The Good, the Bad, and the

BeardedPopular Images of archaeologists and how we

see ourselves…Or, are archaeologists

their own worst enemies?Larry J. ZimmermanIndiana University-Purdue University

Indianapolis

With apologies (and thanks!) to all holders of copyrights on images and materials in this PowerPoint, which is meant only for academic uses.

If you are an archaeologist or an archaeology student, you realize that just about everyone has a different image of you!

About a zillion of these types of panels are showing up on Facebook.

Archaeology Professors

It takes very special qualities to devote one's life to problems with no attainable solutions and to poking around in dead people's garbage: Words like 'masochistic', 'nosy,' and 'completely batty' spring to mind. Paul Bahn. 1989. Bluff Your Way in Archaeology. Ravette Books, West Sussex.

Notice Paul’s beard; it’s important later.

On Being an Archaeologist

Some thoughts about archaeology…

Anonymous

…and a variety of opinions.

Archaeologists have the most mind-numbing job on the planet.

Bill Watterson, 1988

Archaeology is one of most exciting things you can do out of bed!

Just about every archaeologist you talk

to

Still…

It seems as if everyone either wants to be an archaeologist or hates us!

4th Naked Archaeologist Calendar“RUINED” (Reading University Archaeology Society)

Apparently so…

I believe in looking reality straight in the eye and denying it.

Garrison KeillorSo just what are some images of archaeologists?

Maybe we should follow Garrison Keillor’s approach:

Who really ought to grow a beard!!!

Sketches by 12-year-old students

How the public sees archaeologists

Sketches by 20–something university students

From kids to adults, things don’t seem to change much

How some First Nations (and other Indigenous people) see us

…but with a shovel

Oh, and notice that the devil has a beard (it’s important later)

Reality leaves a lot to the imagination. John Lennon

Had beard, but was not an archaeologist yet was very good at imagining!

In the MoviesHow the public sees us…..

Neither man nor woman can be worth anything until they have discovered that they

are fools. Lord Melbourne

From Laura Croft, Tomb Raider, storyboard

Caricature of Harrison Ford

Archaeology ain’t just for Indy anymore

Reality is what won't go away when you stop believing in

it.

Phillip K Dick

Sci Fi author of "What the Dead Men Say“ and "Precious Artifact" who knew some things about archaeology and also had a beard!

How we’d like to see ourselves (male archaeologists)

I’m not sure who it is, but I’ve heard that this is a painting a real archaeologist had done of himself!

The reality (men)

Hmm, at least the beer part seems right!

Unfortunately, as with Indy, we may not age all that well…

and there always seems to be someone new on the motorcycle ahead of you.

What really happens to archaeology’s high-adventure types…

Check out Conor McHale’s work!!!

By the way, there is a real Indiana Jones, and

he really is an archaeologist

James “Rick” Jones, State Archaeologist of Indiana, retired Notice how closely

his hat resembles the fedora Indy wears, and the beard (important later).

Larry Z’s archaeologist self-image

Paul Walker, a buff Paul Walker, a buff young archaeologist young archaeologist in Michael Crichton’s in Michael Crichton’s “Timeline” (November “Timeline” (November 2003)2003)

Or maybe this?

Okay, so just how many male archaeologists do you know that don’t have sexist fantasies?

The reality…

You laugh, but at least there is a Larry Z Archaeology Action Figure. Is there

one of you??? In case you are wondering, This was made by one of Heather Burke’s and Claire Smith’s classes at Flinders U.

And for such hyper-masculine self-images, maybe this might prove useful!

Conor McHale

How we’d like to see ourselves (female archaeologists)

The reality (women)

Sometimes, archaeologists are just

cartoons

…or pith-helmeted or fedora-wearing caricatures looking for dinosaurs or treasure

About that: Get it through your heads that we don’t do dinosaurs!

An image is not simply a trademark, a design, a slogan or an easily remembered picture. It is a studiously crafted personality profile of an individual, institution, corporation, product or service. Daniel J. Boorstin

Historian & Librarian of Congress (1975-87)

Note bow tie: studiously crafted historian image

An archaeo-dominatrix, perhaps?

Sir M. W. F. Petrie

Gerard Fowke

A.V. Kidder

Notice anything similar about these famous archaeologists?

L. J. Zimmerman

J.W. IvesGeorge Nicholas

Did I mention that the Zimmerman action figure you saw earlier has

a beard!!!

Beard

No beard, so not really Larry, in spite of what the name tag says!

At the age of sixteen I went to evening classes in the local museum at Nuneaton…. Firstly I was struck by the number of beards in the audience. David Miles, Chief Archaeologist at English Heritage

What’s this thing archaeologists seem to have

for beards?

And I thought you all had

long beards with bits of

detritus to be excavated

at the end of each month.

Petethedig, online at British

Archaeological Jobs Resources Message

Board

I was working as an archaeologist and we all had beards, even the women. Steven Erikson, 2002

You think it’s a joke? Yes, these were/are

all real archaeologists!

RIP, Lewis Binford

ARCHAEOLOGISTS' BEARDS: A Simplified Typology

Fig. 1 - The Flowing Heather: A largely abandoned type, now only found among older archaeologists. Often accompanied with a pipe, brogue shoes and a six pack of Harp.

Fig. 2 - The Hayden: A streamlined version of fig. 1. Cheek pieces have been removed to cut down on drag. All remaining hair is kept short to diminish the stink of burnt hair on re-entry to the earth's atomosphere.

Fig. 3 - The Minimalist: Very contemporary. The load bearing capacity of the beard has been completely reduced in an ill judged attempt at irony.

Fig 4 - The Full Brazilian: I'm not ashamed to admit I sport one these myself. Posted by Conor McHale, 17 June 2011

Peter Young, once of Archaeology magazine

What’s the deal about archaeologists, trowels, and beer?

Don’t trowel drunk!

Janet Levy

Scientology founder and science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard on an expedition in the MediterraneanGraham

Hancock

Anybody can be an archaeologist, no training necessary!

Even a high school kid thrown into the past…

The lucky devil…. Why don’t I ever find anything like this?

Even Captain Jean-Luc “Make it so!” Picard•near-professional pursuit of archeology•studied the Iconian culture since his cadet days. •addressed the Federation Archeological Council as keynote speaker on his oft-studied Tagus III ruins in 2367 With his striking resemblance to that Kennewick guy……studied by that

archaeologist, Jim Chatters, with a profound resemblance to Indiana Jones…

…but with a beard!

Apparently even an ape can be !

Role-playing games too?

Is it any wonder they all want to be archaeologists?

But when our day to day life in the field is like this…

…isn’t it a shame that even our fantasy images have gone to the

dogs?

To take by the beard; to seize, pluck, or pull the beard of (a man), in anger or contempt. 2. To oppose to the gills; to set at defiance.

To be bearded has another meaning…

On the serious side…

Some images of us aren’t so good.

Some folks think we hide the truth!

Or apparently just don’t get it!

But the faces of archaeology are changing, and they might even be less male and less

bearded.

Yes, these are all real archaeologists!

Of course women have been in archaeology for decades, but it was

rarely easy

Alice Beck Kehoe had to fight to go to a field school

Dame Kathleen Kenyon, preeminent excavator of Jericho

Maria Reiche helped define Peruvian archaeology and unraveled the mysteries of Nazca

And these women aren’t Barbies

Okay, maybe some!

Archaeology is also becoming much less Eurocentric!

On the very serious side, as these trends accelerate, how will both the academy and

private sector adapt?It’s more than just promotion, tenure, and salary, but changes in perspective on:

•Methodology•Ideas about significance in cultural heritage•Theoretical perspectives

The past is not simply the past, but a prism through which

the subject filters his own changing self-image.

Doris

Kearns Goodwin

Historian, so needs a bow tie

One last bit of archaeological wisdom…

Don’t lean on the transit!