{"id":465,"date":"2012-04-21T13:15:42","date_gmt":"2012-04-21T17:15:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.vassar.edu\/anth331\/?p=465"},"modified":"2012-04-21T13:17:11","modified_gmt":"2012-04-21T17:17:11","slug":"indiana-jones-and-the-archaeological-dig","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/anth331\/indiana-jones-and-the-archaeological-dig\/","title":{"rendered":"Indiana Jones and the Archaeological Dig"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>While we&#8217;re on the topic of the use of archaeology in films, the ever-popular Indiana Jones series of movies deserves a mention.<\/p>\n<p>I grew up on these movies, and for years we had a whip in our costume box so my brother could dress up as Indiana, who was the ultimate action hero with a mild-mannered professor for an alter-ego. When archaeologists want to discuss popular misconceptions of what archaeologists do, they tend to point towards Indiana Jones, who we first meet in <em>The Raiders of the Lost Ark<\/em>\u00a0as he steals a gold treasure from a perfectly preserved ancient temple, dodging booby traps and the incensed natives. His catchphrase, &#8220;That belongs in a museum!&#8221; does little to counteract the fact that Indiana Jones is more looter than archaeologist.<\/p>\n<p>How much does Indiana&#8217;s character affect what people think of archaeologists? When I watched the movies as a child, I already had such a strong association between archaeology and digging that the only scene in the movie in which I felt archaeology was being performed was the Nazi-funded excavation in Cairo. My impression of archaology was no more correct, then- (had you asked me for an example of an archaeological dig in a movie I night have pointed you to Jurassic Park) but it was not quite so shaped by the movies as concerned archaeologists might fear.<\/p>\n<div><a href=\"http:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/anth331\/files\/2012\/04\/indiana.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-466\" src=\"http:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/anth331\/files\/2012\/04\/indiana-290x290.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"290\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>However, Indiana Jones is a powerful icon, and public archaeology tends to evoke him whenever possible in order to generate interest.<\/p>\n<p>These two exhibits, one by the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nsf.gov\/news\/special_reports\/archaeology\/index.jsp\">National Science Foundation<\/a> and the other by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.indianajonestheexhibition.com\/\">National Geographic,<\/a>\u00a0both compare modern archaeologists to the famous hero, emphasizing discovery and unlocking secrets in particular. Visit them, and you&#8217;ll notice that one adopts a more critical stance than the other, but both focus on similarities over differences. Is this comparison harmful to public archaeology?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While we&#8217;re on the topic of the use of archaeology in films, the ever-popular Indiana Jones series of movies deserves a mention. I grew up on these movies, and for years we had a whip in our costume box so &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/anth331\/indiana-jones-and-the-archaeological-dig\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12037,26311],"tags":[26308,71,27685,937,27647],"class_list":["post-465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-exhibits","category-sources-of-inspiration","tag-archaeology","tag-education","tag-indiana-jones","tag-movie","tag-online-exhibits"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/anth331\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/anth331\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/anth331\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/anth331\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/anth331\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/anth331\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":468,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/anth331\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465\/revisions\/468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/anth331\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/anth331\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/anth331\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}