We already know Indiana Jones is fiction, but that doesn’t stop scientists, historians, and archaeologists from reminding us how much of it indeed is outside of the bounds of reality and how much of the plot is based on historical elements. Times Online gathers a panel of archaeologists and other experts — many of whom chose their profession after seeing the Indiana Jones films as children — to watch the Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull DVD to comment on all the fictional elements just in case some of us “believe.”

EXCERPT:

21:19 min
The Russians accuse Jones of spying. “There has been such a tradition of archaeological spies that foreign countries assume that if you’re an archaeologist you’re almost definitely a spy,” says Joe Flatman, a lecturer in archaeology at University College London. “T. E. Lawrence, when digging in Syria in 1913, was actually spying for the Brits.”

28:34min
Jones and Mutt Williams (Shia LaBeouf) speak of a crystal skull found by Mitchell-Hedges. “He was a real-life English adventurer who claimed to have discovered a crystal skull at the Maya ruin of Lubaantun. Some thought it to be pre-Colombian and proof of alien technology but now is believed to have been made in the 19th century,” says James Doeser, a PhD archaeology student at UCL.

Read the full article:
Panel of Experts: Now dig this Indiana Jones (Times Online)