Canadian Archaeological Association 53rd Annual Conference, 2020: “Archaeology and Popular Culture”.

This session aims to look at the relationship between archaeology and popular culture.

How has archaeology influenced popular culture (e.g. the influence of archaeologist Margaret Murray’s research on H.P. Lovecraft’s story, “The Call of Cthulhu”)?

How has popular culture influenced archaeology (e.g. the role of Indiana Jones in the origin stories of many archaeologists today)?

How does the appearance of archaeology in various mediums of popular culture influence public perception of our field (e.g. archaeology within video games like The Sims 4: Jungle, Stardew Valley, and the Tomb Raider franchise)?

How can archaeology in popular culture be used to educate the public about our field and the archaeologists within it (e.g. the documentary television show Wild Archaeology)?

And what happens when the archaeology being shared with the public is incorrect, misappropriated, and pseudo-archaeological (e.g. television shows like Ancient Aliens and America Unearthed, books like Chariots of the Gods)?