Legend of the Crystal Skulls (Archaeology magazine)

Legend of the Crystal Skulls, by Jane MacLaren Walsh, published in Archaeology magazine by the Archaeological Institute of America in 2008, is a Smithsonian anthropologist's account of her scientific examination of the Mitchell-Hedges skull and related museum crystal skulls, including scanning electron microscopy of the tool marks left on their surfaces, concluding the marks are consistent with modern rotary tools rather than pre-Columbian craft techniques. Walsh conducted the physical examination herself as part of her Smithsonian curatorial work. Its strength is that direct forensic physical examination of the actual objects, rather than argument from style or provenance story alone, the strongest kind of evidence available for a manufacturing date question like this one. Its limit is that Walsh's findings address the specific skulls she examined, so a claim about a different crystal skull not covered in her study needs its own physical examination rather than an extrapolation from this one.