Archaeology can be seen portrayed in popular culture, where it is frequently linked to adventure and treasure hunting. Adventure has overwhelmed and mesmerized people’s thoughts, and led them into fanaticising the past and its tales. This paper will discuss the use and misuse of archaeology practices portrayed in popular culture, and will also discuss and compare archaeology portrayed in popular culture to the planned and controlled archaeology practice.
Popular culture or pop culture is identified as the cultural activities aimed at the taste of general masses of people. The cultural activities are found in products created for a wide consumption by the public for the purpose of increasing the profit of its producers. Cinema is one of the admired elements of popular culture that successfully managed to be consumed globally by fans via motion picture productions, or what the public call “films”. Popular motion …show more content…
Since the dawn of cinema, film producers have shown a great interest in the past, where adventure and treasure hunt stories, became the most exciting attractions for the fans of early cinema. The cinema more often portrayed the adventurers and the treasure hunters as archaeologists, who hunted, discovered or sought a significant piece of artefact or a precious stone. When thinking of archaeologists in films, characters like the amazing Indiana Jones and the attractive Lara Croft come to mind. In films such as Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) and Croft in the Tomb Rider (2001), both characters were depicted as archaeologists hunting for a
Popular culture or pop culture is identified as the cultural activities aimed at the taste of general masses of people. The cultural activities are found in products created for a wide consumption by the public for the purpose of increasing the profit of its producers. Cinema is one of the admired elements of popular culture that successfully managed to be consumed globally by fans via motion picture productions, or what the public call “films”. Popular motion …show more content…
Since the dawn of cinema, film producers have shown a great interest in the past, where adventure and treasure hunt stories, became the most exciting attractions for the fans of early cinema. The cinema more often portrayed the adventurers and the treasure hunters as archaeologists, who hunted, discovered or sought a significant piece of artefact or a precious stone. When thinking of archaeologists in films, characters like the amazing Indiana Jones and the attractive Lara Croft come to mind. In films such as Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) and Croft in the Tomb Rider (2001), both characters were depicted as archaeologists hunting for a