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Is Indiana Jones Bad for Archaeology?:

Archaeology is the search for facts...forget about lost cities and exotic travel...' so said Indiana Jones in the film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989). Yet the last part of that sentence typifies Indiana Jones and the facts get left by the wayside. His is the life of adventure, where skulduggery, quests and secret societies haunt the world. Yes, these may only be films, but what impression does it give about archaeology, when any self-respected and professional archaeologist is always compared to a fictional adventurer, rather than being appreciated for their real work.

It all started early for Indiana Jones, enjoying adventures that school boys and adults could only dream about. Later, his most famous adventures involved quests for supernatural objects, the Ark of the Covenant and the Holy Grail. You can't afford to take mythology at face value,' he says, but off he goes gallivanting around the world; adventure over archaeology. His every adventure has a conspiracy, whether it's Nazis or evil temple worshippers, and there are secret societies such as the Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword who are sworn to protect the secret of the Holy Grail. Even for an Inter-War period film, there is also a lack of proper procedures and often destruction of viable property is used to reach artefacts. Who can forget that scene in the church in Venice when Indiana Jones discovers that the tomb of Sir Richard lies beneath the 'X' marked on the floor and proceeds to hammer a hole into it, in what is a scene of comic relief. This was an irresponsible action and prejudices people to the way archaeologists behave.

Indiana Jones is driven by a passion to find things. Many of his colleagues and rivals have obsessions and personal ambitions leading to deceit and double-crosses. Even his own father, a historian, is obsessed with finding the Holy Grail and bizarrely states The search for the Grail is not archaeology, but a race against evil.'; more supernatural clap-trap and definitely not the words of a devoted professional. The life of Indiana Jones is more adventure than work. Nothing is learned, nor nothing gained through or about archaeology. Through the films, archaeologists are trivialised as treasure hunters, so archaeology is also trivialised. Archaeologists are seen as glory seekers with maps to lost lands, as greedy grave robbers intent on outwitting the 'savage natives', and enduring all sorts of creepy-crawlies

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