A Real Archaeologist Comments on Indiana Jones

Perhaps by now you've seen the beginnings of the parallel between this real-life "blog narrative" and the adventures of Indiana Jones, yet they took place almost sixty years before the time frame of Raiders of the Lost Ark. I hope you can endure the snail's pace in which the story is unfolding. As a movie, the adventures of Paul Boyton and George Kiefer would make the perfect prequel to the Indiana Jones sagas, if we could dispense with the fictional glamour of Hollywood and take a more serious look at America and the actions of American citizens in the world.

Although not an archaeologist, George Kiefer read extensively in the travel journals of the day that explored and documented the archaeological treasures of Peru. He also consulted with local experts, visited museums, and loved books. Paul Boyton could be more likely cast as Indiana Jones, the insatiable adventurer, but it is very possible that George accompanied him on his previous adventures before their joint trip to Peru. I am still looking for some tangible evidence of that.

George, a lover of artifacts, and Paul, the adventurer, both sought the spectacular and risked their lives for a dictator in a foreign country. In Peru, they found a country's cultural heritage under attack, from the aggressive naval bombardments and the Chilean army's imminent march on Lima, and from continuing depredations on Peru's archaeological resources by treasure hunters.

The Necropolis of Ancon, visited in November, 1880 by Paul Boyton and George Kiefer, held boundless treasures, including gold, although they possibly did not know it at the time. And in those days, few knew how, or perhaps had the motivation, to employ disciplined archaeological techniques, but collectors had already unearthed many of these treasures, some of them ending up in private collections in Lima.

In contrast, Brian Fagan, Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at University of California, Santa Barbara, writes in the Wall Street Journal on May 24, 2008 about modern archaeologists:

"Today there are at least 10,000 of us poking around every corner of the world, as opposed to Indy's day, when much of the past was still underground and the chances of making a truly spectacular discovery were significantly higher. Most of us will never come upon a golden artifact. We deal in the arcane and obscure -- the butchery practices of Neanderthal hunters, the optimal weight of cod salted by medieval fishers, and the changing painted decoration of ancient Pueblo vessels. We survey miles of long abandoned irrigation canals to reconstruct ancient field systems. We spend months studying faded notebooks in museum archives. Nearly all of us are specialists, each with our tiny expertise, often in subjects so narrowly focused that they interest fewer than a half-dozen colleagues." An Archaeologist Whips Indy - WSJ.com

Be that as it may, collectors of the 1880s began building U.S. and European collections before the expertise of modern archaeology was available. Collections of Peruvian artifacts in U.S. museums may fail to have even the minimum of provenance information accompanying them. While we can't undo the past, we can still learn something useful for modern archaeological science by exploring this territory.

For this reason, the story of Paul Boyton and George Kiefer transcends the movies of the swashbuckling Indiana Jones. In this story, we can indulge in two Americans' real-life fascination with antiquities and adventure, while we struggle to understand the ensuing human tragedy, efforts to pass on a legacy, and questions about the involvement of the United States in foreign wars.