Interview by Chris Sullivan
Win tickets to the ATP finals
4:29min
Enter Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford). “It was Indiana Jones who made me take up
archaeology,” says Raksha Dave, archaeologist and Time Team
presenter.
8:04min
Jones searches for a relic in a warehouse full of ancient artefacts. “It’s
like the British Museum storehouse,” Raksha chuckles, “full to the gills
with foreign treasures, and most of them stolen.”
21:19min
The Russians accuse Jones of spying. “There has been such a tradition of
archaeological spies that foreign countries assume that if you’re an
archaeologist you’re almost definitely a spy,” says Joe Flatman, a lecturer
in archaeology at University College London. “T. E. Lawrence, when digging
in Syria in 1913, was actually spying for the Brits.”
28:34min
Jones and Mutt Williams (Shia LaBeouf) speak of a crystal skull found by
Mitchell-Hedges. “He was a real-life English adventurer who claimed to have
discovered a crystal skull at the Maya ruin of Lubaantun. Some thought it to
be preColombian and proof of alien technology but now is believed to have
been made in the 19th century,” says James Doeser, a PhD archaeology student
at UCL.
30:12min
Williams asks Jones if he remembers his mother, Mary Williams. “I knew many
woman called Mary,” replies Jones. “A lot of male archaeologists are
womanisers,” says Sarah Dhanjal, who is also doing a PhD in archaeology at
UCL. “One particular dig at a British Roman site was allegedly a nonstop
drunken shag fest,” James adds.
36:40min
Jones shows Williams images of huge figures etched into the Peruvian
landscape. “Spielberg and George Lucas have just taken Erich von Däniken’s
book, Chariots of the Gods?, and written a film around it,” says
Joe.
42.13min
A sign outside a temple gives warning that grave robbers will be killed. “I
was excavating in Salisbury last week and a man called me a grave robber and
told me to leave the dead alone,” Raksha says.
77:57min
Jones is seen with his hat, jacket and whip. “The whole concept was swiped
from a Fifties film, Secret of the Incas, starring Charlton Heston
as a tough American finder of antiquities who dressed exactly the same as
Jones,” says James.
94.01min
Jones batters at a temple to gain access. “So now they go round vandalising
temples?” James sniffs.
THE VERDICT
“Harmless hokum,” Joe thought. “It’s great to have Indiana back but the archaeology isn’t at all accurate,” said James. “The only film that was was The Exorcist,” ventured Sarah.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is out to buy and rent on DVD and to buy on Blu-ray. James Doeser is curator of www.badarchaeology.net
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