Fame is what survives the grave. The quest for immortality secretly obsesses uslike nothing else.Here are the spectacular deceased who illuminate the darkness of mortality, which is why they are called stars. From Frida to Einstein to Tupac to Joan of Arc, this coloring book presents a pantheon of immortal individuals who have defined entire generations. Each skull is adorned with the personal spirit and symbols of their fantastic lives. Often tragic but always magic, these aren't just sugar skulls, they're famous skulls.Rest in peace, and color in peace!* Also includes 34 original poems & famous quotes

An irresistible journey of discovery, science, history, and myth making, told through the lives and afterlives of seven famous human ancestors Over the last century, the search for human ancestors has spanned four continents and resulted in the discovery of hundreds of fossils. While most of these discoveries live quietly in museum collections, there are a few that have become world-renowned celebrity personas—ambassadors of science that speak to public audiences. In Seven Skeletons, historian of science Lydia Pyne explores how seven such famous fossils of our ancestors have the social cachet they enjoy today. Drawing from archives, museums, and interviews, Pyne builds a cultural history for each celebrity fossil—from its discovery to its afterlife in museum exhibits to its legacy in popular culture. These seven include the three-foot tall “hobbit” from Flores, the Neanderthal of La Chapelle, the Taung Child, the Piltdown Man hoax, Peking Man, Australopithecus sediba, and Lucy—each embraced and celebrated by generations, and vivid examples of how discoveries of how our ancestors have been received, remembered, and immortalized. With wit and insight, Pyne brings to life each fossil, and how it is described, put on display, and shared among scientific communities and the broader public. This fascinating, endlessly entertaining book puts the impact of paleoanthropology into new context, a reminder of how our past as a species continues to affect, in astounding ways, our present culture and imagination.

How far will four friends go for immortality? This novel is Hugo and Nebula Award–winning author “Robert Silverberg at his very best” (George R. R. Martin). After Eli, a scholarly college student, finds and translates an ancient manuscript called The Book of Skulls, he and his friends embark on a cross-country trip to Arizona in search of a legendary monastery where they hope to find the secret of immortality. On the journey with Eli, there’s Timothy, an upper-class WASP with a trust fund and a solid sense of entitlement; Ned, a cynical poet and alienated gay man; and Oliver, a Kansas farm boy who escaped his rural origins and now wants to escape death. If they can find the House of Skulls where immortal monks allegedly reside, they’ll undergo a rigorous initiation. But do those eight grinning skulls mean the joke will be on them? For a sacrifice will be required. Two must die so that two may live forever . . . Stretching the boundary between science fiction and horror, Robert Silverberg masterfully probes deeper existential questions of morality, brotherhood, and self-determined destiny in what Harlan Ellison refers to as “one of my favorite nightmare novels.” This ebook features an illustrated biography of Robert Silverberg including rare images from the author’s personal collection.

Eugène Boban began life in humble circumstances in Paris, traveled to the California Gold Rush, and later became a recognized authority on pre-Columbian cultures. He also invented an entire category of archaeological artifact: the Aztec crystal skull. By his own admission, he successfully “palmed off” a number of these crystal skulls on the curators of Europe’s leading museums. How could that happen, and who was this man? Detailed are the travels, self-education, and archaeological explorations of Eugène Boban; this book also explores the circumstances that allowed him to sell fakes to museums that would remain undetected for over a century.

When Philadelphia naturalist Samuel George Morton died in 1851, no one cut off his head, boiled away its flesh, and added his grinning skull to a collection of crania. It would have been strange, but perhaps fitting, had Morton’s skull wound up in a collector’s cabinet, for Morton himself had collected hundreds of skulls over the course of a long career. Friends, diplomats, doctors, soldiers, and fellow naturalists sent him skulls they gathered from battlefields and burial grounds across America and around the world. With The Skull Collectors, eminent historian Ann Fabian resurrects that popular and scientific movement, telling the strange—and at times gruesome—story of Morton, his contemporaries, and their search for a scientific foundation for racial difference. From cranial measurements and museum shelves to heads on stakes, bloody battlefields, and the “rascally pleasure” of grave robbing, Fabian paints a lively picture of scientific inquiry in service of an agenda of racial superiority, and of a society coming to grips with both the deadly implications of manifest destiny and the mass slaughter of the Civil War. Even as she vividly recreates the past, Fabian also deftly traces the continuing implications of this history, from lingering traces of scientific racism to debates over the return of the remains of Native Americans that are held by museums to this day. Full of anecdotes, oddities, and insights, The Skull Collectors takes readers on a darkly fascinating trip down a little-visited but surprisingly important byway of American history.

"A haunting voyage through the peculiar--and peculiarly American--world of human skull collecting. Ann Fabian's remarkable and moving study illuminates as few other works have the powerful hold that the dead and their remains continue to have upon the living". Karl Jacoby, author of Shadows at Dawn: A Borderlands Massacre and the Violence of History.

Jake McGowan-Lowe is a boy with a very unusual hobby. Since the age of 7, he has been photographing and blogging about his incredible finds and now has a worldwide following, including 100,000 visitors from the US and Canada. Follow Jake as he explores the animal world through this new 64-page book. He takes you on a world wide journey of his own collection, and introduces you to other amazing animals from the four corners of the globe. Find out what a cow's tooth, a rabbit's rib and a duck's quack look like and much, much more besides.

Crystal skulls are human-skull hardstone carvings often made of clear or milky white quartz known as "rock crystal." They are allegedly pre-Columbian Mesoamerican artifacts and can be found in the permanent collections of a number of world-class museums, including the Smithsonian and the British Museum. In occult and metaphysical circles, the skulls have magical and healing qualities: Anna Mitchell-Hedges (owner of a particularly famous skull) claimed that the skull could cause visions and cure cancer and that its magical properties could be used to kill. Drunvalo Melchizedek claims in Serpent of Light that he stumbled upon descendants of the ancient Mayans who possess crystal skulls for use in religious ceremonies in Yucatan temples. Jamie Sams writes of the skulls' association with Native American mythology. In this book, best-selling occultist and crystal expert Judy Hall provides a basic primer on crystal skulls: What they are Where they are found Their role in legend and lore around the world Their uses for physical and psychic healing Also included here in this stunning introductory text is an examination of the prominent "skull keepers" of the past 100 years and examination of how to use and communicate with a crystal skull. This is a terrific introductory text for those interested in occult and ancient mysteries and/or the power of gems and crystals.

Crystal is one of the most fascinating substances in nature. The crystalline structure lends itself uniquely to various adaptations, including information storage, and crystal technologies are at the cutting edge of advancements in nanotechnology and computing. Crystal skulls are one of the most intriguing enigmas in history, archeology and metaphysical science. Does the fact that they are carved from crystal enable them to store information and interact with human thought waves? There is a lot of evidence to suggest this is so. Rogue archeologist and explorer David Hatcher Childress introduces the technology and lore of crystals, and then plunges into a full-on search for the source of the crystal skulls. The history of Mesoamerica, where the skulls were said to originate, is rich with the mystical, magical sorcery of the Olmecs, Zapotecs, Maya and Aztecs. The turbulent times of the Mexican Revolution form the backdrop for the rollicking adventures of Ambrose Bierce, the renowned journalist who went missing in the jungles in 1913, and F.A. Mitchell-Hedges, the notorious adventurer who emerged from the jungles with the most famous of the crystal skulls. Childress brings it all to life with his characteristic panache. Eminent researcher Stephen Mehler shares his extensive knowledge of and experience with crystal skulls. Having been involved in the field since the 1980s, he has personally examined many of the most influential skulls, and has worked with the leaders in crystal skull research, including the inimitable Nick Nocerino, who developed a meticulous methodology for the purpose of examining the skulls, Get the lowdown on the most recent developments in the world of the crystal skulls from one in the know!