The story
水晶头骨从哪来？ Where do crystal skulls come from? 水晶头骨是用一整块透明石英（水晶）雕磨成的人头骨。十九世纪，它们被当作阿兹特克等中美洲古文明（今天的墨西哥一带）的遗物，卖给了欧美的收藏家和博物馆。最出名的一件 1897 年经蒂芙尼公司进了大英博物馆，美国史密森尼学会也收着一件。
A crystal skull is a human skull carved and polished from a single block of clear quartz, or rock crystal. In the nineteenth century, skulls like these were sold to collectors and museums in Europe and America as relics of the Aztecs and other ancient civilisations of Mesoamerica, in what is now Mexico. The most famous reached the British Museum through Tiffany & Co. in 1897; the Smithsonian in Washington has another.
后来研究人员用电子显微镜看雕刻痕迹，发现了旋转砂轮留下的纹路，这是哥伦布到达美洲之前当地没有的工具；大英博物馆那件的石料，也更像巴西或马达加斯加产的石英。所以现在一般认为，这些大水晶头骨都是十九世纪以后才雕的，大英博物馆那件多半出自欧洲的作坊。
Later, researchers studied the carving under an electron microscope and found the marks of rotary wheels, a tool unknown in the Americas before Columbus; the British Museum’s stone also looks more like quartz from Brazil or Madagascar. So these large crystal skulls are now generally thought to have been carved in the nineteenth century or later, the British Museum’s most likely in a European workshop.
不过头骨在墨西哥文化里确实意义非凡：阿兹特克神庙前曾立着头骨架（tzompantli），今天的亡灵节（Día de Muertos）满街都是彩绘的糖骷髅。2008 年的电影《夺宝奇兵 4：水晶骷髅王国》又让它家喻户晓。
Skulls do matter in Mexican culture, though: skull racks (tzompantli) once stood before Aztec temples, and today the Day of the Dead (Día de Muertos) fills the streets with painted sugar skulls. In 2008 the film Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull made crystal skulls famous all over again.
后来还流行起一个说法：世上一共有 13 个水晶头骨，聚齐了就能揭开人类的命运。这当然没有任何根据。不过，你可以对着这一个连敲三下试试。
A legend grew up around them, too: there are thirteen crystal skulls in the world, and bringing them all together will reveal the fate of humankind. There is nothing to it, of course. Still, you could give this one three quick taps and see.
它的展厅里还陈列着几件来自不同文明的宝物：战国水晶杯、吕库古杯、曜变天目茶碗和希望之钻。每一件都和光有关，点下面的展品栏就能看。
This skull shares its hall with treasures from other civilisations: a Warring States crystal cup, the Lycurgus Cup, a yōhen tenmoku tea bowl and the Hope Diamond. Each of them plays with light; pick one in the bar below to see it.
这里的头骨是用数学公式实时画出来的，不是任何一件真品的扫描。背后墙上的浮雕参考了阿兹特克太阳石（Piedra del Sol），真品现藏墨西哥城的国家人类学博物馆。
The skull here is drawn live from mathematical formulas; it is not a scan of any real skull. The relief on the wall behind it is modelled on the Aztec Sun Stone (Piedra del Sol), which is in the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City.
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