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