Crystal Skulls Research Articles

Widefield in vivo imaging system with two fluorescence and two reflectance channels, a single sCMOS detector, and shielded illumination.

Widefield microscopy of the entire dorsal part of mouse cerebral cortex enables large-scale ("mesoscopic") imaging of different aspects of neuronal activity with spectrally compatible fluorescent indicators as well as hemodynamics via oxy- and deoxyhemoglobin absorption. Versatile and cost-effective imaging systems are needed for large-scale, color-multiplexed imaging of multiple fluorescent and intrinsic contrasts. We aim to develop a system for mesoscopic imaging of two fluorescent and two reflectance channels. Excitation of red and green fluorescence is achieved through epi-illumination. Hemoglobin absorption imaging is achieved using 525- and 625-nm light-emitting diodes positioned around the objective lens. An aluminum hemisphere placed between objective and cranial window provides diffuse illumination of the brain. Signals are recorded sequentially by a single sCMOS detector. We demonstrate the performance of our imaging system by recording large-scale spontaneous and stimulus-evoked neuronal, cholinergic, and hemodynamic activity in awake, head-fixed mice with a curved "crystal skull" window expressing the red calcium indicator jRGECO1a and the green acetylcholine sensor . Shielding of illumination light through the aluminum hemisphere enables concurrent recording of pupil diameter changes. Our widefield microscope design with a single camera can be used to acquire multiple aspects of brain physiology and is compatible with behavioral readouts of pupil diameter.

Preparation of an artificial crystal skull and its formation mechanism

• Homogenous organic–inorganic composites with high transparency and modulus were prepared. • The composites simulate chemical composition of nature bone and can be constructed into artificial crystal skull. • Possible binding mechanism between CaP and GelMA was discussed. We present an efficient and simple approach using calcium phosphate oligomers and methacrylic anhydride-modified gelatine to prepare homogeneous organic–inorganic composites of 2D and 3D shapes with high transparency and mechanical properties. We characterized the microstructure and chemical composition and studied the formation mechanism. The scaffold could potentially be applied as a bioink when used in combination with UV light to create a biomimetically engineered transparent scaffold.

The Man who Invented Aztec Crystal Skulls. The adventures of Eugène Boban

The Man who Invented Aztec Crystal Skulls. The adventures of Eugène Boban

From Crystal Skulls to the Caste War: Intersections of Tourism, Archaeology and Heritage in the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico

Archaeological sites in the Yucatan Peninsula are among the leading attractions for a thriving tourism industry and have helped to significantly boost the local economy since the 1970s. While the s...

Crystal Skull—a panoramic view of the brain

Crystal Skull—a panoramic view of the brain

The controversial history of the crystal skulls: a case study in interpretive drift

In the nineteenth century, several skulls carved from rock crystal appeared in the holdings of European collectors. The provenance of the skulls was unknown and experts regarded them as pre-Columbian artifacts. In the twentieth century, two very different histories formed about these objects. Through testing and archival research, forensic experts and curators concluded that the skulls were created in the nineteenth century using European technology. Conversely, a community of skull enthusiasts believes the skulls are thousands of years old and function as a sort of esoteric computer. They believe that by communing with crystal skulls, it is possible to access records of ancient civilizations. The skull enthusiasts have strongly resisted the findings of experts. This article applies Tanya Luhrmann’s theory of “interpretive drift” to examine how the skull enthusiasts were able to construct and invest in a mythology surrounding these objects in only a few decades. This case study suggests that material objects can serve an important role in forming the types of magical worldviews outlined by Luhrmann.

No Genre For Old Men? The Politics of Aging and the Male Action Hero

En comparaison d’autres axes identitaires, le vieillissement des acteurs a reçu peu d’attention de la part des chercheurs en cinéma. Et pour des spécialistes travaillant sur le vieillissement des stars, le cinéma d’action semble être le dernier endroit vers lequel se tourner pour avoir un aperçu de la question. Cependant, la résurrection récente des franchises d’action des années quatre-vingts mettant en avant l’original, et maintenant des stars masculines âgées, révèle de discordantes contradictions dans le discours sur le vieillissement des acteurs. Sylvester Stallone et ses collègues d’action constituent des exemples éloquents d’un « vieillissement réussi », mais qui sont également vulnérables aux plaintes fondées sur l’âge d’une vieille génération qui accapare les ressources aux dépens des jeunes. La lecture de ce cycle de films d’actions en parallèle du cinéma de la récession mondiale et du retour de Gordon Gekko montre la façon dont les représentations de la crise renforcent un discours d’injustice générationnel. Le présent article soutient la thèse selon laquelle les efforts visant à gérer le retour anachronique de l’icône des années quatre-vingts expose de manière fructueuse les limites des paradigmes du vieillissement et les exigences paradoxales faites au sujet des hommes âgés en vue d’accepter et de refuser à la fois le passage du temps.

Crystal Skulls Deemed Fake

Humans seem to have a predilection for fake quartz-crystal Aztec skulls. Since the 1860s, dozens of skull sculptures have appeared on the art market purporting to be pre-Columbian artifacts from Mesoamerica, that is, created by the indigenous peoples of Mexico and Central America prior to Spanish exploration and conquest in the 16th century. Three such skulls have graced the collections of major museums on both sides of the Atlantic: the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., the British Museum in London, and the Quai Branly Museum in Paris. As early as the 1930s, some experts began to have doubts about the authenticity of the skulls, says Margaret Sax, a conservation scientist at the British Museum. But for a long time researchers “didn’t have the scientific means to follow up” on their hunches, she adds. Over the past two decades researchers at all three museums have capitalized on analytical science innovations to ...

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Abstract: OPINION ANTHROPOLOGY IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR:“How I Learned to be Satisfied with Only Part of the Story” by Gala TrueSarah Ono, Heather Schacht Reisinger and Samantha Solimeo are contributing editors of the Anthropology in the Public Sector column in Anthropology News.MEDIA NOTES:“KONY 2012 and the Problem of Child Soldiers” by David M Rosen Kenneth Routon is contributing editor of the Media Notes column in Anthropology News.ARCHEOLOGY IN NORTH AMERICA:“Televised Looting, Titanic‐Mania, Repatriation, and Crystal Skulls” by Robert MuckleINTERNATIONAL ACTIVISM:“Does Justice Require a Village? Social Activism and the Case of Trayvon Martin” by Robert R SaudersJ DRIVE:“‘South Asian Bioarcheology: Human‐Environment Interaction and Paleopathology in Indus Valley Civilization” by Ritu Gairola KhanduriLANGUAGE AND CULTURE:“Narrative, Genre, and Truth” by Chad Nilep Leila Monaghan, Jacqueline Messing, Richard Senghas are contributing editors of the Language and Culture column in Anthropology News.PEDAGOGICAL APPROACHES IN BIOANTHROPOLOGY:“Let's Lead the March of Progress to a Screeching Halt” by Misty A Weitzel DIALOGUE “Peace Corps and Afghanistan” by M Jamil Hanifi IN FOCUS FAMILY AND KINSHIP:“Money, Love and the Shifting Substance of Kinship in Nicaraguan Transnational Families” by Kristin Elizabeth YarrisFAMILY AND KINSHIP:“Child Centric Families and the Vulnerability of Small‐Scale Island Communities” by Firouz GainiFAMILY AND KINSHIP:“All Our Omitted Kin” by Riché Daniel Barnes KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE CHANGING THE ATMOSPHERE:“Listening to Locals, Recognizing Risks, Reframing Discourse” by Sarah StraussAA VITAL TOPICS FORUM:“On Happiness” by Barbara Rose Johnston SECTION NEWS SOCIETY FOR URBAN NATIONAL AND TRANSNATIONAL/GLOBAL ANTHROPOLOGY:“SUNTA Undergraduate Paper Prize Submissions Due September 15, 2012” by Susan Falls ANNOUNCEMENTS “Anthropology News Wins 2012 EXCEL Award”National Association for the Practice of Anthropology: “2012 NAPA Student Achievement Award”Keywords:public anthropology, narrative, trauma, war, violence, repatriation, archaeology, activism, bioarcheology, Gwen Robbins Schug, Veena Mushrif Tripathy, media, bioanthropology, peace corps, family, kinship, transnational family, vulnerability, black American family, climate change, George Luber, Hildegard Diemberger, happiness,

Faking ancient Mesoamerica

Crystal skulls, imaginative codices, dubious Olmec heads and cute Colima dogs. Fakes and forgeries run rampant in the Mesoamerican art collections of international museums and private individuals. Authors Nancy Kelker and Karen Bruhns examine the phenomenon in this eye-opening volume. They discuss the most commonly forged classes and styles of artifacts, many of which were being duplicated as early as the 19th century. More important, they describe the system whereby these objects get made, purchased, authenticated, and placed in major museums as well as the complicity of forgers, dealers, curators, and collectors in this system. Unique to this volume are biographies of several of the forgers, who describe their craft and how they are able to effectively fool connoisseurs and specialists. An important, accessible introduction to pre-Columbian art fraud for archaeologists, art historians, and museum professionals alike. A parallel volume by the same authors discusses fakes in Andean archaeology.

Dating study of two rock crystal carvings by surface microtopography and by ion beam analyses of hydrogen

Two artefacts made of rock crystal (quartz) from the collection of the Musee duquai Branly in Paris, France, a skull approximately half of the size of a real cranium and a smaller anthropomorphic head, purportedly attributed to pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures, were studied to assess their authenticity. The surface of the artefacts were examined by means of optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and were analyzed nondestructively by ERDA (Elastic Recoil Detection Analysis), an ion beam analytical method that can measure hydrogen concentration profiles in depth. Optical and SEM imaging of tool marks indicates that the skull has been cut from a rock crystal block using machine lapidary techniques unavailable to pre-Columbian artisans, whereas the anthropomorphic head has more likely been carved and polished with manual techniques comparable to ancient ones. Hydrogen depth profiles in the first micron below the surface of the artefacts have been measured by ERDA with a 3-MeV He beam in a controlled helium atmosphere. Recently the progressive penetration of water at the surface of a quartz sample exposed to the natural environment has been proposed as a dating method (labeled quartz hydration dating or QHD) applicable to archaeological artefacts made of this material. The shallower penetration of H clearly indicates that the rock crystal skull was manufactured more recently than the reference quartz sample cut in 1740. As for the anthropomorphic head, the deep penetration profiles indicate an older artefact. Thus the converging micro-topographical examinations and hydrogen profiles of the samples surfaces indicate that the skull is probably not a pre-Columbian artefact but has been carved in the 18th or 19th century. The anthropomorphic head, on the other hand, could have been carved in the pre-Columbian period. In addition, the ERDA method carried out with an external beam presented here provides a new and simple approach for the nondestructive authentication of quartz-based archaeological artefacts by QHD.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Humans: Skullduggery worthy of a film: Famous crystal skulls shown to be counterfeits

Humans: Skullduggery worthy of a film: Famous crystal skulls shown to be counterfeits

The origins of two purportedly pre-Columbian Mexican crystal skulls

The well-known life-size rock crystal skull in the British Museum was purchased in 1897 as an example of genuine pre-Columbian workmanship, but its authenticity has been the subject of increasing speculation since the 1930s. This paper is concerned with the history, technology and material of the skull and another larger white quartz skull, donated recently to the Smithsonian Institution. Manufacturing techniques were investigated, using scanning electron microscopy to examine tool marks on the artefacts, and compared with Mesoamerican material from secure contexts. A Mixtec rock crystal goblet and a group of Aztec/Mixtec rock crystal beads show no evidence of lapidary wheels. They were probably worked with stone and wood tools charged with abrasives, some of which may have been as hard as corundum. Textual evidence for Mexican lapidary techniques during the early colonial period, supported by limited archaeological evidence, also indicates a technology without the wheel, probably based on natural tool materials. In contrast, the two skulls under consideration were carved with rotary wheels. The British Museum skull was worked with hard abrasives such as corundum or diamond, whereas X-ray diffraction revealed traces of carborundum (SiC), a hard modern synthetic abrasive, on the Smithsonian skull. Investigation of fluid and solid inclusions in the quartz of the British Museum skull, using microscopy and Raman spectroscopy, shows that the material formed in a mesothermal metamorphic environment equivalent to greenschist facies. This suggests that the quartz was obtained from Brazil or Madagascar, areas far outside pre-Columbian trade networks. Recent archival research revealed that the British Museum skull was rejected as a modern artefact by the Museo Nacional de Mexico in 1885, when offered for sale by the collector and dealer, Eugène Boban. These findings led to the conclusion that the British Museum skull was worked in Europe during the nineteenth century. The Smithsonian Institution skull was probably manufactured shortly before it was bought in Mexico City in 1960; large blocks of white quartz would have been available from deposits in Mexico and the USA.

Anabase: The Endless Film

In a letter to Archibald MacLeish, St. John Perse-Alexis Legerwrites: "Of all the museums of Europe through which out of courtesy I have passed ... I have retained a very few impressions . . . " To round out the word "impressions,” Perse mentions objects that range from a crystal skull to ornamental linings of cigar boxes. This vignette that Perse provides — the poet preserving his courteous attention as he wanders among the glass cases that hold up the remnants of a confused past to our view — some readers of Anabase may judge is a further indication that the poet is arbitrary and capricious. Is it not possible to suppose that the author of Anabase — like his other self who, one supposes, strolls through a hall, pauses attentive before a set of armour for an Infante, and then moves on — is guided by what, in more rationalistic ages, would have been called blind whim?

143. Comments on the Morphological Comparison of Two Crystal Skulls

143. Comments on the Morphological Comparison of Two Crystal Skulls

144. Two Crystal Skulls. Dr. Morant's Reply to Mr. Digby's Comments

144. Two Crystal Skulls. Dr. Morant's Reply to Mr. Digby's Comments

145. Two Crystal Skulls. Further Comments By H. J. Braunholtz

145. Two Crystal Skulls. Further Comments By H. J. Braunholtz