Given the rise in incidents of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), a validated finite element model (FEM) of the human head is necessary for the study, assessment and mitigation of this injury. In this study, dynamic compressive mechanical properties of the human skull have been determined. These properties are suitable for incorporation in an FEM of the skull with a coarse mesh (~ 5 mm) affording greater computational efficiency. Cylindrical through‐the‐thickness specimens (cores) of skull bone were obtained from ten regions of the right calvarium of ten male post‐mortem human surrogates. Potted specimens were compressed using a ramp displacement. The resulting stress vs. strain behavior was used to calculate effective material properties of the skull cores. A micro computed tomography (μCT) study of the cores was performed prior to testing to determine response dependency on microstructure. The modulus of elasticity was determined as 450 ± 135 MPa and the failure stress was estimated as 23 ± 6 MPa. These material properties did not correlate with harvest location or average apparent density in the cores. This study characterizes the combined response of the inner and outer tables and the diploe and provides dynamic material properties to be used in an FEM suitable for high strain rate applications.