The Mayan crystal shard was a mysterious shard of crystal which Indiana Jones had discovered in a Mayan temple by 1938. Indy had no use for it, but knew that some "flakes" in San Francisco wanted it.
Behind the scenes[]
The shard is a reference to LucasArts game Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders where it must be discovered in a Mayan temple. The shard is part of an alien yellow crystal which is used in combination with a crayon map to teleport around the world.
The San Francisco 'flakes' Indy knows are Zak McKracken and Annie Larris, two of the game's protagonists.