Virtual Archaeology

Can a 3D animation education lead you to a  career in archeology?  Indiana Jones and the Temple of doom came out in 1984, I was 14 years old.  I loved the movie, who didn’t.  Now I didn’t become an archeologist, but I wanted to for a few years.  The movie inspired a generation of archeologists.   "As a teacher, I would ask my students, 'How many of you were influenced by Indiana Jones films?'" said Fred Hiebert, an archaeology fellow with National Geographic. "Everyone in the class would raise their hands."   It was a Hollywood interpretation of what an archeologist was, but it still inspired a generation, particularly in the field of science.   I even went to a Indiana Jones themed wedding . . . my friend was a high school science teacher.  Hollywood is still inspiring, not only with its films, but with it technologies. 

Look how archeology has evolved.  Maurizio Forte of Duke University, is one of the leaders in this field, "Technology is a wonderful catalyzer, and there are people here from a lot of different backgrounds who together can share a lot of ideas and research," he said. "I want to make this field very different from the traditional view of it."  The techniques used in in Hollywood films and video games are taking the field of archeology to the next level.  "Any scientific approach uses inferences and hypothetical analyses," Maurizio said. "We cannot reconstruct the past, but we can simulate it because the past itself is fluid. Our job is to be open to multiple interpretations and perspectives."   These skills and software applications are just “tools” and will be infused with almost every future industry and career path, from Hollywood to archeology.  ~Cornell

https://today.duke.edu/2013/03/maurizioforte