Question

How is the career of an archaeologist different from Hollywood’s portrayal of an archaeologist? How have your views on the field of archaeology changed as a result of what you have studied in this unit?

Answer 1

Hollywood's portrayal of an archaeologist has several stereotypes that aren't really true, for example, that archaeology is all about finding treasure and by treasure they refer to tangible things that can be picked up and sold, and that isn´t accurate, since real archaeologist try to answer more in depth questions like: When was this made, who made it, what where they like, etc. etc. Another myth is that you have to go to  an exotic country like Egypt or Israel to do archaeology (as portrayed by movies like Indiana Jones or the Mummy), but really, there is a lot of things an archaeologist can do in the US. Every time a new road is made, a team of archaeologist are sent to make sure there isn't anything culturally relevant (like Native American sites) that could be destroyed with the development.

My opinion of an archaeologists work has been modified in a good way, I now perceive that it is a really interesting career path and not as dangerous as I initially thought, due to Hollywood's influence.