It seems like the new Spielberg’s movie, “Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of Crystal Skull” has caught also the attention of the scientists.

As you might know already the story of the latest Indiana Jones revolves around around a pre-existing myth; this one involves 13 skulls carved from crystal quartz, hidden all over the world and thought to possess mystical powers.

However, as the scientists noted while Indiana Jones is engaged in a race against Soviet agents to find the mystical Crystal Skull, he could take a break to see if they are authentic.

A new research published in the Journal of Archaeological Science suggests that two crystal skulls, the one from the British Museum and the one from the Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, did not come from ancient Mexico.

The scientists concluded that the the British skull was made in 19th century Europe and the American one even more recently.

The British Museum bought its skull, a life-size carving from a single block of rock crystal from Tiffany and Company, New York in 1897. Its origins were unknown but there were suggestions it was of ancient Mexican origin. Human skulls worn as ornaments and displayed on racks were known to have featured in Aztec art.

However, there have been doubts about the authenticity of the skull since the 1930s. Now an international team has used the latest scientific techniques to examine the British Museum skull and a larger white quartz skull donated to the Smithsonian Institution in 1992. Electron microscope analysis for tool marks found both skulls were carved with rotary disc-shaped tool – a technology which the Ancient Mexicans did not have. Analysis of the quartz in the British Museum skull suggests it was quarried from Brazil or Madagascar – far outside the Ancient Mexicans’ trading links.

The team, made up of experts from Cardiff University, the British Museum, the Smithsonian and Kingston University, concluded that neither skull could have been made in Mexico before the time of Columbus. They believe the British skull was created in Europe in the 19th century, and the Smithsonian’s shortly before it was bought in Mexico City in 1960.

Last month, the Quai Branly museum from Paris announced that is crystal skull was “probably” made in the 19th century. In press statement, the museum said that results of an analysis of its skull in 2007-2008 by the country’s C2RMF research and restoration centre concluded that the skull is "certainly not pre-Columbian”, because “it shows traces of polishing and abrasion by modern tools."

Also, the Smithsonian anthropologist Jane MacLaren Walsh has published in the May/June 2008 issue of Archaeology, the publication of Archaeological Institute of America, an article entitled “Legend of the Crystal Skulls”.

“Impressed by their technical excellence and gleaming polish, generations of museum curators and private collectors have been taken in by these objects. But they are too good to be true. If we consider that pre-Columbian lapidaries used stone, bone, wooden, and possibly copper tools with abrasive sand to carve stone, crystal skulls are much too perfectly carved and highly polished to be believed”, she wrote.