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More than 70% of earth's dryland is affected by desertification. |
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Real-life skull worship inspires new 'Indiana Jones' film
Posted on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 (CDT) by Isis
 There is 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 Indiana Jones movie. Experts dismiss the hundreds of existing crystal skulls as fakes that were probably made by colorful antiquities traders in the 19th century. But 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. 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.
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. Pre-release publicity from Paramount Pictures, the film's distributor, mentions the legend of the 13 skulls. While much of the film's action occurs in Peru, 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.
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, 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 Mexico. Eventually he carted skulls around
between New York, Paris and Mexico 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 Mexico
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 Garcia.
Garcia 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 Mexico 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-Hispanic 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 December 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."
Copyright: CNN.com
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Re: Real-life skull worship inspires new 'Indiana Jones' film
by annubis on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 (CDT)
(User Info | Send a Message) | | I met MAX, one of the crystal skulls some years back. MAX spoke to me as I was allowed to sit with him for 1/2 an hour in a room away from everyone else. He told me he had been waiting for me and proceeded to show me scenes of UFO's within. WHen I came out of ghe meeting with MAX, I was glowing and felt very light as if I experienced something special. To this day, the experieince has stayed with me and I am sure I was meant for something after meeting MAX. The experience is real, the energy is real..... I believe the skulls hold the key to a vast store of knowledge and am awaiting tthe day when they are all gathered together for that is when the true message/transformation will take place. I Belieive!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
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