IT'S NOT CRYSTAL, but it's a

Rare Magic Inscription on Human Skull
By Dan Levene (Biblical Archaeology Review)

Not long ago, the well-known collector Shlomo Moussaieff acquired two earthenware bowls, the open ends of which were adjoined to form a kind of case—inside the case was an ancient human skull. A magic incantation, written in Aramaic, was inscribed on the skull.

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The article tells us that at least four other such skulls survive, none scientifically excavated but all discovered long enough ago that they are very unlikely to be forgeries. There's nothing about the authentication process for this one, so I can't say anything about the case for its genuineness. But here is what Levene says about it:

This skull came to Moussaieff inside two bowls that formed a case. The bowls themselves contain no writing. An examination of the bowls gave me the impression that they were an original and integral part of a single magical object of which the skull was the main part. This is, however, speculative.

The inscription on the skull contains many of the features common to magic bowl inscriptions. We know the names of at least some of the people for whom the skull incantation was made. Two of them are common Jewish names: Martha and Shilta. According to one scholar, Shilta is derived from an Aramaic word meaning “after-birth.” And the skull is probably that of a woman. Although parts of 11 lines of text have survived, it is difficult to make much sense of what remains. The text is surrounded by a squiggly line, a common element among incantation bowls.

The text, however, is only part of the mystery. Basic questions continue to baffle: Why a skull? I have no certain answer. That so few examples exist, in comparison to the large number of bowls, suggests that the use of skulls for incantation texts was rare. Judaism, of course, has many taboos regarding human remains. Even touching a corpse imparts impurity. Necromancy is forbidden5 (although it was obviously sometimes practiced). Perhaps the skull was used for this text because it was thought that the spirits of the dead, to which skulls are obviously connected, have access to the supernatural realm.

In the end, this skull and its text remain mysterious, unfortunately revealing less than they conceal.

Indeed. This is really cool and I hope it can be shown to be genuine. Related BAR articles include "Lilith: Seductress, Heroine or Murderer?" and "Word Play: The Power of the Written Word in Ancient Israel." For more on the Aramaic incantation bowls, see here and here and follow the links.