Crystal skull going on view
Some mysteries are such fun you almost don’t want to know the truth. That may help explain why people are fascinated with crystal skulls.
Happy to share the spotlight with the latest Indiana Jones movie, the Smithsonian’s Museum of Natural History in Washington is putting its crystal skull on display starting today.
“People like to believe in something greater than themselves,” Smithsonian anthropologist Jane MacLaren Walsh said, and crystal skulls are mysterious and beautiful. But she studied the Smithsonian skull and those in other museums and concluded they are all fakes, made in the 19th and 20th centuries.
None of this, though, discourages movies from featuring crystal skulls or museums from joining in. Indeed, in addition to putting its skull on display, the Smithsonian is reporting on the topic in Smithsonian Magazine’s July issue and featuring the skulls in a documentary tonight on the Smithsonian Channel.
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