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Rock crystal skull
Probably European, 19th century AD
Large quartz crystal skulls have generated great interest and
fascination since they began to surface in public and private
collections, during the second half of the nineteenth century. Some
of them have been attributed to the work of ancient Mexica*, Mixtec
or even Maya stone workers in Mexico. Others are said to be
examples of colonial Mexican art, for use in churches, perhaps as
bases for crucifixes.
Scientists at the British Museum studied traces of tool marks
preserved in the highly polished surfaces of this crystal skull.
These show that it was extensively worked using rotary cutting
wheels, unknown in Mexico before the arrival of the Spanish in
1519. Furthermore, analysis of inclusions in the quartz crystal
indicates that the large block of material was obtained in the
nineteenth century from a source far beyond ancient Mexican trade
links, probably Brazil or Madagascar.
Although the crystal skull was said to have come from ancient
Mexico, in fact it was acquired shortly before 1881 by the French
antiquities dealer, Eugène Boban, when he was based in Paris. Five
years later, having failed to sell the carving in Paris or Mexico
City, Boban sold the skull to the New York jewellers Tiffany and
Co, from whom more than a decade later, it was acquired by the
British Museum.
*The people and culture we know as 'Aztec' referred to
themselves as the Mexica (pronounced Me-shee-ka).
M. Jones (ed.), Fake?: the art of deception, exh. cat. (London, The British Museum Press, 1990)
J. M. Walsh, 'Crystal skulls and other problems' in Exhibiting dilemmas: issues of (Washington and London, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1997)