2.5 Archaeology in Popular Culture

Everybody knows Indiana Jones. Who doesn’t love The Mummy? The Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz one, not the Tom Cruise one. Patrick Stewart plays the dashing Archaeologist Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek TNG. Don’t get me started on Stargate. Popular culture is full of archaeologists - let’s look at them.

The Image of Archaeology

Archaeology comes off well in its media representations. Surprisingly well. And surprisingly cool? It is liked to think so anyway, and if the longevity of characters like Indiana Jones and Lara Croft are anything to go by then so do most people. Archaeology has a certain image in the media, a kind of exciting veneer of danger, intrigue, and globe-trotting investigation. And Archaeology IS exciting, albeit not in the same way it is portrayed. This discussion will be divided into three main categories:

• Adventuring Archaeology
• “Accurate” Archaeology
• Archaeology Tropes

The first of these deals with most of our immediate images of the archaeologist, Indiana Jones swinging through ancient buildings as he gets the treasure and the girl. The second with more grounded archaeological representations - such as the forensic archaeology and anthropology in Bones. The third of these considers common archaeological tropes - particularly the everpresent precursor structures/technology/myths in an astonishing amount of fiction, such as in the excellent Expanse books and series, Mass Effect video games, and our seemingly boundless love of ancient alien and apocalypse pseudoscienceClaims or beliefs that are presented as scientific but lack empirical support or peer review; often present in archaeology-related conspiracy theories..