Conclusions

In this article, the author distinguished and discussed four main themes which can account for practically all portrayals of archaeology in contemporary popular culture in the Western world. Each theme represents one particular dimension of what might be called ‘archaeo-appeal’. Significantly, there are some dimensions which all these themes share.

None of the four themes take the past itself particularly seriously. Mostly, archaeologists are not portrayed in relation to their actual ability to find out what happened in the past but in relation to certain other qualities of their endeavor. These qualities may be the adventurous character of archaeological fieldwork, the exciting detective-work that leads to important discoveries which may solve historical mysteries, the possibility and hope of eventually being able to make great revelations, and the professional duties of the specialist who takes good care of the archaeological heritage as a nonrenewable resource. It is as if any specific historical information or interpretation has meaning only in so far as it contributes to any of these themes, making the adventure more adventurous, the mystery more (or less) mysterious, the revelation more likely (or pertinent), and the protection more urgent.

In none of the four themes are thus the actual results of archaeological work particularly important. Instead, what matters most are various aspects of the process of doing archaeology. Just like an adventure story is not characterized by precisely what the hero accomplishes but how he gets there, so a detective story does not rely a lot on what the solution of the case eventually is, and professional management of a scarce resource is not really about protection for any specific site or artifact and its historical information. I would argue that even great archaeological revelations are often more effective at making audiences gasp at ‘how’ somebody could have reached them than at making them appreciate the validity of ‘what’ they actually imply.

The phenomenon that the object and the results of scientific studies can seem less interesting than the desire and the process of studying themselves is not unique to archaeology. They occur also in other sciences featuring unsolved mysteries, adventurous fieldwork, searches for evidence, and the prospects of large revelations, among other popular themes. In other words, all scientific disciplines are to some extent perceived and appreciated in metaphorical terms, that is in other terms than what they literally claim to be about.

See also: Careers in Archaeology; Interpretation of Archaeology for the Public; Politics of Archaeology; Pseudoarchaeology and Frauds.