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CU Boulder archaeologist Sarah Kurnick addresses some common myths about archaeology at the 50^th anniversary of the discovery of China鈥檚 terracotta warriors

March 1974 was particularly dry in China鈥檚 Shaanxi Province, so at the end of the month a farmer named Yang Zhifa and several brothers who lived near Xi鈥檃n .

For two days they hacked into the hard, red earth, and on the third day, March 29, Yang struck something terracotta in the soil. It would eventually be discovered as one of the greatest archaeological finds of the century, and arguably of the modern era: the , China鈥檚 first emperor, guarded by thousands of life-size terracotta warriors and horses.

In the 50 years since its discovery, the terracotta army has captivated visitors to what is now an archaeological complex in Xi鈥檃n and, perhaps less thrillingly, contributed to one of the enduring myths about archaeology: that the main goal of the field is to make huge discoveries like the terracotta warriors.

鈥淚 think it鈥檚 common for people to assume we鈥檙e only interested in the very distant past and only interested in things that occur in exotic locations鈥攄eserts and jungles or in places like China or Egypt,鈥� says Sarah Kurnick, a University of Colorado Boulder assistant professor of anthropology and an anthropological archaeologist who specializes in . 鈥淲hat you tend not to hear as much about are historical archaeologists鈥攑eople who are studying plantation sites in the American South, for example鈥攐r even projects where people are doing archaeology of the contemporary world.鈥�

Thanks to swashbuckling characters like Indiana Jones and Lara Croft and the broad attention given to just a small handful of archaeological discoveries鈥攖he terracotta warriors, King Tut鈥檚 tomb and Machu Picchu, for example鈥攁rchaeology has become a field in which myth and reality often dramatically diverge.

At the 50^th anniversary of the discovery of the terracotta army, Kurnick addresses some of the most common myths about the field and science of archaeology.

Myth: If you鈥檙e not hacking through jungle vines with a machete, you鈥檙e not doing archaeology

People don鈥檛 really think of archaeologists teaching classes or doing research in libraries, doing data analysis. There鈥檚 the idea that it鈥檚 all field work and that field work is entirely excavation. I don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 commonly known how much technology has changed and advanced the field. There鈥檚 ground-penetrating radar鈥攚hich doesn鈥檛 work in all environments, but it can find anomalies鈥攁nd a whole bunch of aerial survey methods. is a big one. The idea is to rent a plane and fly over a survey area back and forth in straight lines while you鈥檙e sending a laser down. That creates what are almost photographs of the topography, and it鈥檚 a way of looking at large swaths of land and getting rid of levels of trees, essentially.

But field work, if you鈥檙e a field archaeologist, is just part of it. Archaeologists work in labs, they write code to analyze data, they do text-based research. Unfortunately, that鈥檚 not very glamorous.

Myth: Archaeology is for men

I do think there鈥檚 a common misconception that archaeology is this masculine endeavor鈥攖hat archaeologists are men and it鈥檚 all hardship and ruggedness and strength and alcohol. There鈥檚 a famous archaeologist, , who said in the early 1940s that there are two types of archaeologists in popular imagination: the hairy chested and the hairy chinned. You鈥檝e got the hairy chested, rugged explorer with his shirt unbuttoned, with the pith helmet and bullwhip鈥攖he Indiana Jones type鈥攁nd then you think of his father, an older gentleman with a beard and a jacket with elbow patches, decoding ancient texts. Those are the two types鈥攐r myths鈥攐f archaeologists people think of, and they鈥檙e both men.

Although much has changed since the 1940s, women in archaeology still deal sometimes with this macho, masculine feel to archaeology鈥攖his sense that archaeologists are the cowboys of science and it鈥檚 not a field for women because we can鈥檛 carry buckets of dirt or cut vines down with machetes, which is obviously not true.

Myth: Archaeologists deal in the supernatural

There鈥檚 a lot of pseudo-archaeology stuff out there鈥攖his notion that the past was significantly influenced by aliens or people from the lost city of Atlantis. If I meet a random person on a plane sitting next to me and they ask what I do and I say I鈥檓 an archeologist, a lot of the time they鈥檒l start talking about something related to pseudo-archaeology. Almost everybody gets information about archaeology from television and movies, and if you look at the types of movies and TV shows, you鈥檝e got things like Indiana Jones and Lara Croft, and on TV there鈥檚 鈥淎ncient Aliens鈥� and 鈥淎merica Unearthed.鈥� You鈥檝e got 鈥淎ncient Apocalypse鈥� listed as a documentary on Netflix.

There鈥檚 this disconnect between what archaeologists are saying and what people want to know. In some instances, I do think people might be geared toward the wrong questions, but on other hand, I think archaeologists do a pretty poor job of communication and are not really meeting people where they鈥檙e at.

For archaeology, like most science, it鈥檚 still the 'publish or perish'听model, and generally the peer-reviewed publications are considered much more important than public outreach. There鈥檚 still sometimes a stigma associated with public outreach. But it鈥檚 important not to turn people off. We need to do a better job of engaging people in the science in a way that鈥檚 interesting and relevant.

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Myth: Archaeologists are treasure hunters

Unfortunately, this is something that鈥檚 still being perpetuated by the History Channel, National Geographic and other organizations. There was a documentary several years ago that was all about LIDAR鈥攚hich makes sense because LIDAR is awesome and the images it produces are amazing鈥攁nd they interviewed real archaeologists who work in Central America. But whoever wrote the narrative for the documentary kept talking about LIDAR-facilitated treasure hunting and about how you have a map and X听marks the spot and LIDAR shows you where that X is.

Also, I think there鈥檚 not a great understanding of what happens to artifacts once they鈥檝e been excavated鈥攈ow complicated and difficult and ethically fraught the next steps are. The notion of who owns the past is a huge question. I also think people assume that archaeologists pocket some things they find, or that they鈥檙e insisting everything belongs in a museum. Archaeology has historically been a colonial endeavor, and we鈥檙e doing things very differently now than in the past. I鈥檓 on the , and part of our work is recognizing that yes, our past is problematic, but we鈥檙e working to do things differently now.

Myth: All archaeologists want to work in Egypt

Ancient China, Egypt, ancient Maya鈥攖hese are the things that people assume archaeologists should do and want to do. But it would be so disappointing if that was all we wanted to do. There鈥檚 so much exciting historical archaeology and contemporary archaeology happening. There鈥檚 a famous archaeologist named who said we should be looking at trash to learn about ways of life and suggested excavating landfills in the present. Because of his work, we learned all sorts of insights about consumer habits, about what people recycle and don鈥檛 recycle, what does and doesn鈥檛 degrade in a landfill.

There are really cool historical projects in Colorado鈥攐ne that Bonnie Clark听and her colleagues are leading is learning more about a Japanese internment camp at , and I don鈥檛 think people commonly think of doing the archaeology of World War II. Another project by Dean Saitta and his colleagues is looking at some of the early labor movements and the violent interactions between labor and capitalists in the region, and an aspect of that is looking at the and the history of miners.

One thing that鈥檚 really exciting about archaeology is it鈥檚 in many ways democratizing. If we look at history, oftentimes the people we know the most about are the most elite鈥攖he 1%. When we have the extraordinary finds鈥攖he terracotta warriors, King Tut鈥檚 tomb鈥攚e鈥檙e learning about the top echelons of those societies. But for a lot of archaeologists, we鈥檙e interested in the 99%. Finding these aspects of daily life in households can be just as exciting, if not more exciting, than the huge discoveries. We鈥檙e finding out about how things were for most people, rather than just the upper echelons. There鈥檚 an emerging field of household archaeology that鈥檚 excavating houses and figuring out what daily life was like, how did people interact. We鈥檇 be getting a really warped picture of the world if the only things we knew about our past came from royal tombs.

Myth: Archaeologists look for dinosaur bones

No, that鈥檚 paleontologists.

Top image: Terracotta army in Xi'an, China (Photo: iStock); Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones (Photo: Paramount/Everett Collection)

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