Romancing the Stones: Archaeology in Popular Cinema

Abstract

This article looks at the depiction of archaeology and archaeologists in popular cinema. A number of key films are discussed to address the article's main themes of cultural appropriation and contested ground (encompassing treasure, the public, politics and gender). Archaeology in film cannot be divorced from the wider cultural contexts in which it operates and, though portrayals of archaeology and archaeologists are frequently unsatisfactory, a positive conclusion is attempted which seeks to understand the narrative drive of popular fiction and a long history of public exclusion from archaeology. Most of the films considered do not warrant labelling as great works of art, but they are part of a cultural form with perceptions to offer, able to stimulate debate within a vital framework of cultural practices by which identity -individual and social -is constructed and evolved.

Arqueología pública: reflexiones sobre la construcción de un objeto de estudio, con comentarios de Daniella Jofré, Lúcio Mesezes y Henry Tantalean

“…Al respecto se ha mostrado que los conocimientos en torno a referentes arqueológicos en los medios masivos suelen ser utilizados para reforzar estereotipos y legitimar situaciones de desigualdad, así como sostener/refundar construcciones identitarias específicas (Hall 2004, Seymour 2004, Hernández 1997, Salerno y Pupio 2009. En contraparte, se ha mostrado que ciertas representaciones de la arqueología son transversales a los distintos recursos literarios (novelas) y medios escritos y audiovisuales analizados (televisión, cine, diarios), así como a los distintos contextos socioculturales donde circulan esos productos culturales.…”

Pensar la arqueología desde el sur

“…sino también sobre procesos de negociación y creación de sentidos en torno a la materialidad arqueológica (Funari 2004, Merriman 2004, Segobye 2006. Se incluye una diversa gama de temáticas entre las que pueden mencionarse la consideración de estrategias comunicativas por parte de los investigadores; la investigación de representaciones sociales de la arqueología en el presente (Hall 2004, Hernández 1997, lemaitre y Schall 2009, Salerno y pupio 2009; y el estudio de los procesos de transformación de los referentes del pasado en mercancías o en lugares emblemáticos que, como parte del patrimonio cultural, legitiman ciertas narrativas sobre otras (ballart 1997, Querol 2001, Ruiz Zapatero 2002, Gnecco 2004. en todos los casos, la reflexión sobre las acciones destinadas a generar formas de comunicación, diálogo e interconsulta con distintos grupos sociales, se relaciona con imperativos éticos y responsabilidades derivadas de la arqueología entendida como una profesión social (Merriman 2004).…”

Archaeology and the Moving Image

“…In the second edition of the book, they follow much the same guidelines on what they had previously decided constituted an archaeological film -'explicitly archaeological, that treat excavations and archaeological methods, or that deal with the discovery, analysis, and interpretation of material culture' (Downs, et al, 1993: 3). 2 Previous analyses of archaeology in film evaluate popular movies (see Box Office Archaeology (Schablitsky, 2007), Archaeology is a Brand (Holtorf, 2007), A Treasure Hard to Attain (Day, 1997) and 'Romancing the Stones: Archaeology in Popular Cinema' (Hall, 2004)), while the relative measures of 'truth' and 'reality' may actually be greater in a cinematic feature than in a short documentary (Tringham, 2009), I exclude both popular movies and movies made by people who have no training in archaeology and do not consult with archaeologists from this analysis, concentrating on the more marginal films made by archaeologists. By omitting this large body of work, I hope to better discern the place of more informal videography in archaeological practice, though certainly some genres of archaeological filmmaking draw from familiar themes in popular movies.…”