Allison Brown Dr. Toohey ANTH 1300 5 May 2020 Assignment #2: Archaeology in Popular Culture For this assignment, I decided to watch and review a classic archaeological film that inspired youth in the 1980s and beyond to pursue archaeology, Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark. I fondly remembered this film (and the other two of the trilogy) from my own childhood and was probably even subconsciously inspired to take this course because of them. The film for the most part doesn’t necessarily focus on archaeological aspects and is more concerned with Nazis or chase scenes, however, when archaeology did come into focus it was problematic at best; one of the most notable quotes coming from french archaeologist Belloq, “Archaeology isn’t an exact science”, which contradicts everything presented in this course over the semester. For this assignment, I am going to move chronologically through the film and discuss the elements that stood out most to me as unfair and unrealistic representations of archaeology. The film opens with perhaps the most iconic Indiana Jones scene, the archaeologist trekking through the rainforest in “South America” and discovering the idol from a vaguely Quechua or indigenous South American population, assumingly an Incan or Mayan artifact. In Jones’ pursuit of the idol, he manages to deploy various traps meant to prevent raiders and after taking the artifact the entire archaeological site falls down upon itself, leaving no opportunities for further research or excavation. This type of archaeology is not focused on household populations obviously, but is also only focused on the most valuable archaeological artifact in the area, like an antiquarian. This mentality is confirmed upon return to Jones’ University while when speaking with a peer he mentions that the idol could be found easily in Marrakesh (Morocco) in a market being sold for profit. Additionally, in this scene Jones’ offers artifacts he found on location to be sold to the museum; displaying not only antiquarian instincts, but taking an artifact unlawfully from a nation only to sell it to a museum in another country. When meeting in a bar in Egypt, Jones and Belloq are engaged in a conversation about both of their careers thus far in archaeology. Though not as violent and intense as actual academics, Belloq and Jones seem to have an academic rivalry and want to prove they are the better “archaeologist”. In this conversation, Belloq alludes to Jones starting to use uncharitable ways to seek out his artifacts, “Archeology is our religion, yet we have both fallen from the pure faith”. As mentioned previously, rushed archaeology was spread throughout the film, clearly the producers assuming that no one would want to watch months and months of trowel work and sifting, however, at times Jones and Belloq in Egypt were dismissive and destructive of sites in search of the Ark. This is first clear with Belloq ignoring any site in Tanis that did not have to deal with finding the Ark, I mean, this city was supposedly covered in sand for thousands of years and had been sought after for just as many. Although Belloq and the Nazi’s archaeological mission was to find the Ark for the 3rd Reich and Hitler, a bit more could have been excavated considering their available resources and work force. When Belloq does come to the map room, he simply uses the staff and his copy of the Staff of Ra and then abandons the archaeological marvel that was the laid out reconstruction of presumably The Valley of Kings or another significant archaeological area in Egypt. However, Belloq was not the only archaeologist to ignore the sites, Jones enters the chamber and does the exact same, paying no mind besides a quick glance to the hieroglyphics on the walls and massive features. And later, when trapped in the chamber, Jones pays no mind to the destruction he causes to the site in order to escape. Those features and knowledge of the archaeological site were destroyed and not at all properly recorded. Although Raiders of the Lost Ark makes great entertainment, as we expected it is nowhere near an accurate representation of archaeology today. Archaeology is an exact science that consists of careful excavation and detailed accounts of the site before and after excavation, and obviously no archaeological sites are destroyed.