Originally posted by Naboo the Enigma
reply to post by Diplomat

---

Some women talking to an ancient skull is hardly an excellent indicator of the skull's age is it? Why hasn't anyone asked the Pyramids or the Turin Shroud how old they are?

Only a few crystal skulls have been expertly authenticated as ancient. Many have been carved within the last five years. Presently, the accepted authentication by which a carved skull can be termed ancient is through a complicated process of casting a mold of the skull and placing it under an electron microscope to examine the minute markings left by the carver. These markings are the clues by which the age of the carving is determined. The telltale pattern of the marking will verify what method was used to carve and polish the skull; thereby, the antiquity expert is able to confirm the age based on methods used on other known works which range from the ancient to the very contemporary.

There are many different physical phenomena that involve both sound and light. In photoacoustics, sounds are created by very short pulses of laser light impinging on materials. Through holographic interferometry and fiber optic sensors, light can be used to measure and visualize sound. Sound can also have an influence on light, for example when an acousto-optic modulator (AOM) is used to shift the frequency of light. However, perhaps the most interesting and most baffling interaction between sound and light is the phenomenon known as sonoluminescence.

Sonoluminescence is the process of converting sound into light. There are two types of sonoluminescence, Multiple Bubble Sonoluminesence (MBSL) and Single Bubble Sonoluminescence (SBSL). In order to perform sonoluminescence, a flask full of water or whatever medium is connected to two piezoelectric transducers (used to amplify sound). The amplifiers feed into the transducers which then start emitting a very concentrated amount of sound, usually around 20-35 Khz. At this point in time, bubbles begin to form, dubbed as "cavitation bubbles." Once a cavitation bubble is captured in the middle of the flask, it is under the effects of the amplified sound. At a certain resonance point, the bubble begins to emit flashes of white light.

In 1943, it was sold at Sotheby's in London to Frederick Arthur (Mike) Mitchell-Hedges, a well-to-do English deep-sea fisherman, explorer, and yarn-spinner extraordinaire.

Since the 1954 publication of Mitchell-Hedges's memoir, Danger My Ally, this third-generation, twentieth-century skull has acquired a Maya origin, as well as a number of fantastic, Indiana Jones-like tall tales.

I believe that all of the smaller crystal skulls that constitute the first generation of fakes were made in Mexico around the time they were sold, between 1856 and 1880. This 24-year period may represent the output of a single artisan, or perhaps a single workshop.

Although nearly all of the crystal skulls have at times been identified as Aztec, Toltec, Mixtec, or occasionally Maya, they do not reflect the artistic or stylistic characteristics of any of these cultures. The Aztec and Toltec versions of death heads were nearly always carved in basalt, occasionally were covered with stucco, and were probably all painted. They were usually either attached to walls or altars, or depicted in bas reliefs of deities as ornaments worn on belts. They are comparatively crudely carved, but are more naturalistic than the crystal skulls, particularly in the depiction of the teeth. The Mixtec occasionally fabricated skulls in gold, but these representations are more precisely described as skull-like faces with intact eyes, noses, and ears. The Maya also carved skulls, but in relief on limestone. Often these skulls, depicted in profile, represent days of their calendars.