Headpiece to the Staff of Ra

The Headpiece to the Staff of Ra was a much sought-after medallion which was originally designed as a means to reveal the location of the Ark of the Covenant. The headpiece was designed to be placed atop The Staff of Ra and used in the Map Room at Tanis to reveal the location of the Well of the Souls, the resting place of the Ark. The actual staff, in and of itself just a simple a shaft of wood, was apparently long lost to history, but the headpiece contained instructions on how high to make a substitute staff. The instructions written on the headpiece state that the staff should be six kadams high. However, the other side of the headpiece has specific instructions to take back one kadam to honor the Hebrew God.

The headpiece came into the hands of Marion Ravenwood from her father and wore it around her neck as a medallion. She gave it to Indiana Jones (for several thousand dollars) when he was searching for the Ark of the Covenant in 1936.

The headpiece was momentarily in the possession of Nazi Gestapo agent Toht, during a fight at Ravenwood's bar. However, the headpiece had become extraordinarily hot due to a fire, and the headpiece burned Toht's hand, creating in imprint of the headpiece's markings on his hand, possibly leading the Nazis, lead by French archaeologist René Belloq to create their own headpiece to locate the Ark. However, their headpiece lacked the markings on the other side, which lead Indiana and Sallah to discover that "they're digging in the wrong place."

Indiana, using the information on the headpiece, was able to locate the Well of Souls and, along with Sallah, discovered the Ark (only to have it taken from them by Belloq and the Nazis).

Behind the scenes
The headpiece prop was created for the Raiders art department by sculptor and miniaturist Barry Minot.

Appearances

 * Raiders of the Lost Ark novel
 * Raiders of the Lost Ark
 * Indiana Jones' Greatest Adventures