05.23.08
The Real-Life Indiana Jones Is a Lesbian
With Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in theaters now, Smithsonian anthropologist Dr. Jane MacLaren Walsh, a crystal-skull expert and a lesbian, is getting international attention.
Nineteen years after Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones is back in the highly anticipated Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, in theaters now. Trademark fedora intact, Harrison Ford once again toplines as the adventurous archaeologist, this time on the hunt for the Crystal Skull of Akator, a legendary skull believed to hold the power of world domination for whoever can unlock its secrets.
In the real world, Indy’s altar ego may well be Dr. Jane MacLaren Walsh, an anthropologist at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, whose research focus is—yes!—crystal skulls. The objects have attracted a growing legion of fans over the years—from New Age devotees to psychics—who say the skulls have supernatural healing powers. But Walsh’s work has shown that no crystal skull has ever been excavated from a documented archaeological site. Still, despite their inauthenticity, skulls of all sizes, usually made from rock crystal, have been displayed as ancient artifacts in museums and private collections worldwide.
Everyone wants to talk to Walsh these days, given her real-life connection to a major summer blockbuster.
They expect me to have insider knowledge of the film and the plot. But unfortunately, I don’t. All of the writing I’ve done about skulls has been in terms of them being fakes. And crystal skulls are relatively modern fakes. I originally wrote about this in Archaeology magazine, and since the 1970s the interest in skulls has really exploded.
My own feeling is that we are fascinated with our own mortality and these skulls are a representation of us and our mortality. Since the Renaissance, skulls have often been depicted in paintings to reflect impermanence and the fragility of life. One example of this is that you often see priests contemplating skulls. In addition, they are made of these materials, rock and crystal, that Europeans find very valuable.
How did you become an expert on crystal skulls in the first place?
It happened essentially because someone sent us one in the mail, an anonymous, unsolicited package. I had been doing some archaeological collections work here and I had just started doing research on crystal skulls. I grew up in Mexico, did my BA and MA there, and crystal skulls were objects I had never seen in any collection of artifacts that had ever been excavated from a site. That raised a flag early on in my research, but when we received this skull, it opened up an entirely new avenue of research for me.