Indiana Jones, Crystal Skulls, the Mayans and 2012.

Ever since George Lucas announced the title of the fourth Indiana Jones movie (i.e. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull), my interest has been piqued.

Indy battled the Nazis for the Ark of the Covenant in Raiders of the Lost Ark? He fought evil Indians for Sankara Stones in The Temple of Doom. And, once again, he went toe-to-toe with Hitler's regime in search of the Holy Grail in The Last Crusade

Now Indy's on the lookout for...crystal skulls? To be honest, my first impression was "Whaaaaaaat?"

But, after reading a Vanity Fair article on the upcoming Indy movie and visiting some rather strange websites on the phenomena, I now have another passion in addition to UFOs, Bigfoot, the Mothman and the Loch Ness monster...

CRYSTAL MOTHER-F'ING SKULLS.

In a nutshell, it's believed that there are 13 crystal skulls of ancient origin buried around the world. Some think that a handful of the skulls are still buried beneath the ground. Others believe all 13 have already been found. Some hippies think that, as I write this, a secret society known as the Illumanati are trying to find these crystal skulls to control the world. Others think scientologists are involved.

What is known, however, is that most of the skulls have been found near Mayan and Aztec civilization in parts of Mexico, Central America and South America.

And here's where the creepiness comes in.

The skulls seem to defy logic.

In fact, everything that is known about them indicates that the skulls should have been shattered fractured, or fallen apart when carved centuries ago. It's virtually impossible to say how the skulls were constructed. To add to that, the world's most talented sculptors and engineers today are still unable to duplicate it.

Fascinating, eh?

One of the most famous of the Crystal Skulls is the Mitches Hedges skull named after F. A. Mitchell-Hedges who discovered it in 1927 while searching for the lost city of Atlantis in Belize. The sculpture is an anatomically correct replica of a human skull, but smaller.

Now, here's where it gets even weirder.

This particular skull was loaned to the Hewlett Packard Laboratories in 1970 for some extensive study. According to a number of web sites I visited, the tests yielded some crazy results including:

- The skull was carved against the natural axis of the crystal, which would almost surely make the piece shatter.
- Even with lasers and other high-tech cutting methods used today it would still shatter if carved this way.
- The lab could find no microscopic scratches on the crystal which would indicate it had been carved with metal instruments or possibly diamonds.
- It was concluded that successfully crafting a shape as complex as the Mitchell-Hedges skull is virtually impossible.

That's why the crystal skulls are a complete mystery on par with Stonehenge, the Easter Island heads and the Pyramids. Nobody really knows where they came from or what they were used for.

However, some people have their theories...

- The skulls were left behind by aliens thousands of years ago.
- When placed together, the skulls will enable humans to see deeply into the past and educate us about the future a la' the movie Highlander.
- They were left behind by a sophisticated Inner Earth society which lives at the hollow center of our planet. The thirteen skulls contain the history of these unknown people.
- The skulls were teleported along with visitors (perhaps ourselves from the future?) who came to teach earth mortals about their heritage and purpose for being here.
- They are the computers of the ancients and contain important information that will help humanity to pass through its current series of challenges and take us into a Golden Age.
- When placed together the skulls will summon our alien gods back to Earth.

Another interesting theory is that the final skull will be found and all 13 skulls will come together on December 21, 2012. Coincidentally, the same exact time the Mayan Calendar ends, which also signifies the end of the world as we know it.

Or, as some theorists put it, the beginning of the apocalypse.

Whatever you believe, you can bank on one of the above theories being somehow involved in the plot for the fourth Indiana Jones adventure. There are even rumors that the little creatures from Close Encounters of the Third Kind will be making a brief appearance towards the end of the film.

Whatever you believe, I personally think the crystal skull phenomena is intriguing to say the least.

And damn, if it won't make a great movie as well.

If you're still interested, I also found this seven-minute Travel channel segment on YouTube which digs deeper into the Crystal Skulls mystique.