Indiana Jones is back for a new adventure, from the streets of New York to the depths of the Mediterranean. Released on Wednesday, The Dial of Destiny, however, mishandles the old archaeologist. Harrison Ford jumps from tuk-tuk to tuk-tuk in Tangier in 1969; he dives, he rushes and also does a bit of climbing in Greece. This last effort is painful to him – at already 70 years old (the actor is 80) -, Indy is no longer this impulsive adventurer who once swinged along Peruvian vines and who abseiled in the depths of the temples of Tanis. The prospect of stringing together such Hollywood triathlons until the third age does not delight all archaeologists. Firstly, because the job does not consist in sending oneself crashing down in the middle of exotic ruins. Then also because those who consider themselves as “the proletarians of archeology” claim to benefit, more simply, from retirement at 55 years old.
“Real field archaeology, which is not that fantasized about Indiana Jones, corresponds to site work very close to the construction sector, that is to say an outdoor job, subject to the variety of sometimes radical constraints that this can generate”, explain Thursday three archaeologists members of the “Collectif de Lutte des Archéologues Nantais.es” (Clan). The day before, for the release of the latest film in the Indiana Jones saga, around fifteen activists from the group demonstrated in front of the Gaumont cinema on Place du Commerce, in Nantes. “Indiana Jones and the Lost Retirement”, evokes a banner; another pits the “rich looter of treasures” against real archaeologists, “smicard scientists with lost joints”. A third banner, in anarchist colors, finally praises the “only common point” between the popular figure and the militant researchers: “hatred of the Nazis”.
“We relied on the release of the film to assert our rights, to have the difficulty of the profession recognized and to change the state of the system which makes us precarious, claim the organizers of the Nantes action. The action carried out at the Nantes center was also an opportunity to challenge the general public, and to raise awareness of the issue of working conditions and retirement in archeology.” As indicated by archaeologists, the majority of the 4,000 to 5,000 professionals in this sector, in France, would suffer from the reverse of a “job-passion”. The typical archaeologist is thus an excavation technician with a short and choppy career imposed by the gap linked to study time and the systematic use of short-term contracts, recalls the Clan, which campaigns for “the end of precariousness systemic and institutional in archaeology”.
Added to this is a sometimes comical discrepancy with the conditions of exercise of the activity in the field from which the construction sector benefits. “Whether it’s snowing, raining or selling, the archaeologist stays outside while, very often, construction people who work not far from us can come in, testifies Aurélien Piolot, archaeologist and South representative at the private archaeological operator Éveha, which “totally” supports the action carried out by the Clan. Researcher and CFDT representative, her colleague Marion Bernard also agrees: “The average age of archaeologists is now around forty; we have maybe a third of the seekers who are physically broken, who have lost their backs, who have loose ankles, crumbling shoulders, not to mention their wrists”.
However, the reform of unemployment insurance like that of pensions – which the Clan also opposes – has not improved the prospects of the “small hands of archeology”, maintain the main interested parties. “According to my simulation, I could not leave before 67 in the best case, and it will not even be full time”, notes Marion Bernard. “It’s a double penalty,” breathes Aurélien Piolot. The two union representatives hope to obtain, one day, an improvement in working conditions thanks to company agreements which will be a reference in the sector and which can serve as a foundation for homogenization with public operators (Inrap and communities).
Boycott the movie? However, that is out of the question. There are even researchers within the Clan to recognize “a fairly pronounced sympathy for the character of Indiana Jones” – while the figure is in no way representative of the profession. But the generational effect still leaves its mark. “For people in their forties, the films have nevertheless put forward the figure of the archaeologist and have encouraged new people to move towards the discipline”, cautiously advances a member of the collective who wishes to remain anonymous. A certainty floats with archaeologists in struggle: their Grail is not at the bottom of a tomb of Alexandretta, but in demonstration.
