Anna's story? Yeah? Um, First of all, in
nineteen thirty six, m a description of this skull was
in a British journal called Man, but they said it
was owned by a guy named Sydney. Bernie Anna says,
oh no wait, my dad Um f A UM gave
(10:35):
it to Sydney and he um auctioned it off to
pay a debt in the in the forties and then
we bought it from Sotheby's from him to get it
back in the family, right like it came down to
the wire at the Southebeast all. So basically what you
can take from that story is that f A. Mitchell
Hedges acquired this Mitchell Hedges skull at South Beast. That
(10:57):
part is completely documentable and um but that they they
think that that may be where he got it for
the first time, probably because in that nineteen thirty six journal,
Um the the author, I guess Bernie UM wrote a
letter that was I'm sorry it was quoted later, but
but Um Bernie, the guy who actually had that Mitchell
(11:19):
Hedges skull before Mitchell Hedges, said that he acquired it
from a collector who had it for several years, and
Um that collector bought it from another collector who had
it for several years. No mention of F. A. Mitchell,
who was not a collector, he was an adventurer. He
probably called it the Bernie Skull to Yeah, I'm sure
and um so that that that was in nineteen thirty three,
(11:40):
which by this time F. A. Mitchell had just supposedly
already had it or owned it. Um and then the
other well, there's several other weird parts. Uh Mitchell hedges
fa we'll just call him or faugh um he he
only wrote about the skull once. This is my favorite
part of this article. In the name of his book taken.
(12:02):
He wrote a book about his adventures, I guess, some
sort of memoir and it was called danger My ally
that's the way you say it too. And that was
from nine fifty four, I think. And in that book
that's the first and only mentioned he makes of the
crystal skull. By this time it was in his possession,
he owned it. Seems like he would have mentioned it,
yeah prior to this he he um. He says chuck
(12:25):
that it dates back at least thirty six hundred years,
that it took about a hundred and fifty years to
rub down with sand from a single block of courts.
So he alleges it was not it was shaped from
rubbing sand on it and not actually carved with tools
over the period of a hundred and fifty years, which
I mean that's a lot of dedicated people, a lot
(12:46):
of sand rubbing. Yeah. Um. He never mentions that his
adopted daughter find found it. He actually says that he
has reason to not mention how it came in his possession. Yeah.
He warns very forebodingly about several people have cynically laughed
at it and died. Others have been stricken ill. So
(13:06):
he says, how I got it, I have reasons to
not tell you. This is a really easy way to
get around not telling people. Um, that's what That's what
we should say whenever somebody wants to know, like, what's
what's your backstory? How did you guys meet? We have
reasons to not tell you. We have very important reason
because it's very important. Um. And then also, Chuck, there
(13:26):
were two people so f a Mitchell head just did
actually go down to lu Batan and he was there
in that's documented. There's plenty of photos of the dig
two friends who went with them, who later wrote about this.
This experience never mentioned Anna being there certainly never mentioned
(13:47):
the crystal skull. Yeah. Lady Richmond Brown and Dr Thomas
Gan and then lastly Anna Um in different interviews, gave
different dates of when she acquired the skull, never the
correct one. So um, there's a lot of holes in
her story. Yet up to her deaths she alleged that
this was the truth. Um. And she had what I
(14:09):
take to be an indomitable spirit, like you could tell
her just about anything, but she knew what was right
with the crystal skull. Yeah. And she also claimed um
not verified, but claimed that it had been used for
healing a number of times and she didn't get very
specific with that, and that she hoped one day it
would go to an institution where it could be studied
and that might happen. Um. If you go on to
(14:32):
Mitchell Hedges skull dot com or Mitchell Hedges dot com,
I think there's a hyphen in there, not Benson and Hedges. Um.
The The skull is now in the possession of its
newest owner, Bill Hollman, who is very dashing guy, likes
to wear like in Indiana Jones hat Um. He loves
posing with the crystal skull. It's very cool. But his
(14:54):
aim is to build a museum for the skull in Sedona, Arizona,
so they can be study ead and and basically be
available to the public all the time, which is pretty cool.
Where he would sell tickets, I don't know. I'm sure
he would. Who knows. There's not a free museum. Actually
that's not true. It's plenty of free museums. I take
that back completely, okay, but there's plenty that aren't as well.
(15:15):
I agree with you. So that's what that's what's going
on with the Mitchell Hedges skull right now. Bill Hollman
has it here in the US, and there may be
Ah well, I don't know if it will be reunited.
Surely people who own crystal skulls are going to take
them to Mexico or something in November. See what happens. Right,
(15:36):
Um So, Mitchell Heades skull is is the most famous,
but it's far from the only one, right, Yeah, there's
one another famous one in the British Museum, and I
believe they just called this the British Museum skull, right, Yeah,
it's kind of let down. They called the Paris skull
the Paris skull, and it's also life size. It's not
quite as detailed as the Mitchell hedges, and the jaw
(16:00):
does detach as you say, and it's cloudy courts. It's
not completely clear. And this was purchased. We know a
little bit about the real back story on this one.
It was purchased by the museum from Tiffany and Company
in supposedly came from Mexico. And here is where we
have a guy entered the picture named Eugene Bouban. Yeah,
(16:21):
he's kind of an important character as well. Yeah, he's
a French art dealer and a lot of these skulls
seemed to have passed through his ownership at one point
or another, which isn't necessarily fishing in and of itself.
Like a dealer can specialize in something, and Boban specialized
in Mayan relics another and the pre Columbian stuff. So yeah,
(16:42):
it's not like that makes it hinky. I'm just pointing
that out. Then you got the pair of skull and
it's a more crude still than the other two and
has a hole cut in the top that they think
it is supposed to hold across. Yes, and that is
in Paris at the a You're gonna pronounce that one
for me, the muse de lom okay, the Museum of
the Museum of Man. Is that what it is? Do
(17:05):
you speak French? Um, I'm piquito. I used to do that.
It took German in high school and then learned just
sort of rough Spanish by working in the Mexican restaurants.
And I would always mixed German and Spanish up in
my college days. I was mixing up a lot back
(17:27):
then though, anyway. Uh. And then in this one's a
little weird in the Smithsonian received a crystal skull in
the mail anonymous Yeah, with an anonymous note that said, hey,
this is Aztec. I bought it in nineteen sixty in
Mexico City and do what you will with it. Brought
(17:47):
me nothing but bad luck. Yeah, maybe please don't ever
try to track me down. And that one is hollow,
which is slightly unique as well. Yeah. Um, so here's
there's a couple of points that you've just brought up.
One Eugene boban remember um um. Secondly, this anonymous skull
is thought to be as Tech or was mentioned as Aztec.
(18:07):
The British Museum skull is possibly considered as tech possibly,
so that kind of knocks the mayan Um legend out
a little bit. Let's do that some more. Okay, um, Well,
first let's talk about some more um crystal skulls real quick.
There's there's uh again, there's a whole world of crystal
(18:29):
skull collectors and some people have a few, some people
have one, but all of them are pretty like if
you have a crystal skull, like you're a well known individual. Yeah,
it's not like a being a commemorative plate collector, right
like Joanne Parks who owns Max the Texas Crystal skull. Um.
She apparently got it in the eighties and it's supposed
(18:53):
to be from Guatemala, which is my end. Yeah, we've
been there. And Jake Jake van Deeton, who suposedly owns
a few of them, joke, joke, yoke, what I call him? Jake? Yea?
This is she? Okay? Now? She says that her skull
et healed her brain tumor. That's right, and that's a
(19:14):
pretty cool name for a skull. If you're a skull owner,
I would say a movie fan. And then what else
is there? There's Shanna Ra not shann Annah, and it's
a big one. It weighs about thirteen pounds, owned by
Nick no Serino, and he is a self described expert,
which are a favorite kind of experts in crystal skulls,
and he claims he found that one in Mexico. And
(19:36):
then lastly there's an amethyst goal called amy am I
or me if you're speaking French, um, and that is
supposedly has a squiggly white line around the circumference of
this skull. No idea what that means, and supposedly mine. Yeah.
And then there's a bunch of smaller skulls like little
(19:57):
ones um that are about an inch in diameter, have
holes drilled through them, and they think that they were
ambulance or pendants or some sort of They were worn
as necklaces. They were sold at the gift shop, the
crystal skull get shop back in the day. So is
the deal do all these people think they have one
of the thirteen? Is that? Is that pretty much what's
going on here? That's the impression I have, Okay, um,
(20:19):
especially if you if you're if you consider your crystal
skull is the source of the healing of your brain
tumor and chuck, there's it's there's a certain um, there's
a certain rationale to the idea that a crystal skull
can allow you to see visions, and there's just something
more going on there besides it being just a lump
(20:41):
of courts. And that actually is um one found in
one of the properties of courts, which is piezza electricity.
You want to say, it's kind of Italian pizza electric right,
So that is um the property of courts in particular,
but generally crystals and ceramics to be able to generate
(21:02):
an electrical charge just from pressure from like a what's
called um mechanical uh energy stress stress. So basically just
rubbing a like a piece of courts crystal skull, you
should be able to generate electricity. And the harder you rub,
(21:23):
the more electricity you generate. So that no one's ever
been able to say, well, then that's why you would
heal your brains from or anything like that. But the
fact that courts is piezzo electric is one of the
things that people who believe in the healing powers of
these crystal skulls point to, and crystals in general. Yeah
(21:44):
that you know Little five Points has had that crystal
shop forever, is it's still around. Yeah, I think. So
people go in there and they buy their crystal and
hanging around their neck, and they believe it has healing
properties or energy property, or at the very least it
generates a mild electrical current. Yeah. Yeah. Um. Then there's
also slightly wilder claims that UM that these these the
(22:06):
Piazzo electricity isn't necessarily for healing. It's to um facilitate
time travel or UM it serves as some sort of
communication device between UM, the aliens who brought it here
or Atlantis. We just haven't figured out how to tap
it or unlock it yet. Yeah. What is it they
compare it to is like a a computer chip potentially
(22:30):
that has all this uh ancient wisdom and facts and
knowledge just waiting, just waiting. We just don't know how
to access. It's like the lunar doomsday are but in
crystal skull form exactly. So speaking of Mitchell Hedges, which
we weren't uh speaking of, but I'm bringing up in anyway,
she UM has loaned it out for study a couple
(22:54):
of times. Yeah. Some some people who own skulls are
cool with them them being studied, But more frequent the
ones that are in possession of a biomuseum. Those are
the ones that have been studied. The most uh in
vent and art restore named Frank Dorland studied the Mitchell
head of skull for six years and he said he
heard ringing bells, the sound of choir singing, he saw
(23:16):
auras around the skull, and he could see images when
gazing into it. Yeah, and this is an art restore.
He's not necessarily like a crystal skull devote, right. But
he also claimed, on the other hand, that it showed
signs of mechanical grinding and holes drilled that we're obviously
using modern techniques of metal drill. So he sort of
(23:36):
sort of said it was mystical in some ways, and
also said, well, but this thing is an ancient because
it was clearly made with you know, modern technology. Um.
He also supposedly took it to Hewlett Packard's laboratories. Yeah,
I thought this was interesting. He said there that they
performed a test on it um to to find out
if it was pure courts, and they dropped it in
(23:58):
benzel alcohol and it disappeared. Yes, it vanished because benzo
alcohol and courts have the same diffraction coefficient, which means
they bend light at the same angle, which means that
if you immerse one and the other is going to
disappear and turn invisible. Right. Um. The they also found
(24:19):
at Hewlett Packer that was carved from a single piece
of crystal, and it was carved against the green, which
is very unusual. Um. The problem is Helt Packer has
absolutely no record of of these tests being performed. It's
possible that that dore Lyn had a friend who you know,
said come on buy, we'll have some beers and test
(24:40):
your skull, and it wasn't like an official project or
he didn't really take it there. This is such a
weird claim. Uh. And on a TV show in the
eight and nine Arthur C. Clark had a show called
Mysterious World and there was a gem expert name Alan
Jobbins who also studied the crystal skull the Till Hedges
when and said that he thought that it was from crystal,
(25:04):
Brazilian crystal from seventeen hundreds, which would not make it ancient. Right, Um,
that's not my skull that they think are as possibly Brazilian.
The Paris skull and the British Museum skull they think
are probably Brazilian, no mines in Brazil. And like you said,
after the seventeen hundreds, this is post Columbia, not just
(25:25):
post contact. This is like there's revolution stirring in America
by this time, and these things were made, right, and
all all signs start pointing further further back to Jean Boban. Yeah,
and they also thought it was they were carved in
Germany most of these, yes, which kind of the Himler
thing all of a sudden makes sense apparent. But I
(25:47):
would I would venture to guess that Himmler would have
never thought that it was made in Germany. I'm sure
he thought it was like one of the thirteen Mins skulls.
They were very superstitious, those Nazis. Alright, So back to Boban. So,
Bob Bonn had his hands on like several of these,
um he uh you mentioned Germany. Um, apparently there's a
(26:07):
lot of Brazilian crystal that was being worked in Germany
in the seventeen hundreds, right or no, the nineteenth century,
eight hundreds, um. And apparently Boban got his hands on
these things, sold them. But it's not clear whether he
knew that they were frauds or not, because I mean,
there was a lot of money to be made during
(26:27):
the museum period. There was a big boom in artifacts
and museums and and auctions like this. So you know,
obviously if you're claiming it's one of the original things,
you're gonna get top dollar for it exactly, which is
how the British Museum came about. It's um skull. It
was purchased, like you said, in eight from Tiffany and Company,
probably the age of the museum when people would pay
(26:49):
a pretty penny for these things. But I guess to
its credit, the British Museum led the way in proving
that these things were fakes. And I just made air
quotes because there's still amazing works of art. They were.
They were made by master craftsman in the eight hundreds.
Just call it that. That's what I say, what works
(27:09):
of art? Yeah, so they can be admired and not
and not kind of poked fun at by nonbelievers. Well
that's why that school still in the British Museum. They're like,
this thing isn't mine, but still check it out exactly,
And I'm staring to the aura. Now, the Mitchell Heads
of School doesn't fall into that because there's no there's
been no UM, I guess acceptance that it was made recently. Yeah,
(27:34):
and she and at one point she kind of withdrew
it from further investigation in that, right. Yeah, So the
British Museum concluded that there's there's was made um using
a jeweler's wheel after the European arrival in the America's uh,
it's high polish indicates it was carved using traditional European techniques.
(27:54):
And then in two thousand five, Jane Walsh, who was
an anthropologist with the smith Oonian took the Smithsonian skull
to the British Museum and said, hey, look look at
this one to do an electron microscope, and they did
in there like it's the same thing. They may have
actually been made by the same craftsman. Yeah, they said
that there's you know, there would have been pretty clear
(28:14):
evidence that it was made with ancient tools by the
fact that wouldn't be nearly a smooth it would be
scratch marks things like that. But it bore none of those, right,
And they found, you know, the tell tale signs of
modern tool use, right, they didn't. Yeah, they there were
no signs of the ancient tool use again if you're
(28:35):
a believer in crystal skulls. While these things are they
were made over a hundred and fifty years. Of course
you're not gonna find as marks or whatever you hack, right,
It's a hundred and fifty years of sand rubbin right
doing that kind of work. But this is the thing
that I like the most. There are out there very
(28:57):
crude um crystal skulls. There are some that don't. They
don't look like they were made um from a jeweler's
wheel and janney in the nineteenth century. So you're saying
those are the ones. Who knows, you know, my favorite
part is danger and my ally stuff. So we have
(29:18):
to mention a few pop culture references UM, starting with
Stargate SG one, and then it's been in some video
games Nancy Drew Legend of the Crystal Skull, Pirates of
the Caribbean third greatest selling video Games two thousand six.
And then obviously the biggest reference UM would have to
be The Abominable and Forgettable. I said it Indiana Jones
(29:43):
and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. And man, I've
never wanted to love a movie so much in my life,
and I've never been as disappointed. And I'm on record,
I'm saying this. I know, and I feel bad because
you know, I know that it hurts when we're criticized.
We're like, we're doing our best. I'm sure that they
really wanted to put out a great movie. They were
(30:05):
the Mark. Supposedly they're going to do another one, and
I heard I think if Steven Spielberg, if you're listening,
Mr Lucas, get back to basics, brothers. That's what I say.
Forget all the comparison for can do is on stunts though,
forget all the c g I monkeys and uh killer
ants and all that silliness. Just get back to basics. Yeah,
(30:27):
I agree, go practical And that's that for Chuck. That's
it all right? Yes. Uh. If you want to learn
more about crystal skulls and see some cool images and
crystal skulls, type Crystal skull into the handy search bart
how stuff works dot com. Uh. And since I said that,
Chuck's got a letter in his hand and that means
it's time for a listener mail. That's right, Josh. A
(30:51):
few weeks ago you asked for a call for if
you have any ways, you're trying to better humanity. And
we got quite a few of these, and so we're
gonna read some of them over the next few episodes.
This one I'm partial to because i just think it's neat.
This from Rachel. She's written in before. I have a
project which I'm attempting to improve humanity. Almost every day
for the past three years, I've written a pep talk
(31:12):
at my website website either one website daily pep talk
from a best Friend dot com. My goal is to
improve the reader's self esteem by telling them what their
best friend might say in a moment of crisis. Type
your issue into the handy dandy search bar, find yourself
a pep talk. There's more than eight hundred of these,
(31:33):
and I'm pretty sure I've covered whatever has you blue
or befuddled. So if I haven't covered a particular topic,
readers can write to me and request at pep talk
also do shout outs for anything a reader wants to celebrate.
And I have a podcast called your Effing Awesome e
F F I n G. That's how I'm trying to
improve humanity. If you were to mention this, I would
(31:54):
be thrilled. I'm forever looking to share the pep and traffic,
like self esteem can always use boost. Uh. And then
she gives an example of a pep talk and it's
kind of cool. You know, I showed this stimily. She
liked it as well. It's very cool. It's almost like, um,
a daily horoscope or fortune cookie, but much better because
it's a fortune cookie. Well you know how a fortune
(32:17):
cookie it's much less vague. Yeah, I mean it gives
you a pep talk. It's you could choose your own
adventure fortune cookie. So that's Rachel. The website is daily
pep Talk from a best Friend dot com. And it's
just it's positive, it's it's neat. I'm glad she's doing it.
That's the bad Boys that has a lot of work.
I know, I wouldn't figure it to be a need
for more than like six different kinds of pep talks. Yeah,
(32:37):
I wonder if it's one of those things where she
thought that too, and then started to really think about
it and kept going and going, and she went mad
along the way and ended up killing housecats and then
like coming back from the brink and then had to
write pep talks about all those exactly. Yeah, and now
she's done. Okay. If you have something that you need
a pep talk on, ask chucking me and if we
(32:59):
can't do it, maybe we'll just send you to um
what is it daily pep talk from a best friend
dot com? Yes? Uh, send us an email. You can
address it to Stuff podcast at discovery dot com. For
more on this and thousands of other topics, visit how
(33:20):
Stuff works dot com. This episode of Stuff You Should
Know is brought to you by Linda dot Com. Linda
dot com offers thousands of engaging, easy to follow video
tutorials taught by industry experts to help you learn software,
creative and business skills. Membership starts at twenty five a
(33:42):
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