Shane Gilchrist quizzes Dr Matt Schmidt, Otago-Southland regional archaeologist for the New Zealand Historic Places Trust, about this convergence of career and cinema.
Q: Does a movie such as Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull provide a nice outlet for your more outlandish archaeological fantasies?
A: Absolutely. Deep down, every archaeologist wants to make that great discovery . . . and who wouldn't want to find a lost empire filled with treasures?
For New Zealand archaeologists a great discovery would be finding an early Maori site with artefacts from Polynesia and made from Polynesian stone or shell.
That would be as important in the archaeological world as finding a tomb of treasure in Egypt.
Untouched 19th-century gold-mining sites in Otago with all the artefacts in the place where the miner left them can also be seen as a great find.
Q: Do you know of other archaeologists who might be interested in seeing Kingdom of the Crystal Skull? Are there group plans? Or, in the light of criticism among some in the archaeological community that the Indiana Jones series distorts or degrades your profession, will you go incognito to preserve your reputation/integrity?
A: The [New Zealand Historic Places] Trust office here in Dunedin are going together to the film on the first day as a "team building" exercise.
Archaeological students from Otago University are going as a group and so are other archaeologists up north.
The movies don't degrade the profession; they're a fun, fantastical piece of entertainment and I don't think anyone would take it seriously.
I would compare an archaeologist going to Indiana Jones to a real police detective going to watch Miami Vice, the big difference being Indiana Jones dresses better than Crocket and Tubbs.
Q: The character Indiana Jones adopts an archaeological approach more akin to a bull in a china shop. The sites of his great discoveries are often left in ruins.
Does this image do your profession a disservice?
A: I believe most people today see the movies and Indiana Jones for what they are - a fun piece of entertainment and they do not do the profession a disservice.
In fact, they probably get younger people curious about what archaeology is, which is great.
Archaeologists are bound by very strict laws in New Zealand, like everyone is, which protect archaeological sites, such as the Historic Places Act (1993). Similar laws exist overseas.
Q: Can you recall the first time you watched Raiders of the Lost Ark, the first film in the Indiana Jones series? Did it, in any way, inspire you to pursue your chosen field of work?
A: I am happy to admit that Raiders of the Lost Ark did inspire me to pursue a career in archaeology.
My oldest brother bought me a View Master reel on archaeology when I was 8. When Raiders came out I was hooked.
Many trips to the Central Otago goldfields with my parents in the '80s saw me running around the sites looking for artefacts and gold.
Q: Are you an avid watcher/collector of archaeologically inspired films? Do you have a cupboard brimming with copies of films such as Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and The Mummy? Are there other great archaeological films you could share with our readers?
A: I love any movies about archaeology, especially ones about Egypt, which I have visited twice.
I don't collect the movies but have seen too many to count, including the corny early versions of The Mummy. A favourite are the Dr Phibes movies with Vincent Price.
The second, Dr Phibes Rises Again, is based in Egypt and various people come to grizzly deaths while looking for a Pharaoh's tomb which has the Scrolls of Life so he can resurrect his dead wife.
For more information on archaeology in New Zealand, visit: www.nzarchaeology.org or www.historic.org.nz
