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Sunday, August 21, 2011

Indiana Jones Map

Note: This is not a paid advertisement for the map, I just think it is really neat.


I am a huge fan of Indiana Jones. The combination of archaeology, history, and geography has made for fascinating tales of adveture of varying quality.  After a life of watching the movies, viewing the Young Indian Jones Chronicles on television, and playing the computer games, I realized the series operates on a quality-variable relationship:

  • Fighting Nazis for Biblical artifacts equals greatness (Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade)
  • Fighting Nazis for non-Biblical, mythical artifacts equals pretty good (Fate of Atlantis)
  • Fighting non-Nazis for non-Biblical, mythical artifacts equals silliness (Temple of Doom.  If you think Temple was a good film rewatch it because you most likely have repressed its racist awfulness)
  • Fighting Communists for New Age Artifacts equals oh heck no! (The movie that cannot be named)

I have not really blogged about Indiana Jones and geography but others have.  Mark Simonson has the best post discussing how Indiana Jones maps from the movies sure are pretty but do not use historically accurate fonts.  My efforts to map these adventures based on who Indiana Jones fought and for what have always been derailed by other efforts.

Now there is a way for one to geek out on Indiana Jones geography and help the Disable American Veterans (DAV).  Artist Matt Busch has made a map with the approval of Lucas Arts which displays all the discoveries of Indiana Jones.  The map shows artifacts from the movies, novels, television show, games, comics, and amusement park ride.  While I will not endorse buying the map, I do recommend one check out the website and video below for images of one good looking map.

1 comment:

Dan tdaxp said...

The map that, in my mind, proves that Indiana Jones 3 had a historian/geographer on staff was the split-second look at the map of middle-ages Italy, correctly showing Norman domains.