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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.
It's unclear what version of the tale will appear in ``Indiana
Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,'' which opens in
U.S. theaters on May 22, 2008.
The plot of the film—the first Indiana Jones movie since ``The
Last Crusade'' came out in 1989—revolves around a race against
the Soviets to find the skulls.
Prerelease publicity from Paramount Pictures, the film’s
distributor, mentions the legend of the 13 skulls.
While much of the film’s action occurs in Perú, the Paramount
release also mentions a skull purportedly found at a Mayan ruin
in 1924. Known as ``The Skull of Doom,'' its provenance cannot
be proved.
Few of today’s crystal skulls can be documented any further back
than the 1860s, when Europe was swept by a rage for pre-Latino
“relics.” Frenchman Eugene Boban, a colorful antiquities dealer
with a checkered past and murky political ties, set up a store
here to supply the trade after the French invaded México.
Eventually he carted skulls around between New York, Paris and
México City, selling them to private collectors.
Buyers were often told that the skulls were made by the Mayas,
whose civilization peaked between 300 and 900 A.D. But no
crystal skull has ever been excavated from a documented
archaeological site.
Some believe the skulls can emit and focus light, project
visions and even influence terrestrial forces. Today, these
beliefs persist in the jungles of southern México among the
Lacandon, the last unassimilated Mayas, some of whom still
worship the skulls.
In the shadow of the Palenque ruins, Lacandon priest K'in Garcia
fans copal incense and holds a heavy crystal skull above his
head during ceremonies for Hacha'kyum, the Mayan god of
creation.
Garcia, son of the Lancandon's most respected elder, Chan Kin,
believes the skull has special powers, including the ability to
stave off sickness and deforestation in the rain forest where
the last Lacandon still live.
``When I am alone at night, at about 2 a.m., it starts to glow,
it emits light, and it stays like that for about a minute,''
said García.
García says the skull was given to him by a local man—and while
he believes it is very old, he doesn't know where it came from.
Thousands of miles away in Washington, Jane MacLaren Walsh keeps
one of the skulls in her office at the Smithsonian Institution.
She doubts the ancient Mayans ever had any such skulls.
An anthropologist and antiquities sleuth, she has spent more
than a decade studying the best-known skulls, like the ones
acquired by the British Museum and Paris' Quai Branly museum
over a century ago, as well as the Smithsonian's own skull.
She says they are stylistically unlike pre-Hispanic depictions
of death's heads, and often show microscopic marks from cutting
tools unavailable in pre-Hispanic times.
``None of them is ancient,'' Walsh said. About the purported
powers, she notes wryly: ``I've been sitting in fairly close
proximity to one of the skulls for about 16 years, and I have
not witnessed anything like what people say.''
The British Museum keeps a skull in its collections largely as a
curiosity, listing its provenance as ``probably European, 19th
century.''
It's possible that the near-human sized fakes may have been
inspired by two real crystal skulls now on display at México
City’s respected National Anthropology Museum. Much smaller and
less perfectly carved than the ones held at the museums in
Europe, these jewelry-sized trinkets, about an inch in height,
are in the Aztec and Oaxaca collections, where the museum
classifies them as either late pre-Latino or early colonial.
The skulls’ legend has spawned a new breed of followers.
New-agers have associated the skulls with the belief that the
Mayan ``Long Count'' calendar runs out on Dec. 21, 2012, when it
reaches the end of a 5,126-year cycle. According to this theory,
all 13 skulls must be reunited and lined up together to prevent
the world from falling off its axis.
``I personally feel that (the skulls) are coming out now because
humanity needs the information, their energy and they have
probably their own purpose why they're coming out: to help us to
create world peace,'' said Joshua ``Illinois'' Shapiro, 53, a
self-described Crystal Skull Explorer who makes a living touring
and giving lectures.
Shapiro has traveled the world seeking out skulls, and believes
they link us to knowledge of past worlds like the Mayas, the
lost civilization of Atlantis, or even extraterrestrials.
``I was wearing the Indiana Jones hat for a very long time,'' he
claims, ``far before they ever thought about putting a crystal
skull in an Indiana Jones movie.'' |
