Jane MacLaren Walsh

Who is Jane MacLaren Walsh?

Jane MacLaren Walsh is an anthropologist and researcher at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. She is known for her role in exposing faked pre-Columbian artifacts. Notable cases she has investigated include crystal skulls alleged to have been of ancient Mesoamerican origins, and a piece held by the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection purported to be an authentic pre-Columbian representation of an Aztec and central Mexican goddess, Tlazolteotl.

Walsh's interest in crystal skulls began with the anonymous delivery of one such object to the Smithsonian in 1992.