Aztec or not?: Human skulls, worn as ornaments and displayed on racks, were known to have featured in Aztec art. The British Museum's crystal skull (pictured) was acquired in 1897, but has now been revealed as a fake.

Credit: British Museum

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SYDNEY: The inspiration for the latest Indiana Jones movie are real crystal skulls held in collections such as those of the British Museum and the Smithsonian Institution. But a new study now claims that two well-known crystal skulls are fakes.

"The authenticity of archaeological artefacts in museum collections is of crucial importance, as incorrectly attributed objects can distort our understanding of the past," says the study to be published in the July edition of the Journal of Archaeological Science.

"Few artefacts illustrate this better than the so-called crystal skulls, which have become the subject of numerous popular books, articles and documentary films since the twentieth century," write the authors of the study.

Modern manufacturing techniques

One of the skulls analysed resides at the Smithsonian Institution of Washington DC. The milky-white block of quartz is around 25 cm high and was sent anonymously to the museum in 1992, with a note saying it had been bought in Mexico City in 1960.

The other life-size, clear, crystal skull belongs to the British Museum in London, and was bought from Tiffany and Company, New York, in 1897.

Doubts have existed about the authenticity of the second skull since the 1930s, but the new study represents the first time researchers have applied modern forensic and scientific methods to answer the question.

Both skulls were purported to date from the pre-Columbian era. To probe this further, archaeologists led by Margaret Sax of the British Museum used electron microscopes to find out where the quartz in the skulls came from and to investigate the manufacturing techniques used to produce them.

The team found that both skulls have marks suggesting working with rotary cutting wheels, which were not introduced into the Americas until significantly later than 1521. Aztec or Mayan artifacts would have been carved with hand-held tools, said the study.

Ancient trading networks

Furthermore, the quartz of the British Museum skull is likely to have originated in either Brazil or Madagascar, which would have been far beyond Ancient Mexican trading networks. The Smithsonian skull also shows signs of being worked with a hard synthetic abrasive called carborundum, first synthesised less than 150 years ago.

"These findings lead to the conclusion that the British Museum skull was worked in Europe during the nineteenth century," write the authors. "The Smithsonian Institution skull was probably manufactured shortly before it was bought in Mexico City in 1960."

"It is always disappointing when an intriguing artefact like a crystal skull turns out not to be genuine," said study co-author Ian Freestone of Cardiff University in Wales. "However, it is important to be precise about what is authentic and what is fake if we are properly to understand our past. Maybe Indiana Jones will have better luck in his hunt for a real crystal skull!"