We’re only talking about the first three movies here, because Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was a travesty.
There are no fancy booby traps in ancient tombs, sorry.
Tombs are not well-preserved. We're talking about things that are THOUSANDS of years old here. Think about it: Your iPhone can't even last a year. "If it's anything old, it's not going to survive (i.e., boulder rolling down a cave)," Field Museum and University of Illinois at Chicago archaeologist William Parkinson, Ph.D., told BuzzFeed.
"The ruins [in the opening scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark] are supposedly Chachapoyan, about whom there is an incredible amount of nonsense written, but they didn't booby trap their burials, which were mostly in the walls of the city or under the floors of houses," archaeologist Kris Hirst told BuzzFeed via email.
LucasFilms / Via youtube.com
In fact, archaeologists would never destroy a dig site — let alone a freakin' library — to get an artifact.
"Yeah, we try not to do that ... It just doesn't make any sense," Parkinson said.
"We don't really dig for 'artifacts' any more, we dig for ideas, and the whole point of excavation is screwed if you don't dig it carefully and take great notes — excavation is a supremely destructive activity ... A gold idol or two doesn't tell you a whole lot," said Hirst.
LucasFilms / Via youtube.com
Snakes and other wildlife are not a huge problem for archaeologists.
"You can't really be squeamish and successful as an archaeologist. You live and work in dirt, often sleeping in a tent or an abandoned building: if you're lucky, you land in a university dorm room for a few months," said Hirst.
Wild animals can be a problem for an archeologist, but isn't a huge concern. When asked if he would willingly be dropped into a pit of snakes in order to find a rare and valuable artifact, Parkinson replied, "No!"
LucasFilm / Via giphy.com
Modern archaeologists don't buy artifacts from shady dealers at nightclubs, but it wasn't unusual during Indy's time.
In the early 20th century, it wasn't uncommon for museums to buy illegal antiquities from dealers. Many Egyptian artifacts in museums across the United States were actually purchased from looters who ripped apart and destroyed a site.
"We don't do that anymore," Parkinson said, though it's still a billion-dollar business on the black market. "It funds terrorism in many parts of the world," he added.
LucasFilm / Via giphy.com
