Maya Crystal Skulls

Instrumentation Scanning electron microscopy. X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy 

Question Are the large crystal skulls in the Smithsonian and British Museum of authentic Maya origin or are they forgeries  

Freestone, A.H. Rankin, and N.D. Meeks. 2008. The origins of two purportedly pre-Columbian Mexican crystal skulls. Journal of Archaeological Science 35 2751-2760. 

They also examined a large number of authentic cut crystal and hard-stone artifacts from documented Olmec, Maya, Aztec, and Mixtec contexts for comparative purposes. The SEM results showed for the British Museum skull unambiguous evidence of high-speed rotary disc cutting and the use of exU emely hard abrasives. Although diamond and corundum are two naturally occurring abrasives of adequate hardness, they were not in use in ancient Mesoamerica and the authentic artifacts showed no such SEM evidence. 

Examination of the Smithsonian skull similarly showed marks produced by high-speed rotary cutting and also retained trace amounts of the abrasive material. Although only traces were found, this was nonetheless enough to perform an X-ray diffraction analysis and identify it as silicon carbide, a synthetic abrasive invented at the end of the nineteenth century. 

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