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May 2010_june_july_2009.qxd 31/05/2010 6:15 PM Page 33 The Skull of Doom 33 The Skull of Doom sold it to Burney. Boban had been dead for more pseudo-science who supplies an alternative to than two decades by 1933, so he cannot be the readers gorged with best sellers, the Continued from Page 32 implicated with it. Sydney Burney finally sold encountering of one more of the wonder tales the skull at a Sotheby’s London auction to occasions no surprise; but it is a matter of Father was wanting to return to Mitchell-Hedges on October 15, 1943. astonishment to find a publication of the Lubaantun, but was short of money and Capt. Anna’s stories of finding the crystal standing of the TIMES Book Review taken in by Joyce introduced him to Mr. Burney. Mr. Burney skull under an altar at Lubaantún, or inside a the recent published book of F.A. Mitchell- loaned father money and father left the skull deep hole or cave beneath or inside of the Hedges. with him as security until he could redeem it.... pyramid, were her own inventions, starting in Then they heard that he had been claiming he 1964, as part of a joint promotion of the skull in found the skull etc and that he had placed it into which she engaged the assistance of Frank Of course, at present, the Maya field is being the sale room...father was livid when he heard Dorland. Her confusion of dates is not the worked industriously by every writer who takes this although it had been withdrawn. He repaid product of a faulty memory, but rather, I the tourist route through Central America. No Burney with interest and reclaimed the skull.... believe, because Anna was never at Lubaantún doubt Mitchell-Hedges and his traveling (OC 276, folder #11 - 9/20/1970) before she was taken there for a film in the companion visited some of the ruins, known to If Joyce introduced Mitchell-Hedges to 1990s. I believe Anna settled on the 1924 date Dr. Gann, but your reviewer’s extracts referring Burney and if Midge had wanted to join Joyce’s sometime in the 1980s, since in the 1970s she to the vast unbroken jungle stretches through British Museum expedition to Lubaantun, then was still claiming to have found it in 1926 or the less known parts of Guatemala, San this would have taken place around 1927. If 1927, occasionally 1928. The earlier date would Salvador (actually the capital city of the Burney had lent him the money, then why didn’t have been a more likely one since her father republic of El Salvador), Spanish Honduras and Mitchell-Hedges return to Lubaantun? Perhaps actually visited the site that year. Nicaragua to Panama would give a moment’s this was because of his unsuccessful liable suit? The mythology that has grown up passing amusement to the coffee and sugar But then, why would he leave the skull for years surrounding the Mitchell-Hedges Godshead planters, the cattle owners, the politicians, before reclaiming it by purchasing it at the Skull, Skull of Doom, Skull of Knowledge, or soldiers and adventurers of all races, who, in auction house? Another inconsistency is Anna’s the Skull of Love (as it is now called on the addition to the native Indian, have passed their statement that Joyce introduced her father to Official Mitchell-Hedges Website) is the lives in this region since the time of the Burney, since the Official Mitchell-Hedges invention of three people--Frederick Mitchell- Conquistadores, and particularly to the present Website (accessed 11/08) quotes Anna as saying Hedges, followed by Anna Mitchell-Hedges and inhabitants who saw the [Mitchell-Hedges] that Mr. Burney was an old school chum of her Frank Dorland. But the mythology now expedition traversing so much of the jungle by father’s. If the story about her father buying includes many more promoters, all of whom motor, chair-car and steamship. If Quirigua and back his very own (or Anna’s very own) artifact profit from the gullibility and enthusiasm of Totonicapan are jungles, so is Bronx Park. The were true, why wouldn’t he mention this fact in crystal devotees and New Age practitioners. former is passed by railroad from here to Puerto the proud announcement to his own brother? He Frederick A. Mitchell-Hedges spent a Barrios, and the latter can be reached by motor reports on the collection that “grows and grows good deal of his life as a deep-sea fisherman. He car in a few hours. Santiago Volcano is a small and grows,” and tells his brother that the newest wrote at least two books and numerous articles crater near Managua, and the journey to the top acquisition is a crystal skull from the Sydney about fishing. Stories about fish that got away takes two or three hours by motor, followed by Burney collection. He mentions the skull’s close are legendary, but Mitchell-Hedges took even an hour or two on horseback. relative in the British Museum, but says nothing fish stories to a new level. He usually referred to Finally, the Nicaragua revolution to about Lubaantun, nor that he thinks it is Maya. this hobby as “deep sea research,” and which reference is made, was viewed by the apparently supplemented his income by selling Mitchell-Hedges party from a distance of Just the Facts tales of giant fish, sea monsters, and man-eating several hundred miles, in the capital city of The Mitchell-Hedges (formerly Burney) sharks to the Hearst newspaper chain. He made Managua, where they were lodged at the quartz skull is modern, like every rock crystal weekend trips to Carribean islands, where he principal hotel, and were entertained at a tea skull that has been examined so far (Sax 2008, claimed to have found sunken continents and dance by the President. The most revolutionary 2009; Walsh 1997, 2008). I believe this one can lost tribes or explored territories unseen by activity they saw was the sewering and paving rightly be called a fake, since it is almost surely white men, while he battled with fish the size of of the city, then being initiated under the an improved version of the British Museum whales and experienced constant life- writer’s direction. skull, making it a copy of an invented artifact. threatening terrors. The dramatic stories of As such, it was intended to deceive. danger and discovery are a regular feature of his Conclusion Documentary evidence indicates that it first writings, and the same is true in the published Analysis of the Mitchell-Hedges crystal appeared in London early in 1933. According to accounts by his companion, Lady Richmond- skull using SEM leaves little doubt that this its owner, Sydney Burney, it came from Brown, and his secretary, Jane Harvey Houlson. object was carved and polished using modern, Mexico, the same provenience as that supplied It is not surprising that his adopted high-speed, diamond-coated, rotary, cutting and for the British Museum one. daughter would carry on this tradition. Now, polishing tools of minute dimensions. This The British Museum crystal skull first after Anna Mitchell-Hedges’s long life has technology is certainly not pre-Columbian. I appeared in 1881 in Eugène Boban’s Paris shop passed, her widower, Bill Homan, has taken it believe it is decidedly 20th century. The (Boban 1881; Walsh 1997). He later exhibited it upon himself to carry on the family business. similarities between the Mitchell-Hedges skull and attempted to sell it in Mexico City in 1885 F.A. Mitchell-Hedges’s 1931 book, and the British Museum skull suggest that the as an Aztec skull. The skull was denounced by a Land of Wonder and Fear, was favorably former is an improved copy of the latter. The Mexican museum curator as a fake, which reviewed in the New York Times, which might recently published SEM study of the British caused Boban to move his business to New give us some idea about the state of Museum skull additionally suggests it was York City, where he successfully sold it at geographical and cultural knowledge of many probably carved within a decade of the date it auction to Tiffany & Co. (Boban 1886; New North Americans at the time. There were more was first offered for sale in 1881 (Sax, Walsh, et York Times, December 19, 1886; Walsh 1997). cosmopolitan readers, however, with one in al. 2008: p. 2759). It is not unreasonable to The British Museum purchased it in 1898, and particular writing to protest the review. Henry conclude that the Mitchell-Hedges skull, which exhibited it from that point on. Wells Durham, a resident of Guatemala City first appeared in 1933, was also created within Judging from the date the Mitchell- provided an informed and spirited description of short time of its debut. (Continued on Page 34) Hedges skull first appeared, along with the Mitchell-Hedges and the area he claimed no evidence provided by the SEM study, it is white man had ever penetrated. I quote it here in reasonable to suspect that it was carved in its entirety. THE ‘X’ ZONE RADIO & TV SHOW Europe, copied from the British Museum skull Now that exploring has become a Heard Around The World sometime between 1900 and the early 1930s, “racket” for the exploitation of complacent AM / FM Radio, Satellite, Cable, Television, with the most probable date being closer to the founders of foundations, and the writing about Internet Audio / Video Streaming latter. We do not know who created it or who it a source of income for the facile scribbler in www.xzoneradiotv.com