What was indiana jones job

What about booby-trapped tombs and temples? There are great myths about people who excavate these tombs getting sick or dying. But they are, by and large, myths. Stuff is just buried, waiting for an archaeologist to brush away the soil. Parkinson, whose specialty is European and eastern Mediterranean prehistory, runs projects in Greece and Hungary. This year he said he spent about two months in the field.

Trying to put it together as a narrative. Because what I tell my Intro to Archaeology class is, if you spend 20 years meticulously excavating an archaeological site and you never publish your findings , then you've just spent 20 years looting. There's no point! If you're not publishing, you're not any better than a tomb raider. The movie does get one thing right. He was excavating a site in what is now Iraq, and we've got these silent movies that were taken on that dig and they look just like the scene in 'Raiders of the Lost Ark.

They employed a lot of local workers to do the grunt work. I mean, child labor laws? Holy cow, it's dozens of little kids carrying dirt across the site.

Here's Lucas again in that story meeting , mapping out his vision of Indiana Jones:. He's too much of a scruffy character to settle down. A playboy, or however you want to do it. He's too much of a wise-guy, maybe that's a better way to say it, to actually be a college professor. Harris had arranged for the Joneses to meet with the Sharifa Emily Keene and while the adults conversed, Indiana was allowed to play outside with Keene assigning Omar , one of her slaves, to keep Jones company.

During the game Indiana found he had to tell Omar not to let him win but complimented the boy on his English and discovered the boy didn't have to study like he. Jones considered the slave be lucky and Omar, like their game had been, accepted the point without argument. It was soon time for the family to move on to Ouezzane , where Professor Jones was due to give a lecture for the Moroccan Sultan. Indiana was disappointed their game was being cut short and Anna was unable to tell him if he would have anyone to play with there too.

Hearing this predicament, the Sharifa allowed Omar to be Jones' playmate for the rest of their stay in the country. For the seventy-five mile trip between cities, the boys talked. When Jones noted Morocco shared a similarity to Egypt, Omar, having never left the country, had to ask what that was.

Jones explained which led to Indiana showing the slave his hand-drawn map and pointed out the countries and their differences in weather. The conversation brought up Jones' desire to be an archaeologist one day, another concept foreign to Omar.

Indiana educated him further and asked what Omar was going to be. The slave replied that he would be just that, and was unable to abandon the role. It was with that that Indiana began to fully understand the concept. His growing concerns about the nature of slavery prompted a discussion on the subject when the travelers took a rest on the journey. Miss Seymour made it clear to him that Omar, with regards to the Sharifa, was for all intents and purposes property. It prompted Jones to decide to go and help his friend attend to the horses, and he let Omar know that as far he was concerned the boy wasn't a slave around him.

The Joneses arrived in Ouezzane as guests in Harris' home. While Indiana was fetching something to eat, he spied a shrouded figure making his inside the building. Mistaking the man for a thief, the boy tried to rout him before he discovered the 'intruder' was none other than Harris himself. The journalist explained the Arab disguise allowed for easier movement around the marketplace, the natives less willing to confide in a European.

His plans to meet with a grand vizier had been canceled having discovered the minister's severed head was on display for displeasing the sultan. Determined to see the head for himself, Indiana snuck out his Latin studies the moment his parents and teacher left the house.

Ignoring the danger involved, he convinced Omar to join him and - Indy disguising himself like Harris had done - the pair headed for the busy marketplace. During their search, Indiana got distracted by a snake charming act and bumped into one of the spectators. The boys quickly returned to the search, unaware that the man had been alerted to the knowledge that they were traveling alone. They found the place where the vizier should be but no head. The very man Indiana had bumped into offered to show them where it was and led them down a deserted alley when his one-eyed colleague leapt out of hiding.

Omar managed to flee but Jones was abducted. Bound and gagged within a small room, Indiana watched the slavers outside load camels with other children. He spied Omar sneaking to his rescue and managed to squeeze under the door to get his friend's attention.

Omar undid the restraints but freedom, however, would be brief as the kidnappers caught the two as they made their escape. Indiana would get to experience the life of a slave first hand. The boys were loaded onto camels and taken far from the city. When the slavers set up camp to see the night through, Jones planned their escape.

While most of the camp slept, the two tried to crawl their way to freedom. Suddenly the camp was assaulted by bandits and the slavers killed. Indiana mistook the attack for their salvation when in reality they were being stolen. The pair were loaded back onto the camels and taken all the way to Marrakesh , for Indiana would fetch a high price on the slave market.

Herded with other slaves, the boys were paraded around the potential buyers. Separated from Omar, Indiana's turn came to be put on auction and his good health started a bidding war between a black robed stranger and a man in yellow turban. The black robe eventually won out and Indiana was carried away to meet his new owner. Once again the figure unveiled himself to be Walter Harris, who had managed to track him to the city.

Indiana was grateful for his rescue but discovered the journalist had no intention of saving Omar. Indiana refused to abandon his friend. Omar hadn't left him when he had the chance and Jones would do the same even if Omar would remain a slave regardless. Indiana and Harris returned to the auction just as bidding began on Omar. Harris was low on money — having spent most on Indiana — when he joined the bidding, and Harris' opponent from before saw it was the same man who had taken Jones from him.

Another bidding war started but Jones quickly improvised, loudly protesting to his 'master' that Omar was mute. Since such an affliction would lower a slave's worth, Harris complained he did not want to pay so much for him.

In response, the man in the yellow turban did not bid any further to force Omar onto his foe. As such, Harris won out and the three quickly left. The turban clad buyer followed and discovered he had been cheated. He sent men after them but the three escaped on horseback. With the Moroccan leg of the lecture over, the family returned to the Sharifa. Omar was to go back into the service of Keene so it was time for Indiana and his friend to say goodbye. Omar wished him luck on his quest to be an archaeologist and Indiana hoped he could one day show Omar the places he'd asked about.

He decided to give Omar his map and, stopping Omar from bowing, the boys shook hands before going their separate ways. From there they were invited to go on safari with Former President Theodore Roosevelt , who was there to collect specimens for the Smithsonian Institution , and Frederick Selous , the best game hunter in Africa.

The family traveled with Medlicot to Kirinyaga via train. Medlicot even arranged for a special seat on the front of the locomotive so that the young Jones could watch the wildlife as they traveled.

On the trip to the site, Indy was captivated by the beautiful countryside and its majestic animals. Upon arriving at camp, he hurriedly unpacked, anxious to meet his famous host.

In the meantime, Medlicot showed Indy around the camp, introduced him to Heller , a taxidermist, and other members of the expedition. Left on his own, Indy wandered outside of camp. While exploring, he glimpsed a young African boy roughly his own age tending sheep. Before he had a chance to approach the boy, he was called back to camp.

Indy arrived just in time to witness the arrival of his host, Teddy Roosevelt, and was suitably impressed. That evening, Roosevelt and company were wondering about the disappearance of Burton 's Fringe-Eared Oryx.

Normally the animals should have been plentiful in the area, but not one had been spotted. Roosevelt was perplexed as he wished to bring a few specimens home for museums.

The next day, Roosevelt taught Indy to shoot a rifle. He also gave him a pair of binoculars to explore the surrounding countryside. He then left to go hunting. Later in the day, as Miss Seymour was teaching Indy about African wildlife, he vowed to find the oryx for Roosevelt.

As he was exploring around the camp, he encountered the young tribal boy again. This time, Indy used basic sign language to introduce himself as "Indy. Indy spent the rest of the afternoon with Meto, exploring and learning Meto's language.

Later that day, Indy and Roosevelt had a discussion. Indy was disturbed by the number of animals that the hunting party had already killed. Roosevelt told Indy that the animals were going to museums so that people could appreciate nature more.

After dinner and over a game of checkers, Indy told Roosevelt that he would help him find the oryx. Their discussion gets interrupted by a shot. Frederick Selous had killed a lion that was roaming just outside of camp. While the adults congratulated each other, Indy became more disturbed. The next day, Indy was up early and went to Meto for help in finding the oryx. Back at camp, he was missed and a search commenced. Meto took Indy to the Liabon who, through pictures drawn in the sand, described the fate of the oryx.

Indy headed back to camp. As night fell, he made his way across the veldt, becoming increasingly scared of the animal noises emanating from the dark. He was finally found by one of the Askari guards. Taken back to camp, Indy was punished and not given a chance to explain.

Early the next morning, Meto came to camp and he and Indy left before anyone else was awake. Meto took Indy to a place where there were oryxes. Indy then sneaked back to camp before breakfast. Over breakfast, Indy announced that he and Meto had found a small heard of oryx. Indy related the story he heard from the village elder to Roosevelt. The oryx's main food source was a root melon. Recently, a great fire had killed off most of the area's snake population.

The snakes had controlled the population of mole rats. With no natural predators, the mole rats flourished and burrowed underground for food, eating the root melons. This forced the oryx herd to look for food elsewhere. Indy led Roosevelt and a hunting party to where the oryx herd was grazing. The party brought down two when Indy interceded, stating that there had been enough killing. Their job completed, the hunting party packed up and headed back to civilization.

Indy left Meto a goodbye gift of his binoculars. They looked at some paintings by Edgar Degas , but Indy was unimpressed with impressionism.

Afterwards, Miss Seymour took the boys to a puppet show which neither of them appreciated. They managed to convince her to let them stay for another show while she went back to the hotel to write letters. They promised to be back in one hour. Instead, Norman promised to take Indy to where the real artists hanged out. They went to a rather disreputable-looking tavern where many artist including Degas, Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque were currently having a heated discussion about cubism.

Degas was critiquing the work of Picasso. He didn't like Picasso's work and called it destructive. Picasso said that artists need a new way of seeing things. Degas warned Picasso not pursue this new line of work as it could ruin his career.

Picasso scoffed at the warning, saying he could do what Degas does in his sleep. Norman leaped to defend Degas, saying that no one can paint like him. Picasso invited Norman and Indy to his apartment to watch him prove his claim. There, Picasso posed his model and worked in pastel. As he worked, he explained to the boys Degas' technique. When he was finished, he tossed it aside and did the painting the way Degas would do it - from memory.

Braque showed Norman some of Picasso's early experiments with cubism. Norman sketched some of it in his notebook. Even though the assistant rendered some of the paintings, he said that it is the painting and not the painter that is important. Picasso finished the painting and it indeed looked like a work of Degas'. Picasso saw the sketch in Norman's notebook and signed it.

They decided to go somewhere and get something to eat. Meanwhile, Miss Seymour was frantic wondering where Indy was. She called the police, but has little confidence in the police inspector she dealt with.

Along their way to a restaurant, Picasso invited along a couple of prostitutes. Indy thought that he should be heading back to the hotel, but Norman convinced him to stay. Picasso had the two prostitutes dance with Norman and Indy while he tried to devise a way to get Degas to sign his painting.

A little later, the prostitutes' pimps showed up and confronted Picasso. A fight broke out, but Picasso, Braque, Indy and Norman managed to make it out.

They also talked about his new style and how Picasso was trying to give spirit some form. Before they parted for the night, Picasso invited them to a party the next evening. As Indy and Norman walked back to the hotel, they were accosted by the same two pimps, who chased them into a cemetery.

They managed to frighten them off by using an old sheet and a skull to make a "ghost. Back at the hotel, Indy sneaked past Miss Seymour and hid in the large wardrobe closet. The next morning, Miss Seymour found him there. Indy told her that he was there the whole time working on his paper and must have fallen asleep, but this only makes Miss Seymour more suspicious. The next night, Miss Seymour went to bed, but locked Indy in his room.

He climbed out the window and was almost killed when the gutter he was hanging on gave way. He made it safely the rest of the way down and caught up to Norman outside the party.

They went inside to find that everyone was wearing costumes. There, they met Kahnweiler , an art dealer who wished to buy one of Picasso's cubist works. They were also introduced to Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Picasso was able to persuade another painter, Henri Rousseau , to tell a ghost story.

At the story's climax, in walked Miss Seymour, who woke and discovered that Indy was gone, but had written down where he was going. Picasso pulled out a gun and marched Miss Seymour into another room. Once there, Picasso sketched her. She liked the traditional portrait he had done of her, but was totally impressed with the cubist version he did as well.

Miss Seymour was also shown Picasso's forgery. Kahnweiler saw it and, unaware that it is a forgery, wanted to buy it for a thousand francs. Picasso acted reluctant and said that it is not signed. Kahnweiler said that he'd get it signed. At the cafe, Kahnweiler got Degas, whose eyesight had begun to fail him and thought it was one of his paintings, to sign the painting. A delighted Picasso let everyone know that it was he who painted the picture not Degas.

Kahnweiler became angry. Norman and Indy, thinking the trick Picasso played on Degas was a rotten one, denied the claim. Norman said that it looked like a Degas and it was signed by Degas, so therefore it must be one. Indy then sold Kahnweiler Norman's cubist sketch for a thousand francs which infuriated Picasso.

He split the money with Norman and Picasso. Indy told Picasso that maybe he should stay around Paris and become his agent. The family was staying at the American Ambassador's residence. Indy was taking riding lessons with the children of some of the city's elite, among them the daughter of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand , Princess Sophie. At one point she lost her hat, which Indy retrieved for her.

He was rebuked by the instructor for his actions. Down in the stables, he introduced himself to her. She invited him along for a walk in the park, accompanied by Miss Seymour and her governess, Emilie. Afterwards, they went to eat at a rather expensive hotel. Indy and Sophie went for a stroll in the hotel's greenhouse. Looking outside, they could see people skating on a frozen lake.

Sophie said she had never tried skating, so Indy convinced her to do so. However, as Indy began to show her the ropes, Emilie arrived and took her away, furious. Indy was in big trouble. When his father found out he went mad and withdrew him from his riding lessons. Indy's mother was a bit more sympathetic.

She explained to him that the imperial family had many enemies and what they did wasn't safe for Sophie. She told him that he'd make some other friends, but he responded that there was no one like her in the whole world. The next day during tutoring, Miss Seymour caught Indy writing an apology letter to Sophie.

She began to teach Indy about poetry, particularly the works of Wyatt and Shelley. Indy wondered if he could be in love. The following day, Indy received a letter from Sophie, in which she thanked him for the time they spent together. Indy's spirits were raised and he spent the day looking for a small gift to give her. In one shop, he saw the perfect gift - a small glass globe with two ice skating figurines inside. However, it cost too much.

He continued to wander through the city, and eventually spoiled a con man's shell game by showing the victim how it was done. The grateful man gave Indy some money and it was enough for him to go back to the shop and buy the glass globe. However, when he went to the palace to give it to Sophie, he was chased away by the guards. That evening at dinner, the Joneses were joined by Carl Jung , Alfred Adler and Sigmund Freud , who got into a discussion about the role sexuality plays in the makeup of human nature.

Indy asked about love and while the three men could not agree on what exactly it is, Freud told him he should not deny it, but shout it out. Later that night, Indy snuck out of the embassy and went to the palace.

He refused to leave until he got to talk to the Archduke. Ultimately, he was taken to see him. He told the Archduke that he wished to marry Sophie when older and would like to say good-bye to her before he left in the morning.

While the Archduke admired Indy's determination, he refused. He then arranged for a carriage to take Indy back to the embassy. Once the carriage dropped him off, it headed back to the palace, but Indy had managed to hide himself aboard.

At the palace stables, he came out of his hiding place and entered the palace. He snuck through the halls, dodged the guards, and used dumbwaiters and a discovered secret passage to get to Sophie's room.

She was happy to see him and gave him a gift of a locket with her picture. Indy gave her the globe and told her that he was in love with her. They kissed briefly and he said good-bye. He climbed down the balcony and snuck off the palace grounds as she waved goodbye. Jones would keep Sophie's locket for a long time, and he would later use it as a good luck-charm. Indy and his family then travelled to Florence , Italy where they were staying with Professor and Senora Reale.

They attended an opera written and conducted by Giacomo Puccini. Anna was extremely moved by the love story of the opera and the beauty of the singing. Even Indy enjoyed it and began to wonder if love could be as powerful as it was portrayed in the opera. After the show, Indy and his father visited Puccini backstage who was resting with a towel over his face. Senora Reale asked Puccini if he would attend her dinner party, but he said he was too tired.

However, when Puccini was introduced to Indy's mother, he was immediately taken by her beauty and said he would be honored to attend. At the party, Indy asked Puccini how he wrote the opera. Puccini told him he did it one note after the other. Indy told him that his mother enjoyed it so much that she cried.

Puccini said that this meant that she understood great love. Indy told Puccini that they would be staying in Florence for a week while his father went to Rome to give a lecture. Indy told him he would be studying the laws of physics, specifically the laws of attraction. He said that the following day he would be going to Pisa to do an experiment just like Galileo.

Puccini offered to escort them to Pisa as he grew up near there. Puccini arrived a short while later and drove them to Pisa. Indy admired his motorized car and Puccini told him that Leonardo Da Vinci was the first to invent the self-propelled car, not Henry Ford.

Indy and Miss Seymour climbed to the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa with two irons, one heavier than the other. Miss Seymour asked him which will hit the ground first if they were to drop them both at the same time.

Indy replied that the heavier one would. Miss Seymour told him that that was what Aristotle thought, but Galileo believed they would both hit the ground at the same time due to the fact that they had the same density. Indy proved this by dropping the weights which did indeed hit at the same time. Puccini asked Indy's mother about her life.

He told her about how he came to realize that he was destined to write operas about love and beauty. He told her, however, that an artist can only create the approximation of beauty, never the real thing. He went on to tell her about the problems he has with his marriage. That night Indy's mother received a large bouquet of flowers from Puccini. She wrote a letter to her husband and had it mailed. A few days later, they attended a rehearsal of Puccini's new opera, Madame Butterfly , and witnessed an argument between Puccini and one of the singers.

Puccini told them that a singer alone could not portray his emotions; he needed an actress also. Puccini gave Indy's mother a piece of the sheet music from the opera signed, "To Senora Jones, who feels the music. That night Indy's mother explained to him how music is a special language that can convey a wide range of emotions.

The next day, Indy's mother enjoyed the guided tour of Florence. While alone, Puccini confessed to Indy's mother that he felt that they were connected and should be together, however, she told him that she was married and no matter what her feelings were for him, they must speak no further of it. She asked him to take them back to the house. The following day at breakfast, Indy asked his mother what was bothering her. She seemed upset that she hadn't received a reply from his father in the mail.

They decided to go sight seeing on their own that day, however, Puccini tracked them down. Miss Seymour steered Indy away from them so his mother and Puccini could speak in private. Puccini apologized to her, but said he could not stay away.

He said he wanted to work with her in his sight because she had revitalized his passion. She was extremely distraught over the feelings she had for him and asked to be left alone. Indy interrupted them as he realized something was going on.

Puccini asked her to meet him in the botany gardens that evening. These constituted the high points in Indy's brief Hollywood career, however, as the majority of his time there was marked by failed movie endeavors, a tumultuous romance, and a bizarre plot to kidnap Prince Massimo of Italy. It did, however, afford him the opportunity to meet the famous gunfighter Wyatt Earp , who was consulting John Ford on a western he was filming. All in all, Indy's time in Hollywood was a bust — hence the word "follies" in the movie title — and he returned to Chicago with a broken leg he'd earned performing a stunt in one of Ford's films.

He might be the star of a beloved movie franchise to us, but in his own universe, Indy isn't much for appearing on the silver screen. Indiana's studies sent him on expeditions to Greece, Iraq, and Egypt.

These relatively minor escapades gave him a thirst for adventure that he just couldn't quench in the classroom. Audiences might meet her in Raiders as a capable woman with street smarts and an insane alcohol tolerance, but when she was being romanced by Indy, she was only a naive young girl. Marion would watch Indy as he practiced his bullwhip every day, and this time together turned into an intense, though brief, courtship.

It came to an abrupt end when Jones took a job at London University. It is revealed in the novelization of Raiders of the Lost Ark that Indy had promised Marion that he would be back soon — a promise he did not keep. The next time he saw Marion came ten years later, in the events depicted in the film Raiders of the Lost Ark. Now a well-rounded, fully-accredited archaeologist, Indy searched for the legendary lost city of El Dorado, attempted to find Noah's Ark, and discovered an artifact that had once belonged to a unicorn.

That's right — in Indy's universe, unicorns are a thing. Jones later had his first run-in with the Nazis , who were out to find a scroll that would teach them how to create a drug that would produce "Men of Odin," essentially modern-day berserkers. This was followed by a slew of supernatural adventures, notably his first encounter with a crystal skull , which, of course, he acquired by foiling a Nazi plot. Not long after the crystal skull incident, while searching for an artifact in Shanghai, Indy's pocket was picked by a young Chinese orphan who he captured and befriended.

For all practical purposes, that catches us up. Indy's greatest adventures were then portrayed in the classic films we all know and love. And with a fifth Indy flick scheduled for release in , it looks as if there is no shortage of adventures to come. Indiana Jones' Entire Backstory Explained. An adventurer is born. His first adventure. Indy's teenage years. The Mexican Revolution. The Great War.

Secret agent man. College, jazz, and the mob. Spontaneity Rules. Advance preparation is a pre-requisite for a meeting or presentation, but success or failure is often determined by a spontaneous response to an unscripted question that has to be formulated and communicated in a split second.

In his book Blockbuster , film writer Tom Shone argues that Indiana Jones is not a very good archaeologist since he never holds on to his artifacts.

But Dr. Jones should be teaching business, not archaeology. We can all learn a good deal from his exploits in Raiders of the Lost Ark —whether or not our job requires us to bring a bullwhip to work.

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