Indiana Jones and the Mayan Crystal Skulls

 

Dateline:

Palenque, Mexico (You already know about Palenque, right?)

 

There’s a legend that the ancient Maya possessed 13 crystal skulls which, when united, hold the power of saving the Earth—a tale so strange and fantastic that it inspired the latest Indian Jones movie.

 

Experts dismiss the hundreds of existing crystal skulls as fakes probable made by colorful antiquities traders in the 19^th century. (I saw such a skull at Lily Dale, NY in 1992, presented by the elderly daughter of such a guy. Everyone oohed and aahed, but it was nothing, believe me…it was just what it was and nothing spiritual involved.) Back to the story…

 

Mayan priests worship the skulls, even today, and real-life skull hunters still search for them. The true story of the skulls stretches over continents and hundreds of years, and may be even more extraordinary than the tale portrayed in this fourth installment of the Harrison Ford franchise. The plot of the film revolves around a race against the Soviets to find the skulls.

 

While much of the film’s action occurs in Peru, it also mentions a skull purportedly found at a Mayan ruin in 1924.  Known as “the Skull of Doom,” its provenance cannot be proved. In fact, few of today’s crystal skulls can be documented any further back than the 1860s, when Europe was swept by a rage for pre-Hispanic “relics.”

 

Frenchman Eugene Boban, referred to above, had a checkered past and murky political ties and set up a store in Palenque to supply the trade after the French invaded Mexico. Eventually he carted skulls around between New York, Paris and Mexico City, selling them to private collectors.