Don’t be an archaeologist in a movie if you want to survive

Josie Ford Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more Archaeologists RIP In July, Feedback reported that geologist characters in movies were surprisingly likely to die, often from “work related” causes like volcanic eruptions, but remarkably frequently by murder. We wondered how other scientists fared. Andrew Hardwick flags The Avengers – not the Marvel superheroes, but the British spy series from the 1960s. “Any character introduced as a scientist was certain to be killed off,” Andrew says, due to the limited budget for hiring guest actors. “Exposition characters had to double up as victims or villains.” Feedback briefly considered performing an analysis to estimate the scientist death toll, but then we learned that the show ran for 161 hour-long episodes and decided we had better things to do. Advertisement if( window?.adverts?.addToArray ) { window.adverts.addToArray( { "pos": "mid-article-slot" } ); } Meanwhile, David Hawke pulls us up on a detail. We claimed that one indicator a character will die is that he is played by Sean Bean. David argues that Bean’s breakout role was the heroic Richard Sharpe, in the TV adaptations of Bernard Cornwell’s historical novels. While some of Bean’s characters “meet their doom”, David says, “surely playing Sharpe more than compensates for this”. Feedback feels David underestimates just how often Bean dies on screen. A YouTube supercut spanning 1986 to 2016 shows him meeting his maker no fewer than 24 times. However, our main focus here is a missive from Andy Chapman. “As a now retired archaeologist I feel fortunate to have made it this far,” he writes, “given the film death rate for archaeologists.” They are particularly likely to die in films involving Egyptian mummies. “Here the death rate must approach 100 per cent, with only the heroic/romantic leads exempted, but often not their trusted assistants.” Andy’s argument rests in part on the Indiana Jones and Tomb Raider films, alongside the various incarnations of The Mummy. Andy notes “an unhealthy death rate” in many of these franchises, albeit with a caveat. “Much of this would apply to people unlikely to be regarded as qualified archaeologists, as I don’t believe training in weapons and explosives feature on the syllabus of many archaeology departments.” Andy’s more sedate approach to the field appears to have kept him safe. He spent his time “working largely in British commercial archaeology ahead of quarrying and construction projects”, which tended to yield less treasure or cursed swords, and more “boxes of broken pottery and animal bone”. Such finds, informative as they are, “don’t often lead to homicide”. Reprogram yourself Feedback is feeling a bit wiped out from the alleged “summer holidays”, which just mean we have to work while also ferrying Feedback Jr to their various social engagements. So we wanted a wellbeing hack, and reader Graham Lansdell was on hand to tell us about