It's not a "door to heaven," it's Stargate (1994), dweeb! We travel a million light years from home to uncover this peak 90's find with good friend of the show David S. Anderson. We talk gods, aliens, archaeology, dunking on your colleagues' translations and curiously paradoxical attitudes towards arming children. Is this movie the harbinger of modern ancient aliens conspiracies or just a warm up for Independence Day? Also, don't you just miss the days when a child wandering an archaeological site could just wander off with an ancient artifact?

Where to begin? (No really, what date is this film even taking place in?) Ridley Scott returns us to his vision of ancient Rome that was laid out over twenty years ago. While we do see a lot of new faces in the Eternal City, the overall story is wrapped up in its mythologizing of the original. Joining the crew is a very special guest (and Maximus/mentor figure to two of your hosts), Dr. Glenn Storey to discuss this Hollywood take on the Roman Empire. From ships and sharks in the Colosseum to a slightly morbid excerpt from Vergil written on a child's bedroom wall, there are quite a few moments that give us pause. Looking beyond the little inaccuracies that feel designed to troll ancient scholars (Persians vs. Trojans at the Battle of Salamis?), we focus on what the film is trying to reflect about our own modern society. And what we see is a lot scarier than the CGI baboons.

Are you back Indy? We are at least as we uncover the fifth (and final?) installment of the America's favorite archaeologist: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. Joining us is super special guest Bill Farley, who helps us unpack a whole range of topics including the Antikythera mechanism, Processualism, Operation Paperclip, digital de-aging technology and the dangers of living in the past (don't do it kids). Listen now or relive the Siege of Syracuse for all eternity.

You can see more from Bill on his Youtube channel Archaeology Tube.

They're digging in the right place? We take another look at the most famous archaeologist of all as we revisit the first three Indiana Jones movies: Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), The Temple of Doom (1984) and The Last Crusade (1989). Joined by super special guest, author and archaeologist David West Reynolds, we look back on our own experiences with Indy, enormous impact on the public perception of archaeology and what these films, namely Raiders, gets remarkably correct about the field.

You can follow David West Reynolds on Facebook, Instagram as well as through his work on projects with Lucasfilm, the Explorer's Club and his new kickstarter, Chasing Raiders.

In this episode we utilize our amazing artistic abilities to *checks notes* stop time(?) and discuss Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis, a modern retelling/allegory of the Catilinarian Conspiracy that took place during the late Roman Republic. Here to help analyze this fever-dream of a film is Dr. Hannah Čulík-Baird, Associate Professor of Classics at UCLA, co-editor of Res Difficiles, and last but not least, a self proclaimed “unrepentant Adam Driver stan”. Join us in our attempt to make sense of a film that fights all attempts to do so.

Is it bad? Probably. Is it brilliant? Probably not. Does the random QR code actually provide insightful information? We may never know.

Be sure to read Hannah's insightful take on the film via her blog o pietas animi and follow her on social media under the handle @opietasanimi.

In this episode we learn that your hosts do not know how to behave themselves without an awesome guest to keep them in line! That being said, Colin, Elijah, and Christie delve into the latest iteration of Tomb Raider from the new Netflix animated series. It has a fully realized Lara, beautiful animation, and a plot that actually requires the heroine to intervene in order to save the world. Yet it feels a little too late for it to make the same impact as Angelina Jolie's Tomb Raider. We unpack this, Netflix's unintelligible renewal method (this series was renewed for a second season), and weird franchises we'd all like talk drunkenly about one day.

With a new month comes a new opportunity to help support the podcast! Please be sure to rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts! And if you want to know about our upcoming plans and episode releases, be sure to follow us on all our social media platforms, which you can find here.

Your favorite Tomb Raider is back, and this time she taking a beating. With the help of archaeogaming specialist, Julie Levy, we take a look at the rebooted version of Lara Croft introduced in the 2010s. Considering the film is supposed to be based on the 2013 game, it is wild to see how drastically different the two mediums present Lara Croft's new origin story. Let's just say, we end up loving the game more than a film, even with its supernatural AND super-gorey elements. Will Lara ever put down her tomb raiding ways and become a real archaeologist? Probably not. But the franchise does allow us to consider the role myth-making plays in the field of archaeology, and it's problematic offshoot of pseudoarchaeology.

Speaking of, if you want to learn more about #RealArchaeology, be sure to check out all the new archaeology-related content be shared this weekend at real-archaeology.com! The site brings together a collective of online creators whose goal is to collaborate in creating, promoting, and sharing entertaining and educational media with the wider public on the wonders of our shared history.

Along with that, check out the Save Ancient Studies Alliance which likewise aims to break barriers to education about humanity’s diverse past in order to advance intercultural empathy, equity, and cooperation today.

As the old adage goes, "Well-behaved women seldom make history" and Tomb Raider takes that to a whole new level. Based on the popular late 90s action-adventure video games, Angelina Jolie plays the titular Lara Croft in these high-energy films released during the early 2000s. To help us unpack the early inspirations for this character and her initial film adaptations, we are joined by Egyptologist (and sometimes Lara Croft cosplayer), Dr. Marina Escolano-Povdeda. While these films definitely fail the Bechdel test, one must marvel at this cinematic world in which no one questions Lara's capabilities as a Tomb Raider. Even if she probably destroys more tombs than not, her importance as an icon for young girls and women who wanted to enter the male-dominated field of archaeology cannot be overstated. That's got to count for something, right?

If you are interested in learning more about #RealArchaeology and the people who do it, be sure to check out https://real-archaeology.com/index.html. And if you would like to learn more about Marina and her work, check out her Twitter and Instagram pages.

If you've been hankering for a good modern take on ancient myth, then this is the show for you! We join forces with super-special guest Amy Pistone to talk about Netflix's new take on the Greek gods in Kaos (2024). We talk about how this show adapts oft- and less-oft-seen stories to its unique world and its novel takes on many familiar characters. Does everything in the end come back to Romeo + Juliet?

Disclaimer: We didn't know about its impending cancellation when we recorded (though we had a Cassandra-like premonition that it might happen). We still highly encourage you go check out the show. Who knows? Perhaps another platform will pick it up and continue this excellent adaptation of Greek myth. Only the Fates know;) #Justice4Dennis

We're back with the second part of our promo-preview for the newest season of Movies We Dig: Archaeology on Film. We round out our discussion of the previous season on Rome on TV with some trivia games, make predictions on the films we're about to review and reflect back on what brought us to our fields, in some cases literally.