Crystal skulls are not uncommon or terribly mysterious. Thousands are produced every year in Brazil, China, and Germany. But there are a handful of these rather macabre objects that have fueled ...

I was writing a headline for a piece on Crystal Castles in the current issue of Uncut and, after reading the feature a few times, ended up with this: “Scars. Skulls. Disease. Videogame blips.

So began the latest astonishing twist in our quest to find the truth about the 13 crystal skulls said to have come into the possession of the Mayan people, one of the ancient world's most ...