Spooky Archaeology: Why is Archaeology Entangled with the Paranormal?

Jeb J. Card Anthropology Department Miami University cardjj@muohio.edu

Presented at the 111th Annual Meetings of the American Anthropological Association, November 14,

2012

DO NOT CITE WITHOUT AUTHOR’S PERMISSION

Abstract: The archaeologist, more than any other real-world scientific character in Western and

especially American culture, is entangled in the paranormal. We are routinely the heroes, villains, and

victims in books, films, comic books, television shows, and video games about paranormal activities and

phenomena, typically involving ancient curses, resurrected mummies, and mystical objects, and even

UFOs and “cryptid” animals. There are real world consequences of this entanglement, from presentation

of archaeological findings, to the public treatment of thriving current people relegated to “lost

civilizations” (ex. the Maya and their “2012 Apocalypse”). This paper examines some the trajectory of

this entanglement, why aspects of archaeology lend itself to this entanglement, and the problems

archaeologists have with “policing” the borders of the discipline. The history of the field (colonialist

exoticism as well as a specific focus on the political propaganda of ancient elites who publically

entangled themselves with the supernatural), and the nature of archaeological work (rooting around in

the land of the dead, working like the “detectives” that have been a trope of paranormal pop culture

since the Victorian era), conspire with other forces to create this entanglement. An examination of

paranormal media (ex. radio, podcasts), demonstrates both this entanglement in the public eye, but also

a hunger for information about the past, one that will be filled either by archaeologists or by those

claiming to be archaeologists. Rather than ignore this reality as an unwanted border transgression,

archaeologists should instead confront it and explain how it has come to pass.

Introduction

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In late October 2011, the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology hosted

"a once-in-a-lifetime paranormal investigation of the galleries and their ghostly inhabitants," in the

event We See Dead People.1 The event included the Free Spirit Paranormal Investigators group,2 and

promised the use of “ghost-hunting” equipment and the participation of psychics.3 It is not surprising

that a museum or other educational institution would find value in a Halloween-season tie-in, especially

as neoliberal policies cash-strap such institutions. Museums have themed exhibits or events around non-

mainstream or pseudoscientific topics such as UFOs4 and legendary creatures including the yeti and

unicorns.5

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One of these exhibits is Indiana Jones and the Adventure of Archaeology, which just had its U.S.

premiere one month ago in Santa Ana, California.6

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This exhibit combines movie props of fictional archaeological artifacts with real archaeological artifacts

inviting the visitor to “discover the steps archaeologists[sic] take to uncover real-world artefacts and

their meaning,”7 and “shed[ing] light on how archaeologists really work on projects such as deciphering

ancient scripts and discovering the true origins of the mysterious Nasca lines in southern Peru.”8

Do events like these cross the border of “fun-themed” educational outreach and entertainment into

something beyond the purview of a museum? And even more fundamentally: why does this

combination of archaeology and the paranormal even make sense in the first place?

1 Penn Museum Events Calendar Entry for We See Dead People http://www.penn.museum/events-calendar/details/469-young-friends-program-we-see-dead-people.html accessed on October 13, 2012 2 Website of Free Spirit Paranormal Investigators http://www.freespiritpi.com/Site/Welcome.html accessed on October 13, 2012 3 “'DP' reporter explores the secrets of Penn Museum” The Daily Pennsylvanian October 30, 2011. http://thedp.com/index.php/article/2011/10/dp_reporter_explores_the_secrets_of_penn_museum accessed on October 13, 2012 4 “Military UFOs secrets revealed Sept 22 at National Atomic Testing Museum” Doubtful News September 4, 2012. http://doubtfulnews.com/2012/09/military-ufos-secrets-revealed-sept-22-at-national-atomic-testing-museum/#comment-99489 accessed on October 13, 2012 5 “Mythic Creatures” past exhibit, American Museum of Natural History http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/past-exhibitions/mythic-creatures accessed on October 13, 2012 6 “Massive 'Indiana Jones' exhibit headed to U.S.” October 1, 2012, http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57523029-1/massive-indiana-jones-exhibit-headed-to-u.s./ accessed on October 13, 2012 7 “The Exhibition” on website of Indiana Jones and the Adventure of Archaeology http://www.indianajonestheexhibition.com/the-exhibition.html accessed on October 13, 2012 8 “Indiana Jones and the Adventure of Archaeology” National Geographic website http://events.nationalgeographic.com/events/exhibits/indiana-jones/ accessed on October 13, 2012

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Archaeologist as Paranormal Figure

"Professor of Archeology, expert on the occult, and how does one say it... obtainer of rare antiquities." -

initial description of Professor Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

The archaeologist, more than any other real-world scientific character in pop culture, is entangled in the

paranormal.

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At some point, every archaeologist I know has read and laughed at the Onion News article

"Archaeologist Tired of Unearthing Unspeakable Ancient Evils,"9 in which an archaeologist bemoans how

cursed artifacts and ancient demons keep preventing him from conducting mundane archaeological

analysis. A study of the now-defunct Weekly World News, a hybrid between “legitimate” supermarket

tabloids and The Onion’s parodic nature, routinely finds anthropologists as figures associated with the

sensational and the supernatural (Peterson 1991). We are victims, heroes, or villains of books, films,

comics, tv, and video games about paranormal activities and phenomena, including ancient curses,

resurrected mummies, sacred objects with mystical powers, and even UFOs. Horror and adventure

narratives in particular, such as those inspired by M. R. James and H. P. Lovecraft, have the archaeologist

as a stock character. Why is this the case?

Why is Archaeology Spooky?

Archaeology transcends and transgresses time. The material culture of the past, from before the

existence of archaeology as a discipline, has long been taken as evidence of the supernatural.

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Megalithic sites in Europe are associated with faerie stories or similar magical legends as liminal places

connected to the Otherworld (Ashliman 2006:145–146; Brown and Bowen 1999; Champion and Cooney

1999:198–199). Europeans interpreted lithic projectile points as toxic faerie "elf shot," (Rieti 1991:284).

SLIDE

Some Post-Columbian Mayas believe that archaeological ruins were home to the aluxob little people

(Bierhorst 1990:8–9; Magnoni, Hutson, and Stanton 2008:215),

9 “Archaeologist Tired Of Unearthing Unspeakable Ancient Evils” January 16, 2002.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/archaeologist-tired-of-unearthing-unspeakable-anci,1448/ Accessed on October 20, 2012

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while in Central Mexico, the ancient metropolis of Teotihuacan was later named "The City of the Gods."

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Egyptians referred to the Pharonic-era Sphinx as Abu al Hul, "The Terrifying One" or "The Father of

Terror," (Reeves 2000:26). While there is a strong desire to see continuity from the present to ancestors,

material remains of the past are often repurposed as the work of intelligent or spiritual beings that are

not necessarily “people.”

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This point is driven home by cases where natural geological or biological phenomena get the same

treatment if they resemble the orderly nature we would expect of human constructions. Star-stones,

the fossils of sea urchins and similar creatures, are the subject of much folklore as magical items

(McNamara 2007, 2010).

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The basalt Giant's Causeway of Ireland would be another example.

This pattern continues today, taking the form of either fiction or mysticism which conflates prehistoric

societies, and the archaeology of them, with contacting other and alien realms. With the

establishment of deep time, it became clear that most of human existence was not documented by

contemporary written records, but is pre-history. Both fictional and pseudoscientific mythmakers

compete with archaeologists to fill the maps of time. Archaeologists carefully chart outlines of the past,

while fiction authors and pseudoscientists and mystics have more often than not written "here be

monsters" on the blank spots of the past. Sometimes literal monsters

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in the form of strange Lemurians (as per the Theosophists),

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monstrous aliens like Cthulhu and its ilk,

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or ancient aliens correlating with modern UFO lore.

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Alternatively, wondrous ancient peoples have been created to populate the past, most famously Atlantis

(Ellis 1998).

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This is compounded by the simple fact that archaeology inherently involves dead people, and

westerners (though not alone) find imagery of death spooky and thrilling. An archaeologist will tell you

that they study societies of once living people with agency, no different than ourselves. This is true. At

the same time, we dig up graves and tombs, we sift through ruined cities, and we peer into the past, be

it 100 years or 100,000 years. Our excavations, our training, our museums, our books and articles and

presentations, can routinely involve human remains (or imagery thereof. An archaeologist may be trying

to bring the past to life, but our profession places humanity in a world filled with half-open graves

(literally, or metaphorically).

Part 2: Practices by Archaeologists (Past and Present) that foster this idea

Other reasons can be found in archaeology’s early foundations, which lay in three basic traditions: the

exploration of the antiquity of humanity; the antiquarian study of art and architecture of historically-

recorded people; and the exploration of the most highly visible elements of early state-level societies -

their monumental works. The first of these traditions seems the one least likely to lead to paranormal

entanglements, but even here, the deep time aspect does have mystical overtones for some. The second

tradition, of Classical, Biblical, or medieval archaeology, has its share of myth and legend chasing, most

famously that of Heinrich Schliemann's pursuit of the Homeric heroes. But it is the third strand that is

perhaps most to blame. Pyramids, statues, temples, palaces, and tombs were enticing, highly visible,

and relatively easy to recognize and understand without knowledge of taphonomy (or so early

archaeologists thought). And in such early state societies, religion and statecraft were routinely

blended (Trigger 2003:409–410). Rulers were glorified with myth and legend, and their monuments

captioned with magical hieroglyphic writing intended to be a mystery esoteric but to the few literate.

Many early archaeologists focused on the 1% of society who claimed divine ancestry and the ability to

touch the otherworlds, and depicted this legacy in evocative art and iconography.

This is compounded by archaeology's and anthropology's colonial legacy and interest in the "exotic,"

valued or sacred objects from colonized peoples (or their ancestors). Most archaeological work

involves mundane objects but the "exotic" was of more early interest, informing the popular image of

archaeology. "Exotic" cultures and objects are popularly treated as paranormal or supernatural. If

magical items or rituals "really" work in a supernatural way, they are often "exotic" including the

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"Indian" burial ground that haunts a non-native family in films like The Shining (film 1980) and Pet

Sematary (novel 1983, film 1989).

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Another is the “exotic” artifact, with magical powes, obtained from a colonized society. The classic is the

1902 example, W. W. Jacobs’ “The Monkey’s Paw.” But perhaps my favorite recent example is the

episode “Dead Man’s Party,” (1998)10 of the television show Buffy, The Vampire Slayer. A mask imported

to an art gallery with other “African” artifacts is used as a piece of interior decorating. When it turns out

to contain the essence of “Ovu Mobani” a “Nigerian Demon God of the Undead,”11 the show’s British

and tweedy occult expert in his exasperation mocks the ignorant owner:

"Unbelievable! ‘Do you like my mask? Isn't it pretty? It raises the dead!’ Americans!"12

That Americans would not understand the dangers of an “African” piece of art or spiritual material

culture suggests that those societies with a longer heritage of global empire would expect “exotic

native” objects to potentially be magical.

When a narrative calls for a Christian ritual or holy object, it will likely turn to a Catholic image, as the

more “traditional” and "exotic" faith.

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The film (1973) The Exorcist begins with a Near Eastern archaeological excavation, in which a battle of

good and evil begins with a stare-down between a Catholic priest working as an archaeologist, and a

statue of the Assyrian demon-god Pazuzu, based on a statue in the Louvre.13

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In the film The Omen (1976), all representatives of Christianity are Catholic, a conspiracy to birth the

Anti-Christ is centered in Rome, and the key to killing the Anti-Christ is provided by an archaeologist, at

an archaeological excavation in Israel, and takes the form of the “Megiddo Daggers,” a set of

archaeological artifacts.

SLIDE

If “exotic” non-Western archaeological art and artifacts have supernatural power museums are

warehouses of danger and awe. This trope is so prevalent it has film (Night at the Museum), and

television series (Warehouse 13), dedicated to the concept, as well as one-off stories too numerous to

list. It is little wonder that the Penn Museum event made perfect sense: it is the standard implied

meaning if a museum is invoked in fiction.

10 “Dead Man’s Party” Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel Wikia, http://buffy.wikia.com/wiki/Dead_Man%27s_Party accessed on October 20, 2012 11 “Ovu Mobani mask” Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel Wikia, http://buffy.wikia.com/wiki/Ovu_Mobani_mask accessed on October 20, 2012 12 “Dead Man’s Party” Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel Wikia, http://buffy.wikia.com/wiki/Dead_Man%27s_Party accessed on October 20, 2012 13 “Statuette of the demon Pazuzu with an inscription, Louvre Museum, Paris” http://www.louvre.fr/en/node/38938 accessed on October 20, 2012

Another practice or stance continues to thrive in the everyday language that many archaeologists use to

explain to the public, what it is we do.

SLIDE

We often compare ourselves to one of the most persistent figures of modern popular culture: the

detective, a figure which is an integral part of supernatural fiction and folklore. In his book Archaeology

is a Brand, Cornelius Holtorf (2007) explores the images of archaeologists in popular culture as a

powerful brand. One of the four major images of the archaeologist is the Detective, piecing together

clues from the past. When archaeologists popularize their work (Bahn 2001; Fagan 1995; Praetzellis

2000), the Detective is one of the most common images chosen. Ironically, one of the advantages to this

popular image is that it can avoid the colonial baggage of being an adventurer or in presenting "exotic"

wisdom, but is more popular and "fun" than being presented as a heritage manager in a worksite vest.

And the Detective is also one of the most common characters in supernatural fiction. Most traditional

horror stories conform to a "discovery plot," where monstrous horror (often arisen from the past)

threatens decent people and civilization (Spencer 1987). Our protagonists slowly learn of the horror and

its nature, but must piece it all together from clues, solving mysteries and often embracing exotic

knowledge to defeat the evil. While literal detectives are common in such stories, all that is needed is a

character with an inquiring intellect and perhaps expert knowledge of scholarship or science. Professors

routinely fit the bill. Just as Professor Jones must unite science and the supernatural in Raiders of the

Lost Ark, Professor van Helsing uses medicine and folklore in tracking and destroying Dracula. But

doctors and psychiatrists are not plagued with questions about Noah’s Ark, or aliens, or curses. We are.

Part 3: What to do about it?

Archaeologists can shape their practices and products to be engaged with postcolonial concerns,

relevant social and ecological inquiry, and participate in discussions and policy regarding cultural and

historical heritage. And yet for all that, they still end up being seen by the public as cavorting with

mummies, curses, aliens, and spirits. What should archaeologists do?

One reasonable expectation would be to stop talking about mystery, stop pretending to be “time

detectives,” and do what many of our colleagues do, present ourselves as social and natural scientists

with relevance to a diverse 21st century. By this logic, if we ignore it, it will go away. The problem is, this

approach does not work. If actual trained archaeologists do not address these topics, then others will

step in and do so.

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Paranormal radio show Coast to Coast A.M. (C2C) (Noory 2012) regularly hosts “experts” on topics like

psychic phenomena, alternative medicine, government conspiracies, spiritual enlightenment, and UFO

sightings. Importantly, mainstream scientists will occasionally appear on the show, including physicist

and science popularizer Michio Kaku. In a six month sample of C2C show topics and news items (January

– June 2011)

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David Anderson and I found that archaeology was a popular topic for this paranormal venue, it was

presented by “experts” with no background in archaeology on radio, but the web site featured stories of

real archaeology. There is an interest in the topic, but others are happy to speak for us, if we aren’t

involved in “policing our turf” (Toumey 1996:164).

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Addressing mystery and spookiness seems like a path fraught with peril. Yet there have been successful

uses of pseudoarchaeology to teach the real deal, such as Ken Feder's (2010) Frauds, Myths, and

Mysteries. Second, this entanglement is going to exist whether archaeologists like it or not. As biologists

learned from the rise of Intelligent Design Creationism, ignoring pseudoscience won't make it go away

and may allow it to spread.

Archaeologists that ignore this expectation completely run the risk of making their voice irrelevant to

the larger audience, leaving space for pseudoscientists and mythmakers more than willing to trade on

cultural expectations. How can archaeologists approach these topics without making things worse?

We can look to the past for the answer. Ruins as physical pieces of the past have an inherent power

attached to them. For example (Champion and Cooney 1999:201–204),

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European visible megalithic sites were modified time and again. Sites were re-named and in some cases

given new inscriptions from new cultural and religious paradigms.

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The more visually spectacular the site, the more likely it will have a rich body of folklore (Holm

1999:225–226). As long as there are archaeological sites and artifacts, someone will be telling stories

about them. Local tradition can be a powerful voice in understanding the past. But many of the stories

told today, like the 2012 Maya Apocalypse, are imposed Western occult fantasies.

The answer to this problem seems clear: explain it. Archaeologists work with multi-component sites,

with periods and cultures tangential to our research questions. Rather than ignore supernatural

baggage, investigate the history of how that baggage came into existence, and why it has persisted. It

isn't just being able to demonstrate that a tomb doesn't have a curse, or that a henge was built by

Neolithic farmers and not faeries, but also understanding the historical evidence for where these beliefs

come from, how they've changed, and why they're held. If we're interested in how humans construct

identity and practice with material culture, surely this should be of interest to archaeologists. And it

makes answering the usual questions from the public that much easier.

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