Is the fictional professor a hero or a villain? This is what the researchers say.
Harrison Ford also stars in the latest movie “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny”. ZumaWire / MVPHOTOS
If you look Indiana Jones in the same style as the famous devil reads Biblethere is a surprise in store.
In real life, the work of archaeologists is different than in the movies.
Researchers digging into the mysteries of the past are less likely, for example, to hang from moving cars, be prisoners of Nazi tanks, or plunge into a hail of bullets.
But what do industry professionals think about movies and their heroes? Is Harrison Ford’s Jones an admirable hero or a miserable villain?
Live Science website about science topics tackled the topic by asking scientists for their opinions.
“It’s robbery”
Some of the scientists interviewed by Live Science find Jones’s character to be terrible.
– What he is doing is not archaeology, it is robbery. If people get excited about archeology because they want to do the same, they’re going to be disappointed, anthropology professor Anne Pyburn from Indiana University in Bloomington commented to the newspaper.
Another researcher points out that in movies archaeologists focus on artifacts.
Real archaeologists, on the other hand, see historical objects as enablers that help us understand the past better. Covering the ancient islands for the sake of the goods themselves is not the main goal of the research.
– While Indy is motivated by “wealth and glory”, we are inspired by the study of past cultures, Laurie Mirnoff Binghamton University’s Department of Archeology says.
An inspiring character
Some researchers find positive things in movies. They say that movies, for example, have made archeology more interesting in the eyes of the general public.
– Over the years, the character of Indiana Jones has inspired many young people to study the field of archaeology, professor of cultural studies Cornelius Holtorf Linné University commented to the newspaper.
Holtorf believes that the films have made many people visit museums and archeological sites and watch documentaries on historical subjects.