Crystal Skulls Frauds, Scientists Say

Within the past few months, three prestigious institutions discovered the crystal skulls they possessed were, in fact, not fabricated by ancient mesoamericans but rather by artisans of the industrial age.

Quai Branly in Paris, the British Museum, and the Smithsonian all made recent announcements concerning the fakes. While researchers at these museums long-suspected the inauthenticity of the skulls, which bore little resemblance to true Aztec and Mixtec sculpture, it may have taken recent interest in crystal skulls via apocryphal 2012 proclamations and the latest installment in the Indiana Jones saga to finally focus much-needed attention to these long-standing mysteries. The British Museum, for instance, held onto its skull since its initial acquisition in 1897.

Evidence gathered to prove them fakes came through the spectrographic analysis of residual grinding compounds, microscopic scoring from rotary sanders, and structural irregularities that suggested the quartz crystal came from European and African sources. Moreover, the skulls' dubious provenance long-convinced scientists that these specimens were fraudulent.