Case file · High strangeness
The Mitchell-Hedges crystal skull, Lubaantun
Anna Mitchell-Hedges said she found a life-size quartz skull under an altar at the Maya site of Lubaantun, Belize, in 1924; it became the most famous of the 'crystal skulls' credited with ancient powers.
1924 CE · 16.28, -88.96 · status: hoax
The sceptical view
Her adoptive father F. A. Mitchell-Hedges bought the skull at a London Sotheby's auction in 1943. Studies of tool marks on crystal skulls in the British Museum and Smithsonian show modern rotary wheels; none comes from a documented excavation.