UMD professor is real-life Indiana Jones

Archeologist "Rip" Rapp featured in National Science Foundation special report

George "Rip" Rapp

June 27, 2008

UMD Regents Professor Emeritus of geoarchaeology George "Rip" Rapp is a real-life Indiana Jones. His life's work compares in many ways to the swashbuckling hero of the latest hit movie, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, starring Harrison Ford.

Rapp is also one of seven international archaeologists highlighted in the National Science Foundation's (NSF) recently launched special online report, "Archaeology from Reel to Real."

The NSF report features in-depth articles on the careers of the seven accomplished international NSF-funded archaeologists, who work as far afield as the Aleutians and Egypt, China and Mexico--or as close as Mississippi. The articles describe the careers of these scientists, comparing their work with the adventures of Hollywood's fictional archaeologist Indiana Jones. While no one expects that the storied Indiana Jones, the hero of four far-flung tales of adventure, to resemble real scientists, archaeologists concede that parallels do exist.

The NSF article, spotlighting Rapp's career, is titled "They're Digging in the Wrong Place." The feature describes the key discoveries of Rapp, whose work includes 37 years of major geoarchaeological and archaeological excavation and survey around the world.

According to the NSF article: "Even with a decade on the sixties-ish actor who plays archaeologist Henry "Indiana" Jones, George "Rip" Rapp easily gives his fictional counterpart a run for his money in terms of professional accomplishments, having discovered not one, but two, 'lost cities' in China; located the shoreline of ancient Troy; and excavated dinosaur fossils alongside the famous paleontologist Jack Horner in Montana."

All of his professional successes, Rapp is quick to point out, can be attributed to nothing more than a good grasp of geology and the willingness to indulge in some backbreaking physical labor.

Using satellite data and ground-based geophysics (along with his unique coring technique), Rapp and his colleague, Zhichun Jing, discovered China's most famous lost city, "Great City Song" (pronounced "Soon") in 1992. The city was the capital of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty and is featured prominently in China's ancient literature. Rapp and Zhichun also discovered the rampart that surrounded another lost city in China, now known as Huanbei Shang City.

According to Rapp, finding a lost city is not the fruit of hours spent learning obscure languages or deciphering ancient codes, but rather applying his techniques (a blend of modern technology and manual labor) to meet a geological challenge. All of his professional successes, Rapp is quick to point out, can be attributed to nothing more than a good grasp of geology and the willingness to indulge in some backbreaking physical labor.

Rapp has demonstrated that, just like Indiana Jones, real-life archeologists do discover lost cities. They also try to figure out what happened to "vanished civilizations" and whether the causes of their collapse may have relevance to contemporary problems.

Today's archeologists seek rare and precious artifacts that tell important stories about the past. These artifacts might be minute snails or the scrapings of ancient teeth--not golden idols. And certainly--as is jokingly noted in the latest Indiana Jones adventure--teaching is an important part of what they do.

Rapp has had a long and distinguished career exploring the world and teaching in the UMD Department of Geological Sciences. His special interests include archaeological geology, archaeological geology of the eastern Mediterranean region, trace element fingerprinting of artifacts, and Shang archaeology of China. He is currently working on four books that are in various stages of preparation.

--From the UMD News Service

The NSF special report can be found at Archeology from Reel to Real.