tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/indiana-jones-20529/articlesIndiana Jones – The Conversation2023-07-31T05:49:25Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2099682023-07-31T05:49:25Z2023-07-31T05:49:25ZWhat Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny gets right (and very wrong) about the historical Antikythera Mechanism<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540080/original/file-20230731-241351-48r2yd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3994%2C1994&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Disney/ Wikipedia</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>At the heart of the newest film in the Indiana Jones series lies “an ancient hunk of gears”. <a href="https://theconversation.com/harrison-ford-is-back-as-an-80-year-old-indiana-jones-and-a-40-something-indy-the-highs-and-lows-of-returning-to-iconic-roles-202357">Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny</a> is based around the <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-84310-w">Antikythera Mechanism</a>: an actual ancient Greek object that tracked the cycles of the Sun, the Moon, and the planets against the stars. </p>
<p>The Antikythera mechanism and its bronze gearwheels totally reconfigured the study of ancient technology. It was among a bunch of other antiquities pulled out of a shipwreck by <a href="https://dan.org/alert-diver/article/the-story-of-sponge-divers/">sponge divers</a> in 1901. And it was tangible proof of a level of technological sophistication otherwise thought impossible for the first century BCE.</p>
<p>As a scholar of ancient Greek technology, seeing a blockbuster based around the Antikythera Mechanism is deeply satisfying. Moviegoers will leave the theatre with some facts about the Antikythera mechanism under their belt. Its fragmentary state. Its link to underwater archaeology. The complexity of the gears. The presence of Greek inscriptions. Its association with cosmology. The rival characters of physicist Voller and Jones even point to the way decoding the Antikythera mechanism has only been possible thanks to collaborations between science, archaeology, mathematics and ancient history.</p>
<p>As the movie progresses, the mechanism inevitably leaves the realm of history and enters fantasy. It becomes a time machine of sorts, used to predict “fissures in time”. Along the way, the film gives us a chance to reflect both on ancient technology in modern pop culture, and on our complex ongoing relationship with the Greeks and the Romans.</p>
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<span class="caption">A fragment of the Antikythera Mechanism (fragment A). The mechanism consists of a complex system of 30 wheels and plates with inscriptions relating to signs of the zodiac, months, eclipses and pan-Hellenic games.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikipedia</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<h2>Archimedes and Nazis</h2>
<p>The film begins with Nazi eyes initially set on a different object: the lance of Longinus. Once it is revealed the lance is a fake, there is some anxiety around how to present the far less snazzy relic of the Antikythera to Hitler instead. The sell for the film’s audience and for the Führer is Archimedes himself.</p>
<p>Today, this third century BCE mathematician from Syracuse is a household name. He is associated with inventions such as the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archimedes%27_screw">Archimedes screw</a> used to draw-up water in Assyria and Egypt. The <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fact-or-fiction-archimede/">eureka story</a> accompanying his discovery of water displacement while taking a bath. Harnessing the <a href="http://www.unmuseum.org/burning_mirror.htm">power of the Sun</a> to set Roman ships aflame. His theoretical dictum on the <a href="https://math.nyu.edu/%7Ecrorres/Archimedes/Lever/LeverIntro.html">law of the lever</a>. And as shown with Indie’s latest antics, the Antikythera mechanism can be added to the list of intriguing myths associated with the ancient mathematician.</p>
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<p>In the film, Helena (Phoebe Waller-Bridge) steals the “device” in order to sell it at an illegal antiquities auction. Trying to hike up the price, Helena explains it was built by Archimedes himself. It’s one thing to attribute the design of the mechanism to Archimedes (some <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature07130">academic papers</a> in fact toy with the same idea). But to imagine this renowned inventor figure physically putting the pieces of the gears together stretches even the best of the evidence. Notably, it completely removes the collaborative nature of ancient scientific practice.</p>
<p>It does, however, tell us a lot about how we tend to perceive ancient technology. It shows how badly we want to link historical inventions to a single genius from the past.</p>
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<h2>So what IS the Antikythera mechanism?</h2>
<p>What survives of the mechanism is 82 bronze fragments – seven large and 75 small. Together these make up only one third of the original whole.</p>
<p>The Antikythera mechanism would not have been a disc as in the film, but rather a box covered in circles. On the back you could see two large spirals and three smaller dials which tracked the passing of time according to different calendars. There was also an inscription which acted as a kind of user manual. </p>
<p>On the front was large single dial of concentric circles with a number of pointers jutting out towards its very many inscribed segments. These pointers landed in different rings to indicate the phases of the Moon, the phases of the planets, the signs of the zodiac. Hiding inside this external shell was a complex arrangement of precision gears. These allowed a user to put the Antikythera mechanism into motion by carefully rotating a knob.</p>
<p>This portable machine was incredibly capable. It predicted eclipses according to a Babylonian cycle of the Moon. It reconciled various lunar cycles and three different types of calendar months. It matched the Greek zodiac scale with the Egyptian calendar.</p>
<p>This object brought together astronomical understandings from multiple cultures. It is physical proof of centuries of collaborative science.</p>
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<span class="caption">Archimedes Thoughtful (also known as Portrait of a Scholar) by Domenico Fetti, 1620.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikipedia</span></span>
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<h2>The Antikythera mechanism, Hollywood, and Silicon Valley</h2>
<p>Though this is the first time the mechanism has featured in a Hollywood blockbuster, the Antikythera has not been camera shy. From as early as the 1950s, the Antikythera mechanism was called a “computer” by scholars working on the device. This was quickly picked up by mainstream media. </p>
<p>In the last 15 years, the Antikythera mechanism has seen a revival of popular interest featuring in <a href="https://youtu.be/qqlJ50zDgeA">BBC Series</a>, <a href="https://www.antikythera-mechanism.gr/media/movies/worlds-first-computer">documentaries</a>, articles (both <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/444534a">scholarly</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/mar/12/scientists-move-closer-to-solving-mystery-of-antikythera-mechanism">popular</a>), <a href="https://youtu.be/-I_Ns7O35cE">YouTube videos</a> as well as various museum exhibits around the world.</p>
<p>The common thread is that in looking at the Antikythera mechanism, you are looking at the “world’s first computer”. The same is often said of <a href="https://www.ipl.org/essay/Homers-Iliad-The-Evolution-Of-Artificial-Intelligence-FJRHS2NEFG">Homer’s Iliad predicting AI</a>, and of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teA8nw9W0IA">ancient Greek automata</a> being the world’s oldest robots.</p>
<p>This points to our obsession with drawing neat lines from the Greeks and the Romans to modern society.</p>
<p>Really, this tech saviourism does no-one any favours. It certainly does not do justice to the ancient object. It assumes that what drove ancient scientific pursuits is the same as what drives our own. It distracts us from understanding what the ancient object did in its context, how it was used, and what it meant to those using it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/209968/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tatiana Bur does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Antikythera Mechanism is an actual ancient Greek object that tracked the cycles of the Sun, the Moon and the planets against the stars.Tatiana Bur, Lecturer in Classics, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2023572023-06-30T05:51:17Z2023-06-30T05:51:17ZHarrison Ford is back as an 80-year-old Indiana Jones – and a 40-something Indy. The highs (and lows) of returning to iconic roles<p>Saddle up, don the fedora and crack that whip: Harrison Ford is back as the intrepid archaeologist in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. The film premiered at Cannes, where Ford was <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/harrison-ford-honorary-palme-dor-cannes-1235495463/">awarded</a> an Honorary Palme d’Or in recognition of his life’s work. </p>
<p>Reviews for the fifth film in the franchise <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/indiana-jones-5-review-roundup-1235495961/">have been mixed</a>, and it is the first Indy film not to be directed by Steven Spielberg (this time, it’s James Mangold, best known for his motor-racing drama Ford v Ferrari). </p>
<p>But this is “event” cinema that combines nostalgia, old-school special effects and John Williams’ <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-jaws-to-star-wars-to-harry-potter-john-williams-90-today-is-our-greatest-living-composer-176245">iconic score</a>.</p>
<p>So, Ford is back, aged 80. What draws actors back after all this time? </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-jaws-to-star-wars-to-harry-potter-john-williams-90-today-is-our-greatest-living-composer-176245">From Jaws to Star Wars to Harry Potter: John Williams, 90 today, is our greatest living composer</a>
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<h2>Role returns</h2>
<p>Ford first played Indy in 1981 and last played him in 2008. That is a full 15 years since the most recent film in the series, and 42 years since his first outing in Raiders of the Lost Ark. </p>
<p>Ford has form in returning to celebrated characters. One of the great pleasures of watching The Force Awakens back in 2015 was seeing Ford play Han Solo again for the <a href="https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3j2j09">first time in over 30 years</a>.</p>
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<p>Actors return to roles for numerous reasons: </p>
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<li>financial (Ford was reportedly paid <a href="https://okmagazine.com/exclusives/harrison-ford-paid-indiana-jones-5-plagued-with-problems/">US$25 million</a> for Dial of Destiny)</li>
<li>protection of their brand, image and star persona (Michael Keaton <a href="https://www.fortressofsolitude.co.za/the-flash-movies-biggest-hero-how-michael-keaton-saved-the-film/">returning to play Batman</a> after three decades and three other actors who have embodied the role) </li>
<li>professional (Tom Cruise admitted over the 36 years between Top Gun films he wanted to make sure the sequel <a href="https://screenrant.com/top-gun-maverick-tom-cruise-return-how-explained/">could live up to the original</a>)</li>
<li>personal (once-huge stars are working less and less, and only feel the need to return to a built-in fan base every few years – Bill Murray in the 2021 Ghostbusters sequel springs to mind).</li>
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<p>It’s not always a successful endeavour. </p>
<p>Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone – two of the biggest action stars of the 1980s off the back of iconic roles as The Terminator, Rocky Balboa and John Rambo – have repeatedly returned to those roles, and critics have been <a href="https://screenrant.com/terminator-dark-fate-undermined-john-connor-storyline-franchise-bad/">particularly harsh</a>. </p>
<p>It did not work for Sigourney Weaver in <a href="https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/alien-resurrection-1997">Alien: Resurrection</a> in 1997, 18 years after her first time as Ripley; nor for Keanu Reeves in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/dec/21/the-matrix-resurrections-review-keanu-reeves">The Matrix Resurrections</a> in 2021, 23 years after the original. </p>
<p>And still, I’m intrigued to see what Michael Mann could do with his long-rumoured sequel to Heat, his definitive 1995 crime film. Ever since Mann published his novel Heat 2 last year – a kind of origin story for Heat’s key protagonists – fans have been hoping a de-aged Al Pacino (now aged 83) <a href="https://deadline.com/2023/04/michael-mann-heat-2-warner-bros-adam-driver-young-neil-mccauley-1235316777/">might return</a> as LA cop Vincent Hanna.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/heat-2-the-book-sequel-to-michael-manns-film-is-fundamentally-bizarre-but-superb-189132">Heat 2, the book sequel to Michael Mann's film, is 'fundamentally bizarre' – but superb</a>
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<h2>Undoing time</h2>
<p>“Digital de-ageing” first entered the Hollywood mainstream in 2019 with The Irishman and Captain Marvel. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.indiewire.com/features/craft/de-aging-actors-history-benjamin-button-dial-of-destiny-harrison-ford-1234863938/">Via this process</a>, older actors (Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Samuel L. Jackson have all been subject to the technology) move back and forwards in time without younger actors having to play them. </p>
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<p>Films still tend to cast two actors to play older and younger versions of the same character, a choice that dates back at least to 1974’s The Godfather Part II, in which a young Robert de Niro plays Vito Corleone, portrayed by the much older Marlon Brando in the first film. </p>
<p>In 1989, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade features a delightful opening scene where River Phoenix plays the young version of Indiana Jones, before Ford takes over for the rest of the film.</p>
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<p>Actors used to just play characters of their own age when reprising earlier roles. Paul Newman finally won a Best Actor Oscar for his role as “Fast Eddie” Felson in The Color of Money (1986), a quarter of a century after first playing him in The Hustler. </p>
<p>The sequel plays on Newman’s age, and his role as a mentor to an upcoming Tom Cruise, and bathes viewers in nostalgia and memories of <a href="https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/paul-newman-schooled-tom-cruise-the-color-of-money/">a younger Newman</a>. </p>
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<p>But actors no longer have to exclusively play their age.</p>
<p>The first part of Dial of Destiny is an extended flashback, set in 1944, in which Ford has been digitally de-aged to appear in his 40s. This process used an AI system that scanned used and unused reels of footage of Ford from <a href="https://www.cbr.com/harrison-ford-de-aging-indiana-jones-dial-of-destiny/">the first three Indy films</a> to match his present-day performance.</p>
<p>Here, it is as if we are getting two Fords for the price of one: the “younger”, fitter Indy and the older, more world-weary version. It makes for a powerfully emotional connection on screen. </p>
<p>Yet there are some <a href="https://variety.com/2023/film/awards/indiana-jones-5-harrison-ford-de-aging-not-working-1235618698/">pitfalls to de-ageing</a>. Some viewers complain that the whole process is distracting and that the hyper-real visual look of de-aged scenes resembles a video game. </p>
<p>Even so, de-ageing in Hollywood cinema is here to stay. Tom Hanks’s <a href="https://variety.com/2023/film/news/tom-hanks-robin-wright-digitally-deaged-robert-zemeckis-movie-1235507766/">next film</a> is using AI-based generative technology to digitally de-age him. </p>
<p>Given its reduced cost, speed and reduced human input, AI-driven innovation might have <a href="https://filmstories.co.uk/news/new-ai-driven-de-ageing-tools-to-be-used-in-tom-hanks-project/">industry-changing ramifications</a>.</p>
<h2>The star of Ford</h2>
<p>Harrison Ford remains a bona fide “movie star” in an industry profoundly buffeted by COVID, the rise of streaming platforms, the demise of the monoculture, and the changing nature of who constitutes a star. </p>
<p>In the midst of all this industry uncertainty, it seems there is no longer a statute of limitations on actors returning to much-loved characters.</p>
<p>The next big ethical issue for the film industry as it further embraces AI is whether to <a href="https://collider.com/james-dean-digital-cgi-performance-in-new-movie/">resurrect deceased actors</a> and cast them in new movies. </p>
<p>Still, I’m looking forward to seeing more actors de-aged as the technology improves and audiences acclimatise to watching older actors “playing” younger versions of themselves. We are only at the start of Hollywood’s next big adventure.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/listen-indiana-joness-last-ride-a-legacy-to-celebrate-or-bury-208557">Listen — Indiana Jones's last ride: A legacy to celebrate or bury?</a>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ben McCann does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Actors love to return to their most famous roles decades later – and digital de-ageing is Hollywood’s next big thing.Ben McCann, Associate Professor of French Studies, University of AdelaideLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2085572023-06-29T15:03:50Z2023-06-29T15:03:50ZListen — Indiana Jones’s last ride: A legacy to celebrate or bury?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534185/original/file-20230626-19-s9axwz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=36%2C1%2C1257%2C721&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">'Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny' comes out in theatres on June 30. The fifth in a series over 42 years, many of its originating ideas are taken from 19th-century racist archaeology. Will this iteration be different?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Walt Disney Pictures)</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe height="200px" width="100%" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="https://player.simplecast.com/8f4853b0-cd33-48af-9d8a-77c625f697b0?dark=true"></iframe>
<p>I love watching a good adventure movie, especially at the start of summer. I have some great memories of eating popcorn in the local suburban movie theatre while we watched aliens take over a spaceship or a group of kids hunt for long-lost treasure in an underground cave.</p>
<p>At the same time, even as a kid, I remember thinking how awful some of the racial and gender stereotypes were. </p>
<p>I specifically remember watching <em>Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom</em> and cringing at the representations onscreen, especially, the <a href="https://scroll.in/reel/805944/temple-of-doom-is-the-indiana-jones-movie-that-indians-wont-forget-in-a-hurry">ruthless and flat-dimensioned South Asian characters and the ridiculous idea that Indians ate monkey brains</a> — and then there was little Short Round, Indy’s child guide and sidekick played by the young Ke Huy Quan.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534382/original/file-20230627-23-73q8up.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534382/original/file-20230627-23-73q8up.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534382/original/file-20230627-23-73q8up.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534382/original/file-20230627-23-73q8up.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=255&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534382/original/file-20230627-23-73q8up.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534382/original/file-20230627-23-73q8up.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534382/original/file-20230627-23-73q8up.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The late Amrish Puri played the critically acclaimed villain in ‘Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Lucas Films)</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>With the series, filmmakers George Lucas and Steven Spielberg showcased nostalgia for the early mid-century with Indiana Jones, the humanitarian Hunter College professor turned adventurer at the centre. Indy outran all kinds of harrows to ensure the ancient artifacts he chased ended up where he thought they belonged: “in a museum.” (Another now famous line is from <em>Black Panther</em> when Erik Killmonger asks a museum curator: “How do you think your ancestors got these?”)</p>
<h2>Guilty pleasure or irredeemable Orientalism?</h2>
<p>Well, the final Indiana Jones movie, <em>Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny</em> is coming out tomorrow, 42 years after the first movie was released. </p>
<p>As the series comes to an end, we explore Indy’s complicated legacy — and his famous line: “it belongs in a museum.” </p>
<p>Will <em>Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny</em> reflect the changes in anthropology departments and <a href="https://theconversation.com/museums-are-returning-indigenous-human-remains-but-progress-on-repatriating-objects-is-slow-67378">the growing movements from Indigenous</a> and Global South communities to return <a href="https://theconversation.com/to-accurately-portray-histories-museums-need-to-do-more-than-reimagine-galleries-189109">stolen objects and ancestors from western museums</a>? Will it consider that <a href="https://theconversation.com/protecting-heritage-is-a-human-right-99501">Eurocentric notions of what holds heritage has finally expanded beyond the artifact</a>?</p>
<p>Will this new movie be full of highly problematic stories? Or a guilty pleasure? Or, can it be both?</p>
<p>Historian Christopher Heaney has spent a lot of time thinking about this. He’s written a book <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780230112049/cradleofgold">about the “original” Indiana Jones</a> and wrote <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/burying-indiana-jones">“Burying Indiana Jones” for <em>The New Yorker</em></a>. He’s a professor of Latin American History at Penn State University and he joined me on <a href="https://dont-call-me-resilient.simplecast.com/episodes/indiana-joness-last-ride-a-legacy-to-celebrate-or-bury"><em>Don’t Call Me Resilient</em></a> — our last episode of the season, and just in time for summer blockbuster season — to unpack everything Indiana Jones.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">‘How do you think your ancestors got these?’ ‘Black Panther’ offers a response to ‘it belongs in a museum.’</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Read more</h2>
<p><a href="https://mronline.org/2023/05/04/indiana-jones-hollywoods-chief-colonial-pilferer-is-back/">“Indiana Jones, Hollywood’s chief colonial pilferer, is back”</a> (<em>Monthly Review</em>)</p>
<p><em><a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/empires-of-the-dead-9780197542552?cc=ca&lang=en&">Empires of the Dead</a></em> by Christopher Heaney (Oxford University Press)</p>
<p><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/08/how-to-fake-an-alien-mummy/535251/">“The Racism Behind Alien Mummy Hoaxes”</a> (<em>The Atlantic</em>)</p>
<p><a href="https://blackgirlnerds.com/it-does-not-belong-in-a-museum-indiana-jones-colonizer-legacy/">“It does not belong in a museum”</a> (<em>Black Girl Nerds</em>)</p>
<p><a href="https://www.newarab.com/features/can-indiana-jones-overcome-its-orientalist-past">“Can Indiana Jones overcome its Orientalist past?”</a> (<em>The New Arab</em>)</p>
<p><em><a href="https://uncpress.org/book/9780807837153/decolonizing-museums/">Decolonizing Museums</a></em> by Amy Lonetree (UNC Press)</p>
<h2>From The Conversation</h2>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/to-accurately-portray-histories-museums-need-to-do-more-than-reimagine-galleries-189109">To accurately portray histories, museums need to do more than ‘reimagine’ galleries</a>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/benin-bronzes-what-is-the-significance-of-their-repatriation-to-nigeria-171444">Benin bronzes: What is the significance of their repatriation to Nigeria?</a>
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<em>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/protecting-heritage-is-a-human-right-99501">Protecting heritage is a human right</a>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/belize-shows-how-local-engagement-is-key-in-repatriating-cultural-artifacts-from-abroad-171363">Belize shows how local engagement is key in repatriating cultural artifacts from abroad</a>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/museums-are-returning-indigenous-human-remains-but-progress-on-repatriating-objects-is-slow-67378">Museums are returning indigenous human remains but progress on repatriating objects is slow</a>
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<h2>Our recs: Kids adventure movies/shows</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUTtJjV852c&ab_channel=ParamountPictures"><em>Dora the Explorer and the Lost City of Gold</em></a></li>
<li><a href="https://animatedviews.com/2019/director-juan-antin-talks-about-pachamama-on-netflix/"><em>Pachamama</em></a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.netflix.com/ca/title/81023618"><em>Finding Ohana</em></a></li>
<li><a href="https://etcanada.com/news/951562/mira-nair-on-the-non-white-america-in-national-treasure-edge-of-history-love-it/"><em>National Treasure: Edge of History</em></a></li>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Trailer of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (Lucas Films) ‘You’ve taken your chances, made your mistakes, and now, a final triump,’ Phoebe Walter-Bridge says to Jones.</span></figcaption>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208557/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
The final Indiana Jones movie is coming out June 30. The fifth in a series over 42 years, many of its ideas are taken from 19th-century orientalist and racist archaeology.Vinita Srivastava, Host + Producer, Don't Call Me ResilientLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1762452022-02-07T19:09:07Z2022-02-07T19:09:07ZFrom Jaws to Star Wars to Harry Potter: John Williams, 90 today, is our greatest living composer<p>John Williams, the man who changed the way we hear the movies, turns 90 today.</p>
<p>As the key Hollywood composer during the blockbuster era of the 1970s and 1980s, Williams had an astronomical career alongside the likes of filmmakers Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. </p>
<p>With his music for their movies, Williams revived the romantic orchestral sound of Hollywood’s Golden Age – the sound pioneered by composers <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uT6dLPfSCL8">Erich Wolfgang Korngold</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EESHIpo4Lgk">Max Steiner</a> at the dawn of the talkies – and reinvented it for a new era. </p>
<p>“John Williams has been the single most significant contributor to my success as a filmmaker,” <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/deceptivecadence/2012/11/10/164615420/john-williams-inevitable-themes">said Spielberg in 2012</a>.</p>
<p>On the numbers alone, Williams has had a career like no other. If you were going to the movies between 1970 and 1990, every second year would have had a number one box office hit with music by Williams. </p>
<p>This prolific era saw Williams write music for <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0In9gXH7Yg">Jaws</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9lapdvLSGw">Star Wars</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgncJgSbbck">Indiana Jones</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbUGsbZWitw">Close Encounters of the Third Kind</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoFmHjdyre4">Superman</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olHOAnPY1GI">E.T. The Extra Terrestrial</a> – an abundant run by any standard.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/45-years-on-the-jaws-theme-manipulates-our-emotions-to-inspire-terror-136462">45 years on, the 'Jaws' theme manipulates our emotions to inspire terror</a>
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<p>Williams today holds 52 Academy Award nominations (and five wins), the most nominations of any living human and second in history only to Walt Disney. Williams can add to that 72 Grammy Award nominations (and 25 wins), 16 BAFTA nominations (seven wins) and six Emmy nominations (three wins). </p>
<p>He has written music for the Olympics (in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWdOFgDQIn0">1984</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QLee9g-fzk">1988</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3kNRyh_rj8">1996</a> and the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaWyOylQnI4">2002</a> Winter Olympics), for a Presidential inauguration (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GoRIQ9cwG8">for Barack Obama in 2009</a>) and for the nightly news (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAzc-P9uMpI">NBC – also used by Channel Seven in Australia</a>).</p>
<p>When adjusted for inflation, one-fifth of <a href="https://www.boxofficemojo.com/chart/top_lifetime_gross_adjusted/?adjust_gross_to=2019">the top 100 films at the North American box office</a> have music by Williams.</p>
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<h2>The sound of the silver screen</h2>
<p>By re-energising the sound of the Hollywood orchestra in the 1970s, Williams linked history with the present. The films he is most associated with from this era – things like Star Wars and Indiana Jones – are deliberate throwbacks to an older form of storytelling. </p>
<p>Outside the multiplex in the 1970s, the public worried about Watergate, Vietnam and the threat of Cold War nuclear war. Inside cinemas however, with the music of Williams, was a moment of escape and excitement.</p>
<p>Then there are those melodies. By now, reading this article, it’s likely you’ve already hummed some John Williams to yourself or are suffering an earworm. Between his major hits of the blockbuster era and his later work like the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbUeK1PP7-s">Home Alone</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtHra9tFISY">Harry Potter</a> franchises, Williams has written some of the most widely-recognisable melodies on earth. </p>
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<p>This is no coincidence: despite the orchestral complexity of his music, <a href="https://www.empireonline.com/movies/features/indiana-jones-john-williams/">Williams admits</a> he often spends the most time devising his melodies and perfecting them, lifting a note here, lowering another there.</p>
<p>For the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZj7gUIO-2k">five note alien “hello”</a> in Close Encounters Williams <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=fH9XAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA208&lpg=PA208&dq=john+williams+five+note+variations&source=bl&ots=UMsbIu-DAL&sig=ACfU3U2tRfrvK3RxBizzxScP9EZhnyD_pA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjyxsnHtOz1AhUu6XMBHUSWDs0Q6AF6BAgnEAM#v=onepage&q=john%20williams%20five%20note%20variations&f=false">formulated hundreds of variations</a> before settling on the one heard in the final film.</p>
<p>For several of his themes – <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7HF4JG1pOg">The Imperial March</a> from The Empire Strikes Back, or Superman’s theme, for example – it feels less like Williams composed them as he simply reached into our collective consciousness and redeployed what was already there.</p>
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<h2>The art of homage</h2>
<p>For much of the period of his success, Williams has been looked down upon by some in the classical establishment as writing simple popular ditties, or worse, as a rampant plagiarist of the classical canon. </p>
<p>It is no secret Williams’ music takes influence from the greats, like Stravinsky, Holst and Dvořák. Sometimes, the influence becomes direct allusion, as with Howard Hanson’s <a href="https://youtu.be/nN4li1lVReQ">Romantic Symphony</a> and <a href="https://youtu.be/P7CyzH6R7f4?t=264">the conclusion of E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial</a>.</p>
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<p>But these “gotcha” comparisons are superficial, dull, and miss the point. </p>
<p>“Any fool can see that,” <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/934785">Brahms is meant to have said</a> when asked about the similarities between his second symphony and Beethoven. </p>
<p>Williams was writing music for films that were also deliberate throwbacks. One might as well complain about how Star Wars borrows Flash Gordon’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnOL8Fx3Tvc">opening crawl</a>, or the plot of Kurosawa’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hidden_Fortress">Hidden Fortress</a> or <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7x-rzLoeUA">that scene</a> from John Ford’s The Searchers with the burning homestead. </p>
<p>This is how the most popular culture of the 20th century gained its meaning: through evocation, reworking and memory. </p>
<p>In looking to the music of the past, Williams was not having a lend of us. He was asking us to think more deeply about what we were seeing and hearing.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-one-man-changed-the-landscape-of-film-music-29191">How one man changed the landscape of film music</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The celebrity composer</h2>
<p>Today, these complaints have little momentum. Go to any symphony orchestra and you will find at least a few players who picked up their instruments for the first time in order to puzzle out a tune from Star Wars or Indiana Jones. </p>
<p>When Williams made his conducting debut with the famed Vienna Philharmonic in 2019, the <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/persons-of-interest/the-force-is-still-strong-with-john-williams">musicians asked him for autographs</a> like a celebrity at a sports game.</p>
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<p>The classical establishment can now count cellist Yo-Yo Ma, conductor Gustavo Dudamel and violinists Anne-Sophie Mutter and Itzhak Perlman as among the biggest of Williams’ admirers – a who’s who of the elite.</p>
<p>At 90, John Williams is not just one of our most acclaimed living composers. With the power of the movies, and their unparalleled reach, it’s likely Williams is also now one of the most-heard composers to have ever lived.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/176245/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dan Golding does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>John Williams’ compositions have an unparalleled reach. He defined the sound of the 20th century.Dan Golding, Associate professor, Swinburne University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1332432020-05-27T14:02:01Z2020-05-27T14:02:01ZArchaeology is changing, slowly. But it’s still too tied up in colonial practices<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/319620/original/file-20200310-61084-169scwp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">More room should be made for archaeologists who do things differently.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Robyn Walker/HERI</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>For many people, the mention of archaeology makes them think of <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/franchise/indiana_jones">Indiana Jones</a>. He’s the hero of the 1980s movie franchise – but any archaeologist will tell you that Indiana isn’t very good at his job.</p>
<p>For starters, he destroys so much of the contextual information that could tell people more about the site where an artefact was found, the climate at the time, what material was used to make something and whether that material was local or from another area. That’s all just as important as the exciting artefact he’s trying to find.</p>
<p>The films also glorify the long relationship between colonialism and archaeology. Indigenous communities are depicted stereotypically, and Indiana isn’t above violent methods to collect the artefacts he wants. This isn’t poetic licence: <a href="https://theconversation.com/returning-looted-artefacts-will-finally-restore-heritage-to-the-brilliant-cultures-that-made-them-107479">colonialism</a> aided access to sites and the collection and distribution of artefacts. This gave colonial powers control of other cultures’ heritage – especially on <a href="https://qz.com/africa/1622544/why-western-museums-should-return-african-artifacts/">the African continent</a>.</p>
<p>There are <a href="https://qz.com/africa/1622544/why-western-museums-should-return-african-artifacts/">some moves</a> towards recognising archaeology’s colonial history. Some European nations have begun <a href="https://qz.com/africa/1807242/ethiopian-crown-artifact-returned-to-abiy-by-political-refugee/">to return</a> items taken from the African continent by archaeologists. Contemporary archaeologists also do a much better job than Indiana did, trying to understand a site and its social context.</p>
<p>The work we’re doing alongside other scholars at the University of Cape Town’s <a href="https://www.heriuct.co.za/research">Human Evolution Research Institute</a> in South Africa is trying, among other things, to address the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047248418303555?via%3Dihub">legacies of racism and colonialism</a> in archaeology and related sciences.</p>
<h2>A chequered history</h2>
<p>Archaeology’s history in South Africa ties it to <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2017-12-21-00-out-of-the-heart-of-darkness/">race science</a>, which tried to justify racism.</p>
<p>Some of South Africa’s most prized archaeological finds were made by Western men who came to the country to study its people. Mapungubwe, an Iron Age archaeological site, was <a href="http://koedoe.co.za/index.php/koedoe/article/download/89/91">“discovered”</a> by a student and his father who coerced a black local informant into showing them where the sacred hill was.</p>
<p>Archaeologists also <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/aug/18/great-zimbabwe-medieval-lost-city-racism-ruins-plundering">perpetuated the idea</a> that Great Zimbabwe and Mapungubwe, which had large stone wall structures, were constructed by outsiders such as Persians rather than by the African people who lived in these places. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/319623/original/file-20200310-61127-ddw96b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/319623/original/file-20200310-61127-ddw96b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/319623/original/file-20200310-61127-ddw96b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/319623/original/file-20200310-61127-ddw96b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/319623/original/file-20200310-61127-ddw96b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/319623/original/file-20200310-61127-ddw96b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/319623/original/file-20200310-61127-ddw96b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A conical tower in the Great Enclosure of the Great Zimbabwe ruins.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">DeAgostini/Getty Images</span></span>
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<p>Archaeological practices in the 19th and 20th centuries not only sidelined African people’s heritage and knowledge. They also resulted in many important fossils and artefacts being held in institutions outside Africa; many remain there today. African scholars and the indigenous people themselves often <a href="https://theconversation.com/reflections-on-ethiopias-stolen-treasures-on-display-in-a-london-museum-97346">have difficulty accessing this material</a>. </p>
<p>Some things have changed in the past few decades – but problems persist.</p>
<h2>Paper versus practice</h2>
<p>Many countries in Africa have <a href="http://www.panafprehistory.org/en/resources/african_heritage_laws">formal procedures</a> related to accessing archaeological sites. Legislation is also in place in many countries that outlines what’s to be done with material once it’s been discovered. And increasingly researchers are being encouraged or required to work with local researchers and communities.</p>
<p>But what’s on paper doesn’t always translate into practice. Some of the <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2020-03-09-rare-gabon-burial-cave-reveals-clues-to-african-history/">most recent</a> <a href="https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1252619/homo-sapiens-history-archaeology-latest-ancient-history-early-man-science-technolog">significant</a> <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-52133534">advances</a> in the field were made as a result of foreign researchers working in Africa. </p>
<p>While this is recognised, there are problems often with research ethics and processes. That’s not to say foreign researchers shouldn’t be working in African countries. The problem is that their work can still happen with little or no interaction with local people, including researchers as well as communities who live near or on sites. And when locals do share their knowledge, it isn’t always acknowledged. Findings aren’t always shared with them in accessible forms nor is there necessarily protection of indigenous knowledge shared. </p>
<p>For this reason the San Institute of South Africa, for example, has developed a <a href="https://www.news.uct.ac.za/article/-2017-05-23-respect-and-research-lessons-from-the-san-code-of-ethics">Code of Research Ethics</a> for researchers. Many of the continent’s indigenous people are deeply familiar with regions and landscapes on spiritual levels. Some have interacted closely with the types of objects that archaeologists are trying to find. </p>
<p>Often, archaeological sites have acquired new meaning for communities over time. Zimbabwe’s <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/306/">Matobo Hills</a>, for instance, have rock art sites originally produced thousands of years ago. They have subsequently become significant in different ways to local communities and are still of ritual significance. Archaeological research too often interferes with this without any real consultation.</p>
<p>There is also so much valuable local knowledge to tap into that can aid archaeological research. Recently <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2019/12/11/africa/ethiopia-buried-town-discovery-beta-samati-scn/index.html">a whole city was discovered in Ethiopia</a> because of local communities’ knowledge about the site. </p>
<p>It’s crucial for archaeologists to listen deeply and respectfully to indigenous people locally based at sites. There has been some great progress in this direction. The scholar Nthabiseng Mokoena <a href="http://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/jspui/bitstream/10539/19341/1/Mokoena.%20Nthabisengdocx.pdf">examined</a> what the rock art in Matatiele in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province meant to local communities and what this would mean for conservation and research at these sites. Working closely with the community produced recommendations that genuinely included them and protected their sacred sites.</p>
<p>But too often archaeology is still extractive and not aware of <a href="https://archive.archaeology.org/0611/abstracts/sudan.html">sociopolitical issues</a> and research sensitivities. </p>
<h2>Ethical approaches</h2>
<p>A lot of work lies ahead to make sure that archaeology does not perpetuate colonial power dynamics in its practice. There are a few ways to do this.</p>
<p>One of these, which we are championing at the Human Evolution Research Institute, is to <a href="https://www.heriuct.co.za/news-content/a-safe-space-to-research-our-origins">cultivate young African scholars</a>. These scholars are taught to include communities and genuinely value the continent’s heritage and local indigenous knowledge.</p>
<p>Collected material shouldn’t only be available to scientists from the global North. African researchers, in African countries, need to be able to access the continent’s heritage and history and share it with descendant communities. </p>
<p>Ethical practice requires awareness of colonial history and how that has benefited archaeology – and why it’s not sustainable. Indiana Jones’ days are numbered.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/133243/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robyn Humphreys receives funding from the National Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>June Bam-Hutchison works as interim director of the San and Khoe Research Studies Unit within the Centre for African Studies at the University of Cape Town. She is also co-founder of the A/Xarra Restorative Justice Forum an indigenous knowledge partnership with traditional structures established in 2018. Her research in the field has been funded through the National Institute of Human and Social Sciences' Catalytic Precolonial Project through the NRF Chair on Land and Democracy. Her current research with global indigenous scholars on 'deep listening' titled '!Gâ re – Rangatiranga – Dadirri: Decolonizing the ‘capture of knowledge’ is hosted and funded by the Worldwide University Network. She is also a Visiting Professor with Stanford University's overseas programme since 2014. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rebecca Ackermann receives funding from the National Research Foundation and the DST/NRF Centre of Excellence in Palaeosciences.. </span></em></p>There are some moves towards recognising and redressing archaeology’s colonial history.Robyn Humphreys, PhD candidate, Department of Archaeology and Human Evolution Research Institute, University of Cape TownJune Bam-Hutchison, Senior Research Officer Khoe and San Studies, University of Cape TownRebecca Ackermann, Professor, Department of Archaeology and Human Evolution Research Institute, University of Cape TownLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/717562017-01-24T07:28:11Z2017-01-24T07:28:11ZPunching Nazis: what would Indiana Jones do?<p>While millions of people joined a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/21/us/women-march-protest-president-trump.html">worldwide women’s march</a> to protest the inauguration of US President Donald Trump, and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/21/us/politics/trump-white-house-briefing-inauguration-crowd-size.html">a smaller number gathered to celebrate it</a>, parts of the internet were debating the vital question: is it OK to punch Nazis?</p>
<p>The debate was sparked when Richard Spencer – the antagonistic president of the National Policy Institute, a white nationalist think tank – was punched in the face by a masked assailant during a television interview. <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-21/richard-spencer-national-policy-institute-punched-abc-interview/8200270">Captured by the cameras</a> of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, footage of the punch quickly spread across social media. </p>
<p>By the end of the weekend, a number of dedicated hashtags such as <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/punchmorenazis">#punchmorenazis</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23punchyourlocalnazi&src=typd">#punchyourlocalnazi</a> had sprung up. These hashtags countered the recent rebranding of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/27/alt-right-donald-trump-white-supremacy-backlash">white supremacy</a> as the “alt-right”. Instead, users drew historical comparisons between contemporary events in the US and those of 1930s Germany.</p>
<p>Social media users also remixed the footage of the Spencer punch to music, from Disney’s <a href="https://twitter.com/banditelli/status/822619032901873665?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">Frozen</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/Jacqueimo/status/822644112218353664?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">Rage Against the Machine</a> and the <a href="https://twitter.com/RyanPigg/status/822645671555694592">Indiana Jones</a> theme tune. </p>
<p>The choice of Indiana Jones was not coincidental. In fact, it tapped into the growing symbolic value of the film franchise to many of those who resist the world’s political slide to the extreme right.</p>
<p>In the films, archaeologist Professor Indiana Jones is a staunch anti-Nazi. This is perhaps best illustrated by his exploits in <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082971/">Raiders of the Lost Ark</a> (1981) and the moment in <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097576/?ref_=nv_sr_1">Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade</a> (1989) when Jones remarks, “Nazis - I hate these guys”.</p>
<p>So it is not surprising that after Spencer was punched, Indy returned to our screens, albeit on mobile devices rather than in movie theatres. He appeared in memes featuring Nazi fight-scenes from both these movies and in one tweet from comic book writer Gerry Duggan, alongside a still of the Spencer punch and an image of Captain America punching Hitler, dating to the superhero’s first appearance in 1941.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"822603492321796097"}"></div></p>
<h2>Do it like Indiana Jones</h2>
<p>Significant research has been carried out on the <a href="https://www.temple.edu/tempress/titles/2250_reg_print.html">geopolitical symbolism of Captain America</a> but Indy has escaped similar degrees of scrutiny.</p>
<p>A cursory attempt at such an analysis reveals how Indiana Jones, partly through his new associations with Captain America, personifies certain ideas of American patriotism. </p>
<p>This is interesting given that one of the earliest symbolic uses of Indiana Jones can be attributed to a Berlin-based anti-fascist group, whose members would surely find patriotism’s close relationship with nationalism a little problematic. </p>
<p>A sticker that appeared on street corners throughout the German capital between roughly 2008 and 2013, and which is now archived in the <a href="https://artstor.wordpress.com/2017/01/04/sticky-art-the-street-art-graphics-collection/">Street Art Graphics Collection</a> at St. Lawrence University, shows Indy, in his famous fedora, punching a large bare-chested, skin-headed Nazi. Its slogan implores: “Do It Like Indiana Jones”. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/153912/original/image-20170123-8062-1nr3t6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/153912/original/image-20170123-8062-1nr3t6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153912/original/image-20170123-8062-1nr3t6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153912/original/image-20170123-8062-1nr3t6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=430&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153912/original/image-20170123-8062-1nr3t6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153912/original/image-20170123-8062-1nr3t6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/153912/original/image-20170123-8062-1nr3t6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=541&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Antifaschistische Aktion</span></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Nazis: the ultimate bad guys</h2>
<p>Professor Susan Aronstein has described the Nazism depicted in the original Indiana Jones trilogy as an “<a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1225575?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">interchangeable force of darkness</a>”. Casting the Nazis as the bad guys tapped into easily recognisable categories of good and evil helped the films re-establish America as a land of liberty after the Vietnam War. </p>
<p>Since then, Indy’s patriotism has found new targets that complicate his symbolic value for the political left. </p>
<p>In the 2008 reboot, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0367882/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull</a>, the Soviet Union stepped in to become his main adversary. Besides being widely criticised for <a href="http://io9.gizmodo.com/327153/indiana-jones-and-the-jumping-of-the-shark">jumping the shark</a>, or more specifically, <a href="http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1855948_1864100_1864105,00.html">nuking the fridge</a>, the film drew the ire of the Russian Communist party, which <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/communists-see-red-over-indiana-jones-propaganda-833585.html">called for its boycott</a>. </p>
<p>This reaction was reminiscent of the Indian film certification board’s response to <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087469/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom</a> (1984). They temporarily <a href="https://thereel.scroll.in/805944/temple-of-doom-is-the-indiana-jones-movie-that-indians-wont-forget-in-a-hurry">banned the movie</a> for its negative depiction of Hinduism. </p>
<p>Until recently, few leapt to the defence of Indy’s Nazi enemies but this might soon change, given the alt-right’s recent <a href="https://www.wired.com/2016/12/rogue-one-alt-right-boycott/">negative reaction to Star Wars</a>.</p>
<h2>Indy in the academy</h2>
<p>Ultimately, the binary logic of good versus evil has masked some of the more problematic aspects of Indy’s escapades, not least their <a href="http://www.theroot.com/does-indy-diss-the-developing-world-1790899921">neo-colonialism</a> and <a href="http://mindonthemedia.blogspot.fr/2015/03/sexism-in-raiders-of-lost-ark.html">sexism</a>. Real archaeologists have highlighted these <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11759-008-9071-y">deficiencies</a> but for the most part, Indiana Jones is still generally held in high regard by scholars who are keen to attract public interest.</p>
<p>But where does the rallying call to punch more Nazis leave an academic discipline that openly acknowledges the character’s huge influence on its public perception and student enrolment numbers? </p>
<p>Watching the Indiana Jones led me to study archaeology at university and I still remember learning about the Nazi regime’s <a href="https://www.academia.edu/358424/The_past_as_propaganda_totalitarian_archaeology_in_Nazi_Germany">abuse of the discipline</a> to promote their racist ideologies. Thus I partly agree with those who are glad to see archaeology channelled through popular fictional characters like Jones to influence opinion <a href="https://twitter.com/meghdrummond/status/822796384801869828">against far-right extremism</a>. </p>
<p>And yet I cannot shake the nagging feeling that using Indy in this way might also come to reinforce growing <a href="https://theconversation.com/sherlock-holmes-and-the-strange-case-of-anti-intellectualism-71166">anti-intellectualism</a> and contribute to the deepening divides between academics and those segments of the public that sympathise with or are vulnerable to far-right ideologies.</p>
<p>These cleavages recently became evident with the launch of the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/28/us/professor-watchlist-is-seen-as-threat-to-academic-freedom.html">Professor Watchlist</a>, which <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/11/22/new-website-seeks-register-professors-accused-liberal-bias-and-anti-american-values">encourages</a> students to “expose and document college professors who discriminate against conservative students and advance leftist propaganda in the classroom”. </p>
<p>The initiative attracted <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/trollprofessorwatchlist?lang=en">criticism on social media</a> and opponents responded by trolling the website with fake reports relating to fictional academics including, yes you’ve guessed it, <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/features/exposing-crazy-radical-professors-12-best-trollprofwatchlist-tweets">Professor Indiana Jones</a>.</p>
<h2>Landing heavier punches</h2>
<p>So is it OK to use Indiana Jones as an excuse to support punching white supremacists? </p>
<p>Certain moments may allow only a small number of reasonable responses, some of which may involve the use of violence. However, it is worrying when popular icons are flattened and their advocates or fans filtered into bubbles on the right and left in ways that close down the opportunity to exchange opinions for the better. </p>
<p>As the video of Richard Spencer continues to be remixed online, some users have <a href="https://twitter.com/socmerrill/status/822697242784047104">joked</a> that if they began an archaeology degree today they could start fighting Nazis during Trump’s expected four-year term as president</p>
<p>We rarely see Professor’s Jones intellectual skills in action but perhaps it would be productive to encourage him to land heavier punches through recourse to knowledge, rather than his fists. </p>
<p>Ideally, <a href="https://twitter.com/socmerrill/status/822697133237223424">those drawn to the field of archaeology</a> by Indy’s most recent outings would learn to defeat the rise of the right through the use of intellect rather than violence. Perhaps they will even manage it by the time the fifth Indiana Jones film is released in the summer of 2019.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/71756/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Samuel Merrill receives funding from The Wallenberg Foundation. </span></em></p>No one likes a white supremacist, but is violence the answer?Samuel Merrill, Post-Doctoral Researcher in Digital Sociology, Umeå UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/564622016-03-21T12:42:48Z2016-03-21T12:42:48ZFrom Nazis to the Ark: five surprising truths from the Indiana Jones films<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115794/original/image-20160321-30939-1vn7oa0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C181%2C683%2C499&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Indiana Jones: the real deal?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/evarinaldiphotography/7979438408/in/photolist-da7H3h-fN2DhH-a5fUVM-dbkbay-mAnBqi-cac2D5-8wRAY6-dFTnPm-8wRAWT-dfuZkR-dfvjPy-8wRB3M-8wUAPo-828rsH-fmnrje-fmnrdg-5LjGnk-ahPu6Y-5LjG8v-7hEq5n-da7HcJ-dfuKGL-ahPu2A-da7GNB-ahPu8J-ahLGiH-82bz7L-dfv75k-7ZYgug-eiLnhe-rpTzUp-7cTGuU-82byBj-ahPuPJ-81eeZJ-5LoWHj-8wRAUF-8wRB1K-8wRATr-7tpZT9-da7HWh-8wRAFt-8wRAZ8-hvda9-8wUAw7-ahLGmK-ahLGpZ-dfvkHc-5mexkq-ahPuRf">Eva Rinaldi/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>So, there is to be a <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/indiana-jones-5-enlists-crystal-876684">fifth Indiana Jones film</a>. Sadly, the much-loved movies don’t represent the average day at work for most archaeologists, but there is more truth to Indy’s swashbuckling adventures than you may think. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0367882/">Crystal skulls</a> do exist, the <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097576/">Nazis</a> really were (very) keen on archaeology, and the world’s museums are full of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082971/">artefacts</a> taken from unsuspecting tribal peoples. Here are some of the more surprising things the films got right.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XkkzKHCx154?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A raidin’ we’ll go.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>1) Crystal skulls and holy grails</h2>
<p>Some of the artefacts featured in Indiana Jones are not as ridiculous as you might think. Crystal skulls (made from Quartz), as featured in the fourth film, do exist – there’s even <a href="http://www.britishmuseum.org/about_us/news_and_press/statements/crystal_skull.aspx">one in the British Museum</a>. Unfortunately, they are probably 19th-century forgeries, rather than original pre-Colombian – or alien – artefacts. </p>
<p>And while we have never found it, at least nine countries, including Ethiopia and Egypt, are rumoured to be the <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/ist/?next=/people-places/keepers-of-the-lost-ark-179998820/">location of the lost Ark of the Covenant</a>, the wood and gold chest central to Raiders of The Lost Ark and rumoured to contain the stone slabs etched with the Ten Commandments. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115657/original/image-20160319-4415-5edk1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115657/original/image-20160319-4415-5edk1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=206&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115657/original/image-20160319-4415-5edk1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=206&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115657/original/image-20160319-4415-5edk1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=206&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115657/original/image-20160319-4415-5edk1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=259&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115657/original/image-20160319-4415-5edk1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=259&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115657/original/image-20160319-4415-5edk1x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=259&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">William Morris’s vision of the Holy Grail.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ergsart/21732500144/in/photolist-z7qK9m-nPKqwt-fxhXEs-jyBxzy-fxi1sC-aN743B-7iWZ2k-N3FYS-fx3DcV-o2Q8Fr-fxhTvq-fxhWGu-fxhY4Q-fxhWvA-N3Ru8-fx3Gbx-fx3Djn-fxhX35-fx3EBv-kCMMCa-fx3F3P-N3RuZ-fx3Drv-fxhX7Y-kCMKE2-kCMLei-5z4Nui-n9dNX2-fx3HUc-jayTsk-fxhWqb-fxhWdS-o3zPhh-fxhTHd-kCMSRg-kCNohP-8tLRmC-kCQ6qj-kCNqB8-fxhZEU-fx3HeX-fx3HwT-kCMQrM-kCNhPe-hmNvaZ-fxhVyE-fxi1a5-fx3FgT-fxhWMs-caiiZ3">Art Gallery ErgsArt/flickr</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/features/mythical/grail.html">Holy Grail</a>, featured in Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade and which supposedly featured at the Last Supper and caught the blood of Christ during the crucifixion, is even more of a mystery. It does not actually appear in literature until the early 12th century, in a legendary tale of Joseph of Arimathea, in which the grail is sent for safe-keeping in Britain.</p>
<p>Real or not, however, all of these legendary artefacts do reveal a truth: that many archaeologists have a personal “holy grail”. It is probably not an actual artefact – it is objects’ relationships with other things, people or structures that actually allow us to interpret the lives of past cultures. We do not aim to collect objects, we aim to answer questions about how and why human societies change. That is our Grail quest. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/a6JB2suJYHM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">This way to the Grail.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>2) Nazis and nationalists</h2>
<p>Nazis were the villains of both Raiders of The Lost Ark and The Last Crusade, which again isn’t far from the truth. For the Nazis, archaeology was central to “proving” their arguments for <a href="https://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007679">Aryan superiority</a>. Nazi research missions under the guise of the <a href="http://archive.archaeology.org/0603/abstracts/nazis.html">Ahnenerbe</a> were dispatched to a surprising variety of places in order to “demonstrate” the influence of Aryan migrants in prehistory, including Poland, the Andes and Tibet. </p>
<p>Perhaps most telling are the works of <a href="http://archaeology.about.com/od/archaeologistskl/g/kossinnag.htm">Gustaf Kossinna</a>, whose book <a href="http://www.academia.edu/358424/The_past_as_propaganda_totalitarian_archaeology_in_Nazi_Germany">German Prehistory: A Pre-eminently National Discipline</a> set out the archaeological justification for the annexation of Poland. Kossinna based it on the supposed presence of Germanic peoples there during prehistory, and while he died before Hitler came to power, he was active while the territorial negotiations at the <a href="https://history.state.gov/milestones/1914-1920/paris-peace">Versailles conference</a> after World War I were taking place. </p>
<p>So Indiana Jones fighting Nazis is an honourable and historically accurate portrayal, even if the modern battleground against nationalist pseudo-archaeology has now shifted to Twitter.</p>
<h2>3) The Thuggees and the cult of Kali</h2>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">A real Temple of Doom?</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A rather strange mish-mash of ideas in the Temple of Doom did have some basis in fact, although very loosely interpreted. The Thuggees, led in the film by the sinister Mola Ram, were a <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/hinduism/history/thugs.shtml">notorious criminal fraternity</a>, suppressed by the British in colonial <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20090413062439/">India</a>. The film’s mistreatment of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kali">Kali</a> is rather more obvious, however. Despite popular iconography – the fangs, red eyes and penchant for blood – this Hindu goddess is generally revered as more than just a destroyer and is a rather more nuanced force than the one represented in the film. </p>
<h2>4) ‘That belongs in a museum’</h2>
<p>This quote, from The Last Crusade, possibly is the most famous line spoken by Indy – and the most problematic for archaeologists and museums. It reinforces the idea that Western academics have a right to excavate and display the world’s cultural treasures. Indeed, major national museum collections, from the British Museum to the Louvre were founded on this very belief – but, in a post-colonial world, this attitude has become hotly contested. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115658/original/image-20160319-4439-1b8cwwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115658/original/image-20160319-4439-1b8cwwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=161&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115658/original/image-20160319-4439-1b8cwwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=161&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115658/original/image-20160319-4439-1b8cwwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=161&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115658/original/image-20160319-4439-1b8cwwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=202&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115658/original/image-20160319-4439-1b8cwwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=202&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115658/original/image-20160319-4439-1b8cwwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=202&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">What would Indy have said? The Elgin Marbles.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mkooiman/2830025603/in/photolist-5j5C1T-q76SvE-prUyTF-prFiFy-qmo8gd-q76NPG-qmooZs-q77z4L-q7freP-prUUZH-q7edR6-qoEAWZ-qmoo2A-q7779w-qmom2d-prUWqD-q76L4S-q77WWd-qoEnwx-prUSLV-qoued4-prFmw3-qoB5tC-7C7KJC-qmouXQ-prF6zQ-q7dWYp-qoufE2-qoutXe-prFfvL-q7fqz2-q7fDqx-qoAPZs-q76UMo-qmo6gm-q7e1E2-q7fp8z-q77FVS-prUFbR-6hvK37-6koD3c-brD6Y8-LTHwg-LTyTo-6G2yfM-5TYs31-dV4vbk-6fJJMm-bX4xET-6axc1A">michael kooiman/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/mar/07/from-the-elgin-marbles-to-the-cambridge-cockerel-its-time-to-return-stolen-goods">Do artefacts belong in museums</a>? Or do they belong to the people from whom they were taken? What if those artefacts were removed more than a century ago, from a tomb built 4,000 years ago, from a place now occupied by people who have no relationship with the original inhabitants? These are the ethical questions museums must struggle with. For example, debates over the return of the <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/yanis-varoufakis-and-george-osborne-exchange-blows-over-the-elgin-marbles-a6821716.html">Parthenon (or Elgin) Marbles</a> to Athens from the British Museum are long running; Cambridge students recently voted to return to Nigeria a bronze cockerel <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/feb/21/cambridge-colleges-bronze-cockerel-must-go-back-to-nigeria-students-say">which was removed in 1897</a>; and artefacts even became embroiled in geopolitics when Egypt severed ties with the Louvre Museum over the return of Ancient Egyptian remains. </p>
<p>What is certain is that each claim for repatriation must carefully be weighed on its own merits. Indiana Jones didn’t always appreciate this.</p>
<h2>5) A life of romance and adventure</h2>
<p>Archaeology really can be adventurous. Maybe not adventure of the poisoned darts and jumping over chasms variety, but the moment when you unearth something really exciting, anything from a sarcophagus to a 10,000-year-old worked flint nodule (depending on your interest), is the reason archaeologists stay in the business. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115659/original/image-20160319-4417-vn4ihw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115659/original/image-20160319-4417-vn4ihw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115659/original/image-20160319-4417-vn4ihw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115659/original/image-20160319-4417-vn4ihw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115659/original/image-20160319-4417-vn4ihw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115659/original/image-20160319-4417-vn4ihw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115659/original/image-20160319-4417-vn4ihw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Snakes! Why’d it have to be snakes?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/enygmatic/2957786659/in/photolist-6PtLdK-5vnqVH-4K2rdZ-4K6FKf-4K6FH9-cuY5Cd-9LDDt2-9W2niu-4K2r94-bd8tVi-oaj1J-bd8tme-8thjeG-8jApZH-5CQxc6-auFLKf-9VYxkM-8m6KS3-6KGsag-9a2Fk7-4MSiDt-chf735-9W2nvy-859J9M-5hsr3s-CqCgLb-ADvwks-4VBGMU-9DQFXp-4VK5ud-hSjH5-dTJPY2-nsQdbu-4MNapr-662787-65WQin-6tEiSB-zRouYx-3Pora1-9EbPVk-tyGiNZ-auFUvf-CLFFE2-CTYYiv-CrRwJE-96XZ1-bstPfu-5Z6wAY-6aiNbT-6gFoFX/">Elroy Serrao/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Of course, occasionally it can be dangerous, too. Just consider Lord Carnarvon and the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2014/jul/23/mummy-curse-legend-discovering-tutankhamun-ashmolean-museum">Curse of Tutankhamun</a> – practically an Indiana Jones plot device. </p>
<p>Personally, I am still waiting to be offered a course in basic whip-handling, and I own a trilby rather than a fedora – perhaps a little more Time Team than Indiana Jones. But while we now avoid sacrificing our students to angry sun gods – even if only because of the health and safety paperwork – if a new major Hollywood movie is a reflection of the central place of archaeology in our cultural consciousness, then I think we should all be pleased. </p>
<p>One final point. The drinking competition in Nepal in Raiders of the Lost Ark? Maybe not in the Himalayas, but from personal experience … that was dead accurate.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/56462/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ben Edwards does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As a fifth Indiana Jones film is announced, what Indy got right – and wrong – in his earlier exploits …Ben Edwards, Senior Lecturer in Archaeology & Heritage, Department of History, Politics & Philosophy, Manchester Metropolitan UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/477262015-09-28T04:42:27Z2015-09-28T04:42:27ZHomo naledi fossil discovery a triumph for open access and education<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/95265/original/image-20150917-7498-1mw8l7t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Skulls of Homo naledi.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">John Hawks</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="http://www.wits.ac.za/newsroom/newsitems/201509/27319/news_item_27319.html"><em>Homo naledi</em></a> has made headlines around the world as one of the most significant fossil discoveries ever made. </p>
<p>The unprecedented sample of fossils represents a rich record of an ancient population of human relatives, preserving nearly every part of the skeleton and spanning the lifespan.</p>
<p>Many people around the world have been following the compelling story of discovery from the first days of the excavation.</p>
<h2>Using social media to tell the story</h2>
<p>As our cavers and scientists worked underground in challenging conditions, we kept the world up to date on Twitter, Facebook and with our Rising Star Expedition <a href="http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/blog/rising-star-expedition/">blog</a>.</p>
<p>Since those first days, the team has worked to build open access into every stage of the project. People can now share not only in the discovery but also in the process of understanding these ancient hominins.</p>
<p>After nearly two years of work, on September 10 we published our first scientific papers on this <a href="http://elifesciences.org/content/4/e09560">discovery</a> in the journal eLIFE. These original scientific descriptions of these fossils and their geological context are free for anyone in the world to download and share. </p>
<p>In the week since we published these papers, the lead paper describing <em>Homo naledi</em> has been viewed more than 170,000 times – an extraordinary figure for any scientific <a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/half-academic-studies-are-never-read-more-three-people-180950222/?no-ist">paper</a>.</p>
<p>Our team has also moved quickly to make our data available to anyone in the world. Many of our fossils are now represented by research-quality 3D scans on <a href="http://morphosource.org">MorphoSource</a>. </p>
<p>This online archive of data from skeletal and fossil discoveries, maintained by Duke University, provides a way to share large data sets both for scientific work and teaching. </p>
<h2>3D technology used in classrooms</h2>
<p>Our team has generated virtual reams of scans that enable anyone to visualise these fossils, and even to use 3D printing technology to create their own physical copies.</p>
<p>Right now, teachers and researchers all around the world are printing 3D models of the fossils of <em>Homo naledi</em>. Kristina Killgrove, a leader in applying 3D printing technology in her anthropology classroom, <a href="http://www.poweredbyosteons.org/2015/09/homo-naledi-3d-scans-available-on.html">wrote</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I downloaded the model as an .STL file…and then printed it using my trusty old MakerBot. It took 20 minutes, tops. Then I gave the model to a grad student who was heading in to teach the undergraduate lab in biological anthropology. Bam! Species-announcement-to-teaching-cast in under 12 hours.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In the first week after the announcement, more than 1700 copies of these data sets have been downloaded, with makers proudly showing off their printed models on Facebook and Twitter. </p>
<h2>Find broke boundaries</h2>
<p>Paleoanthropology has often been caricatured as the lone pursuit of fossils by Indiana-Jones-like characters. But in the 21st century, making new discoveries in paleoanthropology – as in all other areas of science – requires collaboration across many disciplines. </p>
<p>This project has involved a team of more than 60 scientists, each bringing their own distinctive expertise and data sets together to help solve the problems posed by these fossils. </p>
<p>The project is led from South Africa and stretches across international boundaries to impact the world. </p>
<p>At the event announcing <em>Homo naledi</em> at Maropeng, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of the Witwatersrand, Adam Habib, remarked on the importance of open access for building a 21st century science:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We often talk about science as having no boundaries, but in our world scientific knowledge has become commodified, and too often, what should be the bequest of the world, the bequest of a common humanity, is locked up under paywalls that postgraduate students and researchers cannot get access to. So what we did when we made this discovery, was we put cameras in the cave, and we streamed it live from day one. </p>
<p>We partnered with eLIFE, an open access journal, to make sure that the discovery was available to all of humanity. And what we did in that practice, is create the first elements of a common global academy….We are not simply going to be beneficiaries of open access, but we are going to be contributors to open access, to the knowledge of a common humanity.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>eLIFE editor Randy Schekman wrote about the benefits of open access publishing in 2013 when he won the Nobel Prize. His <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-break-free-from-the-stifling-grip-of-luxury-journals-21669">article</a>, entitled How to break free from the stifling grip of luxury journals, emphasised that by limiting access to publishing, traditional journals create artificial scarcity to distort the process of scientific communication. Open access makes for better science.</p>
<h2>Public engagement</h2>
<p>The open access philosophy has driven our work on <em>Homo naledi</em> from the beginning. Instead of keeping these discoveries veiled behind locked doors, we have tried to bring them to the public in ways that will drive greater curiosity and engagement with science. </p>
<p>We are proud to be able to share the original fossils with the public at Maropeng, where they will be on display until October 11. </p>
<p>Not only the public benefits from scientific open access; science itself benefits. Showing the process of science in action, we create better tools for educators to equip students with the scientific method. </p>
<p>As we train a new generation of scientists, we must give them the tools to build collaborations and work with massive data. By sharing data openly, we build a worldwide community of practice as we attempt to understand this and other future discoveries.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/47726/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Hawks is a core scientist on the Rising Star Expedition team and coauthor on the papers describing Homo naledi.</span></em></p>The discovery of Homo naledi has been a social media sensation, recording an extraordinary number of views – more than 170,000 – for a scientific paper.John Hawks, Paleoanthropologist, University of Wisconsin-MadisonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.