Indiana Jones Research Paper

Indiana Jones is a classic movie about a college professor who teaches ethical archaeology in class but when he’s outside of the classroom he is out in the field, fighting bad guys, running from natives, or destroying ancient temples in search for treasure. Although many would like to think this is what archaeology is all about, many real archaeologists would be disgusted to work alongside Indy on a dig. Any real archaeologist can tell you that this hollywood spoof is just a fictional depiction of how the job really is and may create hype of the scientific field but doesn't really show us what the field is really all about. There are codes of ethics to archaeology that our buddy Indy just doesn't quite follow ( Fagan 2012:37). Although it may be no fun to think that archaeology isn't all about running through jungles and stealing ancient artifacts, it’s no joke that Indiana Jones is not a real archaeologist. In the “Raiders of the Lost Tomb” movie the scene opens with Indy stealing a little gold idol off of a pedestal and replacing it with a little bag of sand. That’s not what an archaeologist would do, it’s what

This is another classic looting scenario. Even though the Nazi’s were planning on using the artifact to destroy the world, technically they still had jurisdiction over the artifact. A real archaeologist would have known that. One of the largest struggles for Archaeologists is looting. Thousands of precious artifacts are stolen or damaged each year do to careless and unsanctioned actions by people like Indiana Jones. You could argue that Indy was just using the artifacts for academic purposes but really it was just a scheme to grab the loot for himself. He never recorded any of his findings, took pictures of the sites, or published his records (Fagan 2012:37) All things a true archaeologist would have done right