All language subtitles for Expedition.Unknown.S07E06.Legend.of.the.Crystal.Skull.WEB.x264-CAFFEiNE

This is reportedly something
that has great power.

Legend was it was
the skull of doom.

Look at that.

Hedges found
the magnificent city.

They found many artifacts
that were pre-mayan.

Do you believe
you can find this thing?

I know it's there,
and I'm going to find it.

Gates: A perfect match.

[bleep]
oh.

Bill!

Bill, I got a hit.

That is it.

Look at that.

♪

I used to have a poster
in my bedroom that read,

"if adventure has a name,
it must be indiana jones,"

but my childhood
whip-cracking hero

was inspired by a daring
real-world

archaeologist whose own search
for fortune and glory

is more thrilling
than any movie.

It turns out adventure has
another name, mitchell-hedges.

In the early 20th century,

frederick albert
mitchell-hedges

macheted his way through the
jungles of central america.

If his weathered autobiography
is to be believed,

he evaded cannibal tribes,
battled giant sea creatures,

and uncovered a lost city
in the jungles of belize.

But one artifact from
his travels

has inspired more debate
than any other,

the contested 1924 discovery
of the crystal skull of doom.

To believers, the skull is
a supernatural maya artifact

capable of miraculous healing

but also able to kill those
who meddle with its powers.

To many others,
it was a self-promoting hoax,

the boldest of hedges'
tall tales.

Either way, the skull has become
famous the world over,

even serving as
the inspiration for

the fourth "indiana jones" film,
the one we don't talk about.

Today, a man named bill homann

is the steward
of the iconic skull.

Several studies of the object
have produced varying outcomes,

but I'm hoping to convince him
to submit it

to a definitive scientific test.

Can we settle the case of the
crystal skull once and for all?

We're about to find out
as we separate man from myth

following in the footsteps
of the real indiana jones.

♪

my name is josh gates...

Look! [ laughs ]

...Explorer, adventurer...

That is it!

...And a guy who ends up
in some very strange situations.

Ah, ah, aah, haa!

With a degree in archaeology

and a passion
for the unexplained,

I travel to the ends
of the earth,

investigating
the greatest legends in history.

Okay, let's punch it.

This is "expedition unknown."

-- captions by vitac --
www.Vitac.Com

captions paid for by
discovery communications

♪

welcome to belize
and the rio grande river.

These waters start up
in the maya mountains,

and they eventually cascade
out into the caribbean sea.

This is the exact same waterway

that once ferried
an enigmatic explorer

on a quest
to find a lost city.

His own journey begins
oceans away

from the jungles
of central america.

Gates:
Frederick albert mitchell-hedges

was born into a wealthy family
in london in 1882.

His father pushed him
to become a stock broker,

so at the age of 18,

hedges left England to work
for a large bank on wall street.

But in the pages of the pulp
magazines and novels of his day,

he developed an obsession
with adventure

and finding lost civilizations.

So he used his salary and knack
for gambling to save up

for his own expedition
into the heart of belize,

which at the time was a
barely-explored frontier

known as british honduras.

But imagine being one
of the first outsiders here.

Imagine navigating this river
with no map,

not to mention unknown tribes
and mosquitoes

carrying tropical diseases.

Say what you will about hedges.

The man was fearless.

Gates:
With funding from a british
aristocrat

named lady richmond brown,

hedges mounted
an expedition into honduras

where he'd heard about a lost
maya city hidden in the jungle.

He and a companion,
thomas gann,

took a canoe
to find the unknown.

Hedges and gann had
heard vague rumors

about large stones
and ancient structures

buried deep
in the jungle interior.

They struggled in the wilderness
and eventually were lucky enough

to encounter a tribe
of maya kekchi,

the descendants of the once
great civilization

that ruled this land.

Gates:
The ancient maya civilization
had collapsed 1,000 years

before hedges arrived,

but the villagers had an idea
of what he was seeking,

and they agreed to ferry him
through the jungle

to look for the ruins.

And this is what
hedges discovered,

a place later christened
as lubaantun,

or the city of fallen stones.

Gates: The site is monumental
with countless abandoned

stone structures that rise up
against the jungle canopy,

but it's not truly empty.

There's at least
one other person here.

I'm meeting bill homann,

current owner of the famed
crystal skull of doom

which was supposedly found
at these very ruins.

This place, I take it,
looks a lot different

from when
mitchell-hedges was here.

This was jungle.

What they did is they cut
and cut,

and it took years of cutting...
-Right.

...To finally open up
the jungle a little bit.

Then they lit
the whole thing on fire.

Gates:
Hedges was bold, but he doesn't
win many points

with modern archaeologists.

Basically, his team and the
local maya chopped back

as many vines as they could
before standing back

and lighting
the whole site on fire.

As the flames died down,
11 massive limestone pyramids,

vast plazas, and ancient ball
courts were revealed.

This was a full-fledged
maya city,

and the temple platforms suggest
that it was also home

to sacred religious ceremonies.

Gates:
Bill, I want to talk about
the most famous relic

that was supposedly found here,
the crystal skull.

Actually, we're standing
very close

to the spot
where it was found.

The skull was found
by a girl named anna.

Anna was the adopted daughter
of f.A. Mitchell-hedges.

Gates: According to legend,
anna was exploring the pyramids

on one of hedges'
later visits to the site

when she saw something
glimmering through the stone.

Hedges had his crew
move away the heavy rocks,

and there atop an old altar was
a breathtaking crystal skull.

Legend says the skull
was an ancient artifact

used by maya priests
to inflict death,

but it has also been said
that the skull has the ability

to heal those who believe in
its powers.

Mitchell-hedges lived
to the ripe age of 76

and wrote very little about
the skull's true origins.

Rumors swirled that
the skull was a fake.

There are stories that hedges

had purchased
the skull at auction

from a london art dealer
named sydney burney.

Hedges insisted, though,
that the skull was a product

of a highly
advanced civilization

that long predated the maya,
never wavering until his death

when he bequeathed the skull
to his daughter, anna.

And how did the skull
come to be in your possession?

The last 8 years of anna's life,
we became really good friends,

and when she passed away,
she passed it on to me,

and I've been trying to take
good care of it ever since.

Many people have come forward
and proclaimed the skull

as a fake,
so the skull has,

though, been tested
scientifically several times,

once in the '70s
by hewlett-packard

and later by
the smithsonian, right?

That's correct.

Gates:
The testing by hewlett-packard

couldn't establish
the skull's age,

but the smithsonian determined
that the skull was crafted

with modern, advanced tools
to produce a machined polish.

This would seem to debunk
hedges except that hedges,

and now bill,
believe the civilization

that made the skull
was centuries ahead of its time

and possessed sophisticated
carving techniques.

Let me ask you this.

If you're so confident
that it's real,

and you don't believe in the
veracity of the previous tests,

why not subject it to a
definitive scientific test?

Have you ever
considered that?

If I twist your arm hard enough,
maybe you'll test it.

I would consider it.

Yeah, maybe.
-Okay. All right.

I'm going to keep working
on this.

Gates: Bill won't 100% agree
to a definitive test just yet,

but he's betting
he won't need one.

He's come to central america

because he's recently made
a discovery in hedges' archives,

a treasure trove of pictures
and documents that could prove

that hedges was right,
and the crystal skull is real.

Look at
this suitcase.

What is this?

I came across mitchell-hedges'
original...

-This is his?
-This is his, yeah.

Get out of here.
Can I open it?

Is it possible?
-You can open it.

Sure.
-Come on.

This is like
christmas morning.

Gates:
I'm in lubaantun, a once
lost maya city uncovered

by the adventurer
f.A. Mitchell-hedges

who claimed to find
the controversial

crystal skull of doom
amidst the ruins.

Now researcher bill homann
has just revealed

a cache of new material
from the hedges' archive,

which might prove
the explorer's wildest claim --

that an advanced
ancient civilization

crafted the crystal skull
and more.

Look at
all this stuff.

So this is the man himself
right here in his later years.

Yep, with his pipe, yep.

With his pipe,
he always has this pipe.

-Yeah.
-I love this.

Yeah, these are the
original glass slides here.

They're from
the '20s and '30s.

From his photographs.

Right.

This looks like him here
at lubaantun,

overgrown ruins right
where we're sitting basically.

Is that
pretty wild, yeah?

This is a treasure trove
of materials,

and along with the slides
here at lubaantun,

there seems to be another
location somewhere on the coast.

That's
the bay islands.

That's off of honduras.

-The bay islands...
-Yeah, and that's where

mitchell-hedges
spent a lot of time,

and he found a lot
of the old artifacts there.

That's where the ones
that were pre-mayan.

So some sort of
ancient civilization.

Gates: Pre-maya civilizations
were hedges' obsession,

and the bay islands
were where he was convinced

that he would find evidence

that they were
a highly advanced culture.

In the process, he did discover
hundreds of pre-maya relics.

One letter from the smithsonian

verifies the value
of the artifacts.

"'this find,'
said george c. Heye,

director of the museum
of the american indian,

heye foundation,

'is one of the most important in
a decade in central america.'"

hundreds of hedges' finds
from the pre-maya people

are still held and displayed
by the smithsonian,

but there was one thing hedges

claimed to find
in the bay islands

that never made it
to any museum,

a secret he almost took
with him to his grave.

When anna was getting ready
to pass away,

she revealed to me
that her and mitchell-hedges

had found
this crystal deity.

Crystal deity.

Gates:
According to anna who only told
the story to bill

on her death bed,
when she and hedges

were exploring the bay islands,

they discovered
another crystal artifact,

this one the statue
of what they thought was a god.

But unlike the skull,
the so-called crystal deity

never made it back
from central america.

Hedges was worried authorities
would confiscate his find

if he tried to leave
the country,

so he and anna
buried the crystal deity

either in or around the cave
where they found it.

Their plan was to return
later to retrieve it,

but the expedition
never happened,

and its exact location
has never been rediscovered.

Is there evidence aside
from anna's story

that this thing
is really down there?

Well, I have all these
papers here.

Each one of them is like
a piece of a puzzle,

so you look at this one,
and you learn something,

and when
you put them together,

the story is right
in front of your face.

"she is planning
an expedition to find.

She even believes
she knows where it is."

clearly he was finding
something out on these islands.

"there are other facts
in connection with this

that I have never made public
to the world."

gates:
I quickly find that the stories
in hedges' books

were only the beginning.

So there's a lot of really
compelling stuff in here.

I mean, there's no question
that they were finding

things out
in these bay islands,

and it does appear
that they found something,

so do you think with
the clues contained here,

you could
find this place?

I know I could find it,
and I'm ready to go,

and I'm getting
a 4x4 tonight.

-You're going.
-I'm going.

Yeah, I'm ready.
You want to go?

Hell yeah,
I want to go.

Let's have
an adventure.

Let's have
an adventure.

Let's have
an adventure.

Gates: We're about to follow
in the footsteps

of f.A. Mitchell-hedges
traveling from lubaantun

to the bay islands in honduras
to locate the mysterious island

where the crystal deity
was supposedly discovered,

and what we find there
may define his legacy.

My vintage off-roader
may be a little out-of-date,

but it's my kind of ride.

Indy has his whip.

I have mine.

I don't know what we're
going to find, bill,

but we got
the right hats on.

Yeah.

Gates: Our journey following
hedges' path

will take us
through three countries.

We drive from lubaantun

to the belize port
of punta gorda

to take a boat,
which will sail to guatemala.

This guy is hauling.

They don't like
to slow down.

You know why?
-Why?

Because there's pirates
in this area.

-I'm sorry, pirates?
-Pirates, yeah.

You can go faster
if you want, fast as you can.

Gates:
After crossing the border,

another 4x4 is waiting
for our trip to honduras.

♪

♪

at the end of a brutal day,
we crash.

Well, not literally...
We go to sleep.

The next day, bill brings me
to a nearby archaeological site

that hedges himself once visited

where there may be clues
about the society

that he thinks created
the crystal skull,

a place where the maya
once reigned supreme.

♪

♪

copan was occupied
for over 2,000 years

until the 9th century a.D.
In the 20th century,

the discovery of copan
inspired f.A. Mitchell-hedges

to go trekking in search of
other lost maya cities.

At the top of a structure
here called temple 22,

the maya used skull imagery

to express their obsession
with death.

Hedges, though, believed his
skull long predated these maya.

Could this earlier civilization

have influenced
the builders of copan,

and were any of
the ancient cultures here

even capable of crafting
a crystal skull?

To find out, we're meeting

one of the site's head
archaeologists, jorge ramos.

-It's an incredible site.
-I know.

When was it first founded?

426.

-426 a.D.
-A.D., yes.

Hedges was kind of obsessed
with this idea

that there must have been
significant cultures

here before the maya.

-Mm-hmm.
-Was he on to something?

-So before this was all built...
-Yeah.

...There was
something else here.

Gates:
These pre-maya groups are some
of the least well-studied

in pre-colombian
american archaeology.

Hedges may have been
more adventurer than scientist,

but his many finds
were among the earliest

to shed light on this
very real civilization.

So let's talk about the crystal
skull for a moment.

This is the crystal skull's
owner here.

And look, one of the big
questions about the skull

is,
this is quartz crystal,

so first of all, did any
of these ancient cultures

ever carve out
of this type of material?

Gates: The aztecs, who reigned
in what is now mexico,

did use quartz like this
to carve skull imagery,

so could they have
inherited the tradition

from an earlier civilization
as hedges and bill believe?

They are the ones
that could have carved

a lot of these stones.

There's possibility
they could be the ones

that have carved
the crystal skull

or other
objects like that.

Gates: Jorge has confirmed
that it is possible

that some of the ancient
civilizations in this region

had the skills
to build the crystal skull,

but what we still don't know
is if they did.

The best way to confirm
that the crystal skull

and the culture
that created it are real

is to find more evidence.

We need to find the crystal
deity in the bay islands.

Okay, bill,
what's the plan?

I made
a few phone calls,

and I found some guys that are
going to give us a lift.

Is that
a military plane?

Gates:
The hedges name and legend

still carry a lot of weight
in this area,

so bill was able to arrange
some impressive transport

to bring us
to the bay islands --

an aging c-23 sherpa now serving
in the honduran military.

Hola.

[ speaking spanish ]

nice to meet you,
gentlemen.

We are ready to go
to the bay islands.

We're all ready to go
to the bay islands.

-Let's go.
-We're ready, too.

Let's do it.
Come on.

In we go.

♪

♪

gates:
In a honduran military plane
over the caribbean sea,

researcher bill homann and I

are on our way
to the bay islands

where famed explorer
f.A. Mitchell-hedges

and his daughter anna
claimed to have found

and buried a priceless relic
known as the crystal deity.

♪

we land on the island of roatan,
but we're only halfway there.

We charter a boat
and make our way out to sea.

Okay, here we go.

♪

-waited a long time for this.
-Well, today is the day.

Homann: Today is the day.
Let's do it.

Let's do it.

Gates: The island with the cave
can only be located

using the nearby islands
as landmarks,

then following
the directions

that anna mitchell-hedges
gave to bill.

We're headed to an island
known as morgan's cay

which should point us
to our next target.

We know that if you go
one island over,

that should be
cay comfort.

So that little island
right there.

That should be
cay comfort, yes.

Gates:
Cay comfort is where

hedges built an island compound
long since destroyed.

We're navigating along
the same route

hedges himself took
over 80 years ago.

And you got the old photos
of it, right?

-I do here, right here.
-Let's take a look.

♪

-a perfect match,
-that's cay comfort.

Anna told me that,
before she passed,

that there's
a narrow channel.

If you go through that channel,
you'll see some mangrove swamps,

and the island should
be on your right.

Okay.
Here we go.

Gates:
We motor around the island.

Before long, we see
just what anna described.

This must
be the channel.

Yeah. Travis, take
us in right here.

Travis: You got it.

Gates:
We're about to find out if we're
chasing an adventurous fantasy

or one of the greatest
archaeological finds

of the 20th century.

Homann:
I think some of the
mitchell-hedges' photos

show these mangroves.

Look at that.

I'd say that's a pretty good
match, wouldn't you?

I think that's it.
I think we're there.

I mean, it certainly looks like
the exact same type of landscape

we're seeing here.
I mean, look at that.

Does that look like
this channel, or what?

-We're right there, yep.
-It's amazing.

Okay.
We're in the right spot.

Now we just got to get
on this island.

♪

what about here?

Do you want to try
to get in here?

Yep.

Gates: We find a place to beach
the boat

and climb out into the swamps.

♪

real slippery, bill.
Be careful.

Gates: This is some of the most
impenetrable land

I've ever had
to hike through.

We're not even walking
on the ground.

We're walking on roots
above the ground.

Homann:
Try to stay on the wood
if you can, right?

Yeah.

You've heard
of quicksand.

This is quick mud.

One false move in here,

you could be up
to your waist in this.

Luckily, I was raised
in the circus.

Oh, this is nasty.

Damn it. Bill.

-Yeah. Here you go.
-Give me a hand.

Yeah.
Okay.

I'm going
to lose my boot.

-Got it?
-Hold it.

-Nope, not yet.
-Okay, take your time.

Take your time.
I got you.

Ugh.
Oh, that was almost it.

-Do not step here.
-Do not step on that.

Do not step here or here
or basically anywhere.

Okay.

Gates: Eventually, we make it
through the swamps

and on to something
resembling solid ground,

which means we might be
one step closer to finding

hedges' crystal deity.

Made it through the mud.

Now we just got to find
this cave,

so the best photo of it
is really from

hedges' book which
is here, right?

So a cave where sammy or anna
found a rock crystal figure

of an anthropomorphic
deity,

so it doesn't tell us where,
but we think it's this island,

so we're looking
for this general formation.

We got palms
in front of it here,

and I mean, that's really
all we have to go on.

I think what we're seeing here
is limestone,

so I think we need to find
some limestone

formations
on the island,

and hopefully
we'll find the cave.

All right.
Let's do it.

You ready?
-Yep.

All right. Let's get
in to it. Come on.

♪

gates:
If hedges was trying to hide
something on this island,

it's easy to see
why it stayed hidden.

The mud may be far behind us,

but that doesn't mean we can
take our footing for granted.

-Bill! You okay?
-Okay, just a second,

just a second.
-You okay?

-Yeah, I'm fine.
-Up, you want to come up?

Yeah. Yeah, get me up.
Okay. Hold it.

Okay.
Hold it just a second.

-You okay?
-Yeah.

You scared [bleep] out of me.
Here, let me get your hat.

Hold on a second.
-Okay.

-Okay. Here you go.
-Okay.

-You all right?
-Let's do that again.

Okay, come on. Geez, don't
do that to me, bill.

Gates: Bill might have taken
a nasty fall,

but he's as tough
as hedges,

and nothing is going to stop him
from the mission at hand.

♪

we keep hiking until bill spots

something important
between the trees.

Hey, josh,
look at that.

Limestone, we got
limestone. Come on.

Let's see if
we can find a cave.

Gates:
We follow the wall of limestone

through the jungle interior
for mile after mile.

♪

bill, stop.

That's a cave, right?

-I see it, yeah.
-Hold on a second.

Yeah, hold on a second.
I think that could be it.

Right there.
-Yep.

Lookit. That looks
stalagmite and stalactite

there that are connected.
-Right.

And then you look
a little further in.

You see that
piece hanging down

and how it's all
raised up like that?

-That's it right there.
-I mean, that's it.

-That's it right there.
-That's it. Hey, good job.

That is it.

Look at that!

Gates: On a deserted island
off the coast of honduras,

bill homann is attempting
to locate a crystal statue

discovered by
the late explorer

f.A. Mitchell-hedges
that could prove the existence

of an advanced
pre-maya civilization.

Now we're at the mouth
of what may be the cave

where hedges
originally found the deity.

-That's it right there.
-I mean, that's it.

-That's it right there.
-That's it. Hey, good job.

That is it.

Look at that!

Okay.
Let's get inside of it.

-Let's go.
-Come on.

Holy [bleep].

Gates: We rush to the cave.

While the exterior seems
largely unchanged

since hedges' time,
the interior quickly narrows.

Definitely goes back,
I can't tell how far.

-You need a light?
-Yeah, give me a light.

Thanks.

Gates: Infill and collapses
through the past 80 years

have filled the entrance
with sand and debris.

If the deity is in this section
of the cave, we can't get to it.

According to anna,

hedges buried the deity near or
in the mouth of the cave,

so bill and I begin
by breaking out metal detectors

to sweep the exterior.

♪

♪

gates: Bill, I got a hit,
hit right here.

Come here.
-Let me try it.

[ beeping ]

yeah, very
strong right here.

-Right in front of the cave.
-Right.

Literally in front
of the cave. All right.

Let me get the shovel
and see what's down here.

We got a hit.
We got a hit.

♪

♪

bingo.

Nail, old, really old.

I mean, this could easily be
from the '20s or '30s,

looks like it might have been
handmade here on the ends.

What do you think?
Could this be from an old box?

Absolutely, got to be
something here, so...

-Totally, let's keep searching.
-Let's keep searching.

Yeah, come on.
Let's do it.

Gates: We scan the rest
of the clearing,

but after looking for hours,
we still haven't found it,

but what if hedges
buried the artifact

inside the blocked cave?

♪

gates: Let's see if
we can go up and over,

maybe find another way
to punch in up here.

Come down
through the top.

Yeah.

Gates: Our only hope now is that
the cave system

has another opening nearby.

We scramble up the mountain
of limestone until...

Gates:
Bill, we got
an entrance.

-All right.
-Look at this.

We got an entrance.
All right.

Now we just got to get
down inside it.

-Right.
-All right.

Here we go.
Let's grab some rope.

Gates: To get into the cave,
we need to do a short rappel

through the vertical entrance.

Good news is this limestone
is real sharp,

so lots of good footholds,
but be real careful.

You fall here, bill,
it's going to be bad news.

Okay, you ready?
-Let's go.

Gates: We anchor a rope
and prepare to head down.

♪

come down.

All right.
Good.

-I'm down.
-Good, man.

Okay.
Let's see what's in here.

-Whoa.
-Oh, my word.

Look at this place.

♪

first of all,
look at this.

Some of the pieces
have broken off.

Bill, look what's
inside of them, pure crystal.

-Pure crystal, wow.
-Look at that.

So the idea of something
being down here

carved of crystal,
totally possible.

The source material
is right here.

Okay.

Let's see
where it leads.

Oh, my god. It just
keeps going and going.

This is
extraordinary.

Okay.

Yeah, tarantulas.

Sammy said that where
the crystal deity was,

it was
full of tarantulas.

Gates:
In case you're wondering if the
honduran curlyhair tarantula

is poisonous...

Yes, yes, it is.

I wish you told me that part
of the story earlier, bill.

♪

this place is huge, keeps going.

I got another chamber
over here, bill.

♪

oh, my god.
Get a camera down here.

Come here.
Look at this.

I mean, unbelievable,
just a beautiful

almost intact piece of pottery.
And look at it, bill.

Look what this is.
-Yeah.

Look at this little stippling
here, these little indentations.

You can see it was
all hand painted.

This is
history right here.

Look at that in place right
where somebody left it.

I mean, this is a ritual
offering of some kind

that has been down here
for hundreds

and hundreds
of years undisturbed.

The first people to see this,
us, you,

to lay eyes on this thing
since it was set here.

This right here,
this is discovery, bill.

Nice work.

Gates: This pottery is
a remarkable find

and likely predates
the maya culture,

making it thousands
of years old.

In short, this is evidence of
that lost pre-maya civilization

that hedges was pursuing.

So now I know what hedges felt
like when he came down here,

and he was
finding things.

Oh.
Absolutely.

Seeing stuff like this out
in the bay islands

for the first time
must have been incredible.

Yeah, before him, no one knew
about any culture out here.

Yeah, look at this.

Still things
to be found today.

This goes to show you

how much work there is left
to be done out here.

We have astounding
artifacts down here.

Right.

And we've got crystal,
but no crystal artifacts.

Not yet, no.

Haven't found the crystal deity,
but the crystal skull,

on the other hand,
we know where that is.

It's in
your possession,

so I'm going to bug you
about this again.

Would you consider
submitting that

to a definitive scientific test
so we can understand it?

Well, you've been bugging me and
bugging me and bugging me, josh.

Every chance I get.

Every chance you get is right,
so, but you know what?

I'll do it.
-You will.

-I'll do it.
-I got your word.

You got my word.

All right.
Good.

Bill, thank you for bringing
me out here, man.

Was this an adventure?

Oh, one for the books,
one for the books.

All right.

Gates:
Bill and I return to the surface

where we do what indiana jones
would have wanted.

We alert the local museum
to the cave's location.

In the weeks that follow,
the governor of the bay islands

confirms the importance
of the find

and that a full-scale excavation
of the cave

will commence in the future,

and I also acquired
something else important

in the bay islands,
a promise from bill homann

to definitively test
the crystal skull.

Bill flies to his vault
to retrieve the skull

while I leave honduras
and travel

2,300 miles away to los angeles.

And where better to meet back up
than the mineral room

of the famed museum
of natural history?

-So today is the day.
-Today is the day.

We talked about this, and I want
to show you something.

This is the mitchell-hedges
skull.

Are you ready for this?
-I'm ready.

That is it right
under here.

-Right here.
-Okay.

Here we go.
-Okay?

Yeah, I'm ready.

Wow.

Look at that.

Gates:
The name f.A. Mitchell-hedges
is synonymous with adventure,

but were his swashbuckling
expeditions epic or exaggerated?

Take for example his journey
to the maya city of lubaantun.

There are basically
two versions of this story,

and they're both told
by mitchell-hedges.

Hedges wrote
two autobiographies,

the first a book called
the "land of wonder and fear"

which he published in 1931
just after his time here,

the other toward the end
of his life in the 1950s,

the much more famous
"danger, my ally."

and in each book,
he describes this event.

Gates: In the earlier book,

hedges is led to
the lost city by natives

who basically present it
to him on a silver platter.

Twenty years later, though,
the story changes,

and he is the one
who discovers

lubaantun using his wits
and a machete.

In the first version,
hedges is a traveler.

In the second, he's the hero.

Gates:
Two versions of one adventure,

and like all things associated
with mitchell-hedges,

the truth lies somewhere
in the unknown.

Gates:
I'm in the los angeles county
museum of natural history

with bill homann
who has agreed to submit

the infamous crystal skull
of doom to rigorous testing.

This is the mitchell-hedges
skull.

Are you ready for this?

Yeah, I'm ready.

Wow.

Look at that.

It really does feel like it
pulls you inside.

You can see a photo of it,
and that's one thing,

but when you
see it in person,

it's a whole different thing,
isn't it?

It really is, and the way
the light refracts in it

is kind of dizzying.

Gates:
Bill and I take the skull
in to the museum's lab

where mineralogist
and geochemist

dr. Aaron celestian
is waiting to receive us.

This is bill homann.

Bill, this is
dr. Aaron celestian.

He's going to be
helping us out today.

-Definitely.
-Where do we start?

We start right over here
with that microscope.

Please, lead the way.

Mm-hmm.

If you can, can you slide that
underneath the microscope?

Sure.

Okay, one of the things I was
looking to find out about --

is it made from
a single piece of crystal?

I would say yes, it is made
from a single piece of crystal.

If I just shine the laser at
this piece of paper or this box,

I just see a single spot.
-Right.

But when the laser interacts
with the crystal,

especially a crystal of quartz,
that spot should split into two.

This is telling me that this
is a single block of crystal.

If it was multiple crystal,
you would not see

the splaying
of light in this direction.

So this was made
from a single piece.

Yes.

Gates: So far, hedges' story
that the skull was forged

from a single piece
of crystal stands up,

but to find out
when the skull was made,

dr. Celestian wants
to dig deeper.

If this was made by the maya
or pre-maya,

we would expect that
it was made using stone tools.

If it was made in the early
20th century,

as some people have suggested,
we might find modern toolmarks

or evidence
of modern abrasives, right?

It is possible, yes.

Gates:
We take the crystal mandible
and bring it

to an
x-ray fluorescence microscope

while the rest of the skull
is run

through a spectroscopy machine.

The results should tell us
every element present

in and on the crystal.

Vast majority of what
is present is silicon.

We're also seeing traces
of other elements like calcium.

Calcium is coming from probably
from the teeth, strong teeth.

We're not on the teeth
right now, but...

That was my attempt
at a mineral joke, aaron.

That's all I had.

Gates:
The elements in the scan show
that the skull's origins may be

in central or south america
which may fit hedges' claims,

but there's nothing on here
to definitively date it.

The only thing left to do

is look at the markings
on the skull itself.

What jumps out at me
is that the striations

and the scratching
are all unbelievably parallel.

They're all going in
the same direction.

This is telling me that it
wasn't a rag or something

that somebody was just polishing
like you polish a car.

Here, they're always
going in one direction.

My analysis of the marks
means that it was polished

using a unidirectional technique

like a polishing wheel
of some kind

and also machine polished
by humans.

So in your mind,
no doubt,

there's a machine polish
happening here.

There's some sort of uniform
polishing.

-That's correct.
-Right.

If it was hand polished,

it would have
a different signature.

That's right.

Gates: Since the maya and other
pre-colombian civilizations

before them lacked the wheel,

uniform polishing marks
like this

would seem to be direct evidence
that the skull was made

in modern times
by a high-speed machine,

likely one with high-grade
diamond-coated bits,

but whether this scientific
evidence convinces bill

is less certain.

Does seeing this sway you
at all to believe

it was made
in the 20th century?

-No.
-It doesn't.

Not even one bit, no.

I believe it
was made by someone

that had a higher level
of technology

than we have today,
yes.

Which is a great idea,

but the problem,
of course, with that

is we don't really have
evidence of that technology.

Yeah, well, the thing is
it doesn't really matter

because one person
has their opinion,

and this one
has that one.

Sometimes with
science, though,

you have to listen
to the monitor

over there that's hooked up
to the laser, don't you?

Well, it's telling me
exactly what I believe.

I believe that it wasn't
some mayan

sitting there
polishing by hand.

It had to be brought there
by a civilization

that had
advanced technology.

Even though we have no evidence
for that technology...

A lot of it's being
hidden, but yes.

When you see the skull,
and you're with the skull,

and you feel that energy,
it's a gift.

It's a blessing.
It's a wonderful thing.

That's what matters.

Gates: I admire bill's spirit,

but I also believe
his unwavering focus

on the more fantastic parts
of hedges' journey overshadows,

I believe,
hedges' true legacy.

He bravely traveled deep
into the jungles of honduras,

exposing vast maya ruins

and sailed into
the uncharted bay islands,

uncovering exquisite
pottery and relics

that alerted the world
to a barely known culture

that predated the maya.

In our own journey, we, too,

uncovered evidence
that this ancient culture

is still largely forgotten
with a treasure trove of history

waiting to be shared
with the modern world.

But hedges became obsessed
that this civilization

was advanced beyond reason,

and the skull has become
the embodiment of that idea.

Like that old poster
in my bedroom read,

"if adventure has a name,
it must be indiana jones,"

or f.A. Mitchell-hedges,
a man of daring adventure

and, yes, tall tales.

As for the skull of doom,

bill says one look into its eyes
will reveal its true power.

Care to give it a try?