Salisbury Plain - (Paleolithic Mess): Archaeologists excavating Stonehenge have stumbled on what has been described as a stunning human life-sized amethyst crystal skull believed to date from circa 5,000 BC.
"This is part of the fabled Atlantis treasure trove spoils," Prof V Smart of the Royal Archaeological Society said today, "potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
"We've been hunting this since finding pre-cuneiform Mayan artefacts whose texts describe the amethyst head as the fabled Atlantean kingdom's ultimate Master Skull."
The astonishing discovery has been linked to ten other crystal skulls found in various sites around the world during the last 150 years, many of which are held in secret private collections and museums.
These include the British Museum, Paris's Musée du Quai Branly, the Smithsonian in Washington DC and the Piltdown Man & Pther Hoaxes Memorial Museum of Bognor Regis.
"We think the amethyst skull was part of the Throne Room of Isis right here in her legendary castle at Stonehenge," Smart added, "before a giant caldera off the West coast of Irleand erupted and caused a huge tsunami to wreck most of South Western Albion as it was called in those days."
The precious find has been taken to the British Museum for verification.
Under Treasure Trove rules it officially belongs to the Monarch in whose private portfolio Stonehenge sits.
"Of course the purple head could be just another hoax like the Piltdown Man thinggy," an antiquities spokesman at the BM said today.