Newswise — As Indiana Jones fans gear up for a new film featuring the swashbuckling archeologist character, scientists in the real world are bracing themselves for another round of misconceptions about the goals and methods of true archeology.
University of Indianapolis Associate Professor Christopher W. Schmidt, Ph.D., is president of the Indiana Archeology Council and director of UIndy's Indiana Prehistory Laboratory. The Carmel native has enjoyed the film series since his youth and expects the fourth installment, "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," to deliver the same Steven Spielberg magic upon its May 22 release.
Still, the films present a troubling image of archeologists sneaking into distant lands and battling the locals, only to remove important artifacts from their historic context and hand them over to outsiders with dubious motives.
"In archeology, the context of the artifact is more important than the artifact itself " the greatest treasure is the information that is gained," Schmidt says. "We want to provide, rather than take away. Our goal is to work with local communities as much as possible. We get permission before we dig, follow all local and national laws and help local populations to curate and protect their cultural heritage."
Images of Harrison Ford wooing beautiful women and battling Nazis (or Soviet agents, as in the new film) might have attracted some new people to the field, Schmidt acknowledges. Though the true picture of archeology is decidedly less glamorous, the results are far more important to society at large.
"For the most part, it is tedious work in the hot sun," says Schmidt, who each summer leads his undergraduates on excavations at sites up to 10,000 years old. "We collect information about social dynamics and cultural change through time, as well as biological aspects of human life such as health, fertility and diet " information that helps us better understand people today."
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