Page 27 - 201212 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - December 2012

‘Indiana Jones’ Makers Sued 'Indiana Jones' Makers Sued Over Crystal Skull www.news.discovery.com On Wednesday, one of the most entertaining lawsuits of the year was filed in Illinois federal court. It comes from Dr. Jaime Awe, director of the Institute of Archeology of Belize. This real- life Indiana Jones is suing on behalf of the nation of Belize over the Crystal Skull artifact, popularized in the 2008 Steven Spielberg film "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," Awe is demanding the return of the Crystal Skull from a treasure-hunting family that allegedly stole it 88 years ago from Belize. Awe is suing Lucasfilm, the Walt Disney Company, and Paramount Pictures. Awe states that the crystal skull described in the film was stolen by a British explorer (and sometime archaeologist) named F.A. Mitchell-Hedges during a visit to the Maya ruins of Lubantuun in the jungle of Belize in the early 1920s. His adopted daughter Anna Mitchell- Hedges is said to have discovered the skull while exploring the ruins. They returned to England with the skull, and Anna regularly exhibited the skull after her father's death in 1959. In his complaint Awe cites a 1928 "Antiquities Ordinance" which prohibited the removal of artifacts from Belize without express An archaeologist in Belize is suing the makers of the film "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of government permission. Since the crystal skull the Crystal Skull," claiming that the story is based upon a national treasure looted nearly a was illegally removed from the ruins and used century ago from the small Central American country. as a basis for the most recent Indiana Jones film, Awe and Belize want a cut of the profits and the return of the stolen skull which they see as part 1933, which he later sold to pay a debt. It was Created in honor of the sun god Helios, it stood 120 feet high - roughly the height of the Statue later purchased by his daughter Anna, who of their cultural heritage. "Lucasfilm never sought, nor was given made up an adventurous story about finding it of Liberty - and was made of hollow stone permission to utilize the Mitchell-Hedges Skull on her 17th birthday in the jungle ruins of a lost blocks held together by iron bars, a construction city. technique still used today. or its likeness in the Film," says the complaint. All the fanciful, adventurous stories "To date, Belize has not participated in any of about discovering the crystal skull amid ruins in Fate: Destroyed by an earthquake in 224 B.C. The iron bars were sold for scrap some 800 the profits derived from the sale of the Film or the Central American jungles were just myths years later, in 653 A.D. the rights thereto." created to craft a colorful backstory to the strange skull. "I discovered it in a long-lost THE PHAROS LIGHTHOUSE AT The True Story of the Crystal Skull ruined jungle temple" is more fun than "My ALEXANDRIA father bought it from a guy at an auction." It's unlikely that the lawsuit will go anywhere - The hoax lasted for decades, and fooled Built: Sometime during the reign of Ptolemy II - mostly because (apparently unbeknownst to Awe) it's based on a famous hoax. Daniel hundreds of crystal skull enthusiasts. Since the (283-246 B.C.) History: Designed by the Greek architect Mitchell-Hedges skull was never even in Belize Loxton, editor of Junior Skeptic magazine, researched the history of the skull and -- much less found there in an ancient Maya ruin Sostratos, the 400-feet-high lighthouse stood on discovered that Anna Mitchell-Hedges changed by an adventurer's teenage daughter -- the the island of Pharos in Alexandria’s harbor. It achieved such renown that the word pharos Belizean government has no claim over it. It's her story about how she got the skull at least twice. all a myth. came to mean “lighthouse.” The structure’s It's not surprising that New Age crystal- design was particularly striking: the bottom The first account stated that she and her father found the skull together beneath an altar gazers were fooled by the bold hoax, though to section, resting on a stone platform, was square; in a ruined temple in 1926. In a 1983 account have director of the Institute of Archaeology of the middle section was eight-sided; and the top Belize file a lawsuit against Lucasfilms and section was circular. A fire at the apex provided she claimed she was with a worker who was felling trees in the jungle and saw something Disney based upon it is another matter. the light. shiny beneath the stones and dug it up on the Fate: After helping mariners enter the harbor for 1,500 years, the lighthouse collapsed in an spot. Then she claimed she found it after being The 7 Wonders of the lowered into a hidden temple with ropes Ancient World earthquake. [] (ironically, in a scene reminiscent of an Indiana The ‘X’ Zone Jones film). Furthermore there's no evidence Continued from Page 25 that Anna even visited the ruins at Lubantuun New Year’s Eve Special where she claims to have found the skull. THE COLOSSUS OF RHODES with The truth is that neither Anna nor her Rob McConnell father found the skull, amid the Lubantuun Built: Early Third Century B.C. 9 pm Dec 31 2012 to ruins, on eBay, or anywhere else. History: According to historians of the time, The historical record shows that Mr. this huge bronze statue stood astride the harbor 1 am Jan 1 2013 Mitchell-Hedges bought the skull from an at Rhodes, an island in the Aegean. It took the Listen and Watch At antiquities collector named Sydney Burney in Greek sculptor Chares twelve years to build. www.xzoneradiotv.com