Shaped from a single block of quartz into the perfect replica of a small human's cranium, the Crystal Skull that became known as the Mitchell-Hedges Skull predated the civilizations that developed in Central America, including the Maya and Olmec. Conjecture had it that the Skull was actually Atlantean in origin but perhaps even existed prior to that and the other antediluvian civilizations. Some time prior to the outbreak of World War II, the Crystal Skull was stolen from Mitchell-Hedges but it was eventually recovered by a group of adventurers.