I couldn’t help noticing that a lot of this week’s news stories have been referring to a ‘new Indiana Jones’. Strangely, though, they’re not all talking about the same person. This week we have a Scottish Indiana Jones, a Dutch Indiana Jones and an AI Indiana Jones, all in the space of a few days.
It’s odd. After all, we have to acknowledge that Dr Jones, despite his roguish smile, impressive whip skills and ability to bamboozle Nazis, was a rotten archaeologist. He stole stuff, he blew stuff up – and as The Big Bang Theory memorably argued, he could be removed from Raiders entirely without changing the outcome. Surely we don’t all still want to be the new Indiana Jones?
Well, yes. Actually we do.
Indiana Jones is like Superman for historians. Instead of stepping into a phonebox and changing from clumsy reporter to caped crusader, Indy transforms from a bespectacled, bow-tie-wearing prof to a scruffy machete-wielding maniac in a great hat. He makes stunning academic miscalculations (A small bag of sand in place of a solid gold idol? Seriously?), and dodges the consequences by just running really fast. And then he gets to go back to his students and his blackboard. It’s the academic dream.
So this week, over the top of my huge pile of marking, I’ve been happily re-watching Indiana Jones – and wishing I had a great hat. Of course, being slightly less intrepid and definitely more girly than Indy, I’d probably be a bit closer to this version…
And when my marking’s all out of the way, I might find the time to go back to my other favourite fictional archaeologist, the indomitable Amelia Peabody (in the novels by Elizabeth Peters). No whips, but plenty of pistols, reinforced parasols, trapdoors, antiquities smuggling and dastardly Master Criminals!
This week’s links from around the Classical Interweb
News
Scotland’s Indiana Jones? – Daily Record
Digital Indiana Jones? – The Times
The Indiana Jones of art? – CTV News
Gladiators in Bognor – The Chichester Observer
Antinous at the Ashmolean – Apollo Magazine
Procne and Philomela indie rock opera – The New York Times
Who should play Cleopatra? – The Independent
Restoring Tutankhamen – Hyperallergic
Not an ancient stone circle – The Independent
Egyptian schoolboy’s writing exercise – Smithsonian
Solving the mystery of Alexander’s death? – Phys.org
Comment and opinion
The Roman court poet – The History Girls
Mythical beasts – Temple University
On empathy in history – Aeon
Pheidias the sculptor – Classical Wisdom Weekly
The Pythia and the ancient knowledge economy – The Conversation
Conferences and podcasting – The Partial Historians
Jazz and the pyramids – The Classical Association in Northern Ireland
Aristotle on business – JSTOR Daily
Wedgwood and neo-Etruscan jewellery – The History Girls
The greatness of Xenophon – Aeon
Socrates and tidying – The New York Times
Trump, piffle and muscular Classics – Sententiae Antiquae
Brexit and Britain in 410 – LSE blog
Tolkien and Classics – Classical Reception Studies Network
Enemies of Rome – Five Books
Taking action on racism – Classics and Social Justice
Nikandre Kore – goddess or woman? – Topica
Leda and four angry classicists – Eidolon
Illustrating the ancient world – The Iris
Capua’s amphitheatre – Atlas Obscura
On Digital Humanities – New Approaches to Cicero
Links to translation discussions – Emily Wilson
Reading Hesiod for fun – Times Literary Supplement
Can a translation be a masterpiece? – New York Review of Books
Online emperors – A Don’s Life
Ancient DNA: truth or a trap? – John Hawks Weblog
Podcasts, videos and other media
The Celtic invasion of Greece – The Hellenistic Age Podcast
Thea – Antiochus V – The Ancient World Podcast
Linear B – Conversing the Classics
The Equites – Emperors of Rome
Mary Beard on ‘What is Classics?’ – Society for Classical Studies
The Roman triumph, Minecraft-style – Magister Craft
Interview with Rebecca Futo Kennedy – Classics Confidential
Classics and the cinema – That’s Ancient History
The Linear B-listers – Ancient History Hound
Classical Studies Support 