What this blog explores

This blog and four others explore the good, the bad, and the ugly of archaeology in the media.  Twenty students and their professor will use these to examine the ways that media not only communicates the findings and activities of archaeologists, but more broadly, shapes the public’s perception of the overall field.  For better or worse, the public comes to understand the discipline of archaeology through media content that is rarely if ever authored by archaeologists themselves.

The media that we'll survey provides interesting insights into what people think about archaeology and the ancient world, but they also reflect deeper social stereotypes, curious misconceptions, and humorous fallacies.  These regularly crop up in television and cinema, but cartoons and other two-dimensional visual arts and print media also shape and embody how the public views archaeologists and the work that they do.  By definition, much of these are satirical and I’ll start this blog with some humorous examples of cartoons from The New Yorker.  In some sense these reinforce false notions about the ancient past—for instance, that “cavemen” wore a particular kind of hang-off-one-shoulder outfit and carried clubs.  The images are funny because we all tap into the same frame of reference for the underlying motifs, which are rooted in many generations of similar media representations (for instance, iconic shows like the Flintstones).  In my view, the subject matter and depiction has nothing to do with what really happened in the past.  Should archaeologists be worried about the messages here or just go along for the (funny) ride?