Random Indiana Jones Was A Terrible Archaeologist (15 items)

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  (#2) When He Destroyed An Entire Archaeological Site

  When Indiana Jones goes after the golden idol in Raiders of The Lost Ark, he basically destroys the entire temple by haphazardly activating all the traps in his escape with the idol. In real archaeology, most information is gleaned from the site itself and not the valuables it contains. Here, Indy did the opposite thing of most real archeologists. 

  Smithsonian archaeologist Jane Walsh comments, "An academic would look at that whole scene and say, 'Well, he just destroyed the context of this site. And what can you learn from this golden idol?'"

  Somewhere back at Dr. Jones's university, professors have a lot of questions about the technological genius of those Raiders booby traps, but unfortunately Indy has already ruined them.
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  (#7) That Time He Used Child Labor During A Child Kidnapping Crisis

  While Indiana Jones has his share of unconventional field assistants on his adventures, they usually have some background in archaeology. The notable exception is in Temple of Doom, where he not only takes along the fairly useless showgirl Willie, but also a minor.

  Throughout Temple of Doom, Jones used 11-year-old Short Round as an assistant, constantly endangering the child's life. It's already an ethically dicey area to employ a child as an assistant at all, let alone taking him to a place where the villagers are reasonably sure people are kidnapping children.

  While Jones might get a pass on the lack of child labor laws at the time, no ethics code would allow that kind of child endangerment.
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  (#11) When He Used A Grave Site As Protective Armor

  In The Last Crusade, Indiana Jones searches for clues regarding the location of the Holy Grail in the knight's tomb in the catacombs. He finds valuable information on the knight's shield in his grave. Once he possesses this, Jones is willing to do away with the entire grave site.

  The grail protectors set the petroleum in the catacombs on fire, and Jones has to seek an escape route. The first idea to come into his mind, apparently, is to dump the knight's body, throw the coffin upside down, and use it as an air pocket.

  In the ongoing ethical debate over excavating archaeological human remains, this is a case that both sides would agree is heartbreaking to watch.
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  (#14) When He Smuggled Artifacts

  When Indiana Jones returns to his university in Raiders of the Lost Ark, he brings back several artifacts that he offers to British archaeologist, Dr. Marcus Brody. Brody tells him the museum will buy them, trusting that Jones followed antiquities laws. This trust is probably a mistake, since, you know, Jones was technically running an illegal antiquities trade ring with Brody.

  Since Jones was definitely not performing standard archaeology, he likely smuggled those artifacts into the country. The artifacts ended up in Brody's museum, probably with little information about them or the context in which they were found, essentially turning valuable archaeological finds into art pieces. Without information on where they came from and how they were created, archaeological objects become nice things to look at, but there's little that can be learned from them.

  Archaeologist Ricardo Elia explains, "There are big private collections and museum collections of art, not archaeological objects, with very little information on them at all. The only thing that you can do about them now is to talk about their beauty and style--their 'art.'" Jones's smuggled goods fall into this art category.
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  (#8) When He Sold Artifacts To Shady Dealers For Diamonds

  In Temple of Doom, Indiana Jones becomes (once again) embroiled in the illegal antiquities trade when he delivers the remains of Emperor Nurhachi to the gangster Lao Che in return for a large diamond once owned by Alexander the Great.

  This scene raises a number of issues. First, Indy most likely looted the Emperor's remains from somewhere, removing it from its context (AKA the most important aspect of a site for archaeologists). Second, he sold the extremely important archaeological find to an antiquities dealer, even abandoning his usual commitment to bringing artifacts to a museum. Sure, the diamond could be an important artifact, as well, but is it more important than the Emperor's remains? Third, he is bartering with human remains, raising an entirely different ethical problem.

  Archaeologist Lord Colin Renfrew details, "For many years, concerned archaeologists have indicated how the attitudes of some antiquities dealers... and indeed of a number of leading museums have created a climate in which the traffic in illicit antiquities promotes the looting of archaeological sites worldwide." Indy is part of this damaging black market.
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  (#9) When He Took Items From Other Countries For His Museum

  Indiana Jones claims that the artifacts he seeks "belong in a museum" – but whose museum? Dr. Jones attempts to take items from all over the world back to his own university's museum, ignoring their cultural heritage. Here's the thing: that isn't actually at all okay with real archaeologists.

  National Geographic archaeological fellow Fred Hiebert explains, “Cultural artifacts need to stay in the place where they come from. Where they belong." Because this enables them to contribute to preserving a cultural heritage and learning about a place's past.

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