The Fifth Element Archaeology

Archaeologists in the media are more often then not portrayed as young fairly good-looking men dressed for an adventure where ultimately they will be the heroes. They will deliver the treasure and rescue the young beautiful damsel in distress, which is not the case in the film The Fifth Element. The movie opens with an older man who has a scruffy white beard and white hair with a thick European accent on an excavation. He is in what seems to be either an old Egyptian cave or pyramid deciphering old drawings and inscriptions. He has a minimal staff, which includes a young boy holding a mirror against the sun as a source of light and a young man sketching what is supposedly on the walls. No women are present in this scene. There is no appearance of a woman
during this archaelogical expedition.
The archaeological dig takes place in 1917 in Egypt. The archaeologist who is not given a name is intently studying the inscriptions on the wall. While doing so he exclaims a few times that this find will make him famous. He begins talking to the young man sketching the inscriptions. He explains what these inscriptions say. There seems to be some sort of "snake" which comes every five thousand years spreading chaos and disorder. This snake is apparently extremely evil and dangerous. He then goes into describing how there are four elements water, fire, earth, and air. However the inscriptions seem to be talking about another element, the fifth element. This fifth element is ultimately the weapon used against evil. The archaelogist is looking for anything that will give him an idea about what the fifth element is.
What the archaeologist seems to be unaware of is the dangers that are now facing him as a result of his find.
There seems to be a monk who is protecting this secret that now has been discovered. He must keeps this discovery a secret because of its importance and the only way he can is to kill the people who now know of this information. He attempts to kill the archaeologist by poisoning his water but he fails in the attempt. While the monk is trying to figure out what to do and the old man is studying the inscriptions a ship descends outside the cave they are excavating, in a matter of minutes the cave has been filled with creatures that the monk calls the "divine ones". They have come to take the fifth element and the stones because it is no longer safe for them to be kept there. They declare that they will bring it back in three hundred years when it will be needed to fight the evil that is said to come every five thousand years. During this scene the archaeologist dies. It is not made clear if he is called by one of the "divine ones" or if he dies of shock and fright. At the close of the scene the monk swears that he will pass the knowledge he has carried about the fifth element down to the next
generation.
An archaeologist is someone who studies tangible remains such as pottery and other old artifacts from old cultures and past peoples. In this film it is clear that that is what the archaeologist is doing. He is examining old inscriptions and deciphering them. An archaeologist was the only appropriate person to fulfill the task at hand in the movie. All that was needed was someone able to read old inscriptions and that is a job for an archaeologist not another type of anthropologist such as a paleontoligist who deals with bones.
There are a few typical stereotypes that the media uses when portraying an archaeologist. The arhceaologist is typically a young male who is about to embark on an adventure and find a hidden treasure. During this adventure the archaeologist, who is customarily the main character, encounters dangerous obstacles that he must overcome, and people who are trying to deter him from his mission. Although the Fifth Element does not portray this typical Indian Jones stereotype it does portray the archaeologist as typically being oblivious to all around him besides his work. It also expresses the fact that the old man hopes to gain fame and fortune from his discovery, and that he is not merely doing it for the knowledge that he and others will now be able to gain.