A special report from the NSF examines the relationship between practicing archaeologists and their on-screen avatars in films such as the Indiana Jones cycle. In stressing similarities, the report notes that:
NSF-supported archaeologists do discover “lost cities”; they do try to figure out what happened to “vanished civilizations”; they do seek rare and precious artifacts that tell important stories about the past, even if those artifacts are minute snails and the scrapings of ancient teeth and not golden idols.
via nsf.gov – Archaeology from Reel to Real – A Special Report.
My argument is not with the representation of archaeological research today, but rather with the reading of the films. When in any of the major cinematic depictions of archaeologists do our heroes try to “figure out what happened” or “tell important stories about the past”. Instead, archaeology is represented as purely a process of discovery, interpretation only at the trowel’s edge, so to speak. Or are there films that I’m missing?