“阿茲特克”水晶頭骨的背后

Who’s the Brain Behind “Aztec” Crystal skulls?

看過《奪寶奇兵》系列電影的人都知道在每一個故事里必定有一件稀世珍寶，讓人為之瘋狂，還令不少人賠上性命——能被斯蒂芬·斯皮爾伯格和喬治·盧卡斯選上，肯定大有來頭。前三集的寶物分別是法柜、安卡拉圣石和圣杯。那么，這一次的水晶頭骨又隱藏著什么驚世秘密呢？

在一般人眼里，水晶頭骨或許只是外型精美的雕刻品，最特別的地方也不過是其原材料。然而，對那些相信超自然力量的人來說，水晶頭骨可能代表厄運、災難，也可能代表希望，甚至有治療疾病的作用。有些人認為水晶頭骨的作用類似于水晶球，能讓人看見過去、現在和未來。他們聲稱這些頭骨會發出精神力量、香味甚至聲音，并把它們和瑪雅傳說掛鉤。備受爭議的不僅僅是水晶頭骨的意義，還有它們謎一樣的歷史——有人認為它們有數千年歷史，可能是外星人或某種失落文明的遺物；也有人說它們是只有幾百年歷史的“贗品”，人們不過編了幾個故事來抬高價錢。究竟孰是孰非，一起來聽聽專家的看法。

Way back in the inner ¹⁾recesses of the Smithsonian’sMuseum of Natural History^注1 in Washington D.C.， downa hallway lined with ceiling-high ²⁾cabinets filledwith human bones， there’s a large office and， in onecorner， there’s an old metal ³⁾filing cabinet. And insidethat cabinet is a crystal skull.

Jane McLaren Walsh (⁴⁾anthropologist):This isactually called ⁵⁾milky quartz.

Using both hands， anthropologist JaneWalsh ⁶⁾gingerly lifts a carved skull the sizeof a bowling ball.

Walsh: It weighs 31 pounds–I know because Icarried it to London.

The skull came to the Smithsonian Institutionin the mail in 1992. The ⁷⁾anonymous ⁸⁾donor said it was a ⁹⁾genuine artifact of theAztec^注2 empire， which collapsed in the 1500s.

Now， the crystal skull in the new IndianaJones movie is also supposed to be ancientand of great value. Walsh wondered if herskull was the ¹⁰⁾real McCoy. She did somereading and discovered that there are dozensof crystal skulls around the world， mostare quite small， the size of golf balls. Theystarted to appear in the ¹¹⁾antiquities tradein the 1860s. Several were sold from Mexicoby a French collector named Eugène Boban.Could the Aztecs have carved them? Walshstudied the kinds of tools the Aztecs used tocarve stone. She’s got one in her office.

Walsh: This ¹²⁾mechanism， this ¹³⁾pump drill， isbasically for drilling the holes.

It’s a wooden rope ¹⁴⁾contraption thatspins a wooden ¹⁵⁾rod with a stone tip. Suchtools left distinctive marks different fromthe marks left by modern tools， like a fastspinning ¹⁶⁾rotary wheel. Now Walsh neededsomeone who could help her analyze theskull， an expert in London.

Walsh: Margaret Sax， at the British Museum，is the one who has done the technical analysis of thecarving and the ¹⁷⁾polishing.

Walsh took her 31-pound skull to MargaretSax. Sax examined the tool marks under a powerfulmicroscope. She had done the same with another bigcrystal skull the British Museum had owned for overa century. It， too， was supposed to be ancient Mexican.And what Sax found was –

Margaret Sax: The tool marks on both the Smithsonianskull and the British Museum skull were clearlyproduced by wheel cutting. And so， we’re able to saythat they’re of post-Columbian^注3 date.

Meaning，the tools were modern.Theshape and depth and surface ¹⁸⁾texture ofthe marks they had left were charac-teristic of rotary cutting tools and theAztecs didn’t have those.

Now Walsh and Sax are looking at the type ofquartz the skulls are made of. Small imperfectionscan ¹⁹⁾identify where they came from. They say neitherof the two skulls is likely from Mexico， home of theAztecs.

One thing the scientists have ²⁰⁾figured out is thatthe British Museum skull came from Eugène Boban，that mysterious French collector. In the late 1800s，he first described it as a piece of artwork， then as anAztec artifact.

Sax: You must bear in mind that he couldn’t sell it，so he did need to make it more ²¹⁾appealing (laughs) inorder to sell it.

So， what are these things? Walsh says they’renot exactly fakes because they aren’t copies of anything.

Walsh: I don’t think there are any real ones. They’re really a kind of invented artifact. Some person orsome workshop was ²²⁾cranking them out and sellingthem to a European or North American audience， whichis where they all ²³⁾wind up.

Eventually to be locked up way back in the ²⁴⁾bowels of a museum.

Wzlsh：I should have him fcae up.Peple keep tellingme not to look it in hte eye(laughs).

在（美國）華盛頓特區的史密森尼自然歷史博物館深處有這么一條走廊，兩旁聳立著高至天花板的柜子，裝滿人類骨骸。這里有一個很大的辦公室，在其一角有一個舊金屬檔案柜，里面有一顆水晶頭骨。

簡·麥克拉倫·沃爾什(人類學家)：實際上應稱為乳白水晶。

人類學家簡·沃爾什用雙手小心翼翼地捧起一個保齡球大小的精雕水晶頭骨。

沃爾什：它重31磅——我知道是因為我曾把它帶到倫敦。……