Harold Oxley, often referred to (with affection) as "Ox" or "The Oxman" by friends and family, was a Professor of Archaeology who had studied at the University of Chicago alongside Indiana Jones. He had an obsession with the legendary crystal skulls purportedly hidden worldwide, and his search eventually led to the discovery of a genuine crystal skull, stolen in the sixteenth century from the city of Akator, that possessed sentience and psychic powers.