Published: May 01, 2008 10:01 am            

Budding archeaologists aren't hunting a Dr. Jones lifestyle

'Indiana Jones' fiction, real scientists insist, but series still fun

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. — In a way, I’m even with Indiana Jones.



Snakes, his phobia, don’t scare me. Normal snakes, at least. Then again, I wouldn’t want to find out if I’m capable of outrunning a speeding boulder.



Even if I could, that ability wouldn’t qualify me to be an archaeologist. In fact, the seven Indiana State University anthropology majors who have studied archaeology and who will graduate Saturday won’t be asked to re-create Jones’ feats in their own careers. The three classic Indiana Jones movies from the 1980s, and the new “Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” due out this month, are fantastic cinema but not real life.



The world’s most famous archaeologist does little genuine archaeology.



“We don’t carry guns or whips. There’s no running from boulders. We might run from some indigenous people,” said ISU senior Ben Orcutt, “but archaeology is a science.



“I do have a nice hat like that, though,” he added.



Indiana Jones’ hats were hot items after each release of those first three Harrison Ford movies: “Raiders of the Lost Ark” in 1981; “The Temple of Doom” in 1984; and “The Last Crusade” in 1989. No doubt, they’ll pop up again this summer after “Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” premieres May 22. Whip sales might spike, too.



Because Ford’s character — Dr. Henry “Indiana” Jones Jr., Ph.D. — is a professor of archaeology, interest in that field also surged in the 1980s.



Nineteen years have passed since the last release. Orcutt, 26, was just a kid then, though he remembers watching the movies with his parents. If the Indiana Jones series sparked his interest in archaeology, that inspiration was subliminal.



“I’m sure it probably did, but that was so long ago,” Orcutt said. “I don’t remember.”



The time lapse between “The Last Crusade” and “Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” intrigues Orcutt more than the new film’s depiction of archaeology.



“I’m actually interested in this one to see how they make Harrison Ford look,” Orcutt said. “He’s pretty old.”



Yes, to whippersnapper twentysomethings, the 65-year-old actor is downright ancient. But Ford searching for a crystal cranium hardly seems as ludicrous as Sylvester Stallone stepping into the boxing ring at 60 to revisit “Rocky Balboa.” So rock on, Indy.



Indiana Jones is all about fantasy anyway, and most professional archaeologists are willing to suspend reality for a couple hours in a theater.



“It’s pretty much fiction, but I enjoy the series,” said Russell Stafford, ISU professor of anthropology and director of its anthropology lab.



Back in the 1980s, Stafford worked for the Center for American Archaeology in Illinois, and one of his superiors wasn’t exactly enamored with Professor Jones’ on-screen behavior.



“He was appalled,” Stafford said. “He thought it set archaeology back 50 years. It showed archaeologists digging up golden idols and buried treasure.”

By contrast, Stafford kept Hollywood’s creations in perspective, and took a group of Northwestern University students to see one of the Jones flicks.



In reality, practicing archaeologists approach their craft with a greater ethical reverence for the contents of their work sites than does Indy. They uncover evidence of mankind’s past, hidden materials, tools, dwellings and sometimes human remains.



Scavenging for treasures isn’t part of it.



“There’s an underlying thought [in the films] that people are doing it for profit, and that’s not archaeology at all,” Stafford said.



Last summer, Stafford and a dozen ISU students spent six weeks at an archaeological dig in a remote field campus on Terre Haute’s north side. Jenny Hildebrand was among that group, working from 8 a.m. until late afternoon. She enjoyed the experience, but there were no Indiana Jones moments.



“You’re out in the sun, and you’re sweating, and you’re digging, and you’re using your trowel,” said Hildebrand, who’ll graduate Saturday with an anthropology degree.



Their excavating did reveal hints of a bygone civilization. They found sherds (pieces of ceramic pots), lithics (tool materials), fire-cracked rock and animal bones near the fire site.

“So we really lucked out,” Hildebrand said. “Every time you do a site, it’s not like you find human remains.”



Anthropologists do study human remains. That aspect of the field is more recently characterized in pop culture by the “CSI” television shows than the “Indiana Jones” movies. Stafford said some of his graduates could find careers in criminal investigation as forensic anthropologists, “focusing on the skeletal remains that are recovered” to determine a victim’s age, sex, race and cause of death.



“You’re trying to solve a puzzle,” Stafford said.



As for Indiana Jones, Hildebrand — a 22-year-old from Danville, Ind. — said she hadn’t watched any of the original film trilogy until two months ago.



“Everybody started making fun of me because I’m pursuing archaeology and I’d never seen the movies,” she said.



Once Hildebrand saw the shows, she liked them.



“I thought it was interesting,” she said. “Obviously, it was not realistic. It gives you the wrong impression about archaeologists. You don’t try to find treasures, and you don’t have people trying to kill you every five minutes. It’s not that dramatic.”



Still, Hildebrand, Orcutt and the other May graduates want to earn a living in archaeology. Hildebrand envisions a job in cultural resource management or surveying in the Southwest. Orcutt likes the Pacific Northwest and may do some “shovel bumming” there, going from one construction site to another, helping to excavate and preserve any artifacts uncovered. Solving mysteries about early Native American cultures and New World settlers fascinates Orcutt, even without run-away boulders.



“Archaeology is not like the [Indiana Jones movies] at all,” he said. “It’s much more methodical.”







Mark Bennett can be reached at mark.bennett@tribstar.com or (812) 231-4377.

        

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.