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The new “payoff poster” by Drew Struzan for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was dug up today:

May 22, 2008 can’t arrive soon enough!

Make tracks to the official Indiana Jones website to check out the virtual museum of Indiana Jones movie posters.

I’ve already watched the new Indiana Jones trailer about 50 times this morning, and will probably watch it at least 50 more before the day is through. This is easily my favorite film series and Raiders of the Lost Ark is probably my favorite film of all time. I look forward to Indy’s new adventure and any others that may follow.

If you haven’t seen the new trailer yet, head over to the official Indiana Jones website and download your visual ticket to adventure!

Check out the new teaser poster by Drew Struzan for the upcoming film, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull!

I’m sure many of you are just as excited as I am about this new adventure starring the world’s most famous archaeologist!

This is the first photo (though it is a non-film one and not terribly exciting) from Harrison Ford’s latest Indiana Jones film. As I’m a great admirer of the Indiana Jones series, I’m really excited about seeing another story involving the globe-trotting archeologist.

Photo by Steven Spielberg

You can read more at the official Indiana Jones website.

25 years ago today, movie fans witnessed “the return of the great adventure” when George Lucas and Steven Spielberg brought us Raiders of the Lost Ark.

A personal all-time favorite, Raiders took viewers into the world of archeologist, Dr. Henry “Indiana” Jones, Jr. and his quest for the lost Ark of the Covenant. The film, styled after old movie serials, would spawn two sequels, video games, books, comics, and other related merchadise. Currently discussions are underway to film a fouth adventure with the Fedora-wearing, whip-wielding archeologist.

As was the case with the original release, the film continues to inspire filmmakers, archeologists, scholars, artists, video game designers, special effects technicians, stunt men, sound designers, and armchair adventurers.

To celebrate the historic film and its anniversary, I’ve put together a few links to send you off on your own adventure…

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark Photo © 1981 Lucasfilm Ltd.

I’m not a biblical scholar or member of the Jewish community, but when stories like this surface, involving archaeology and my favorite film adventurer, I’ll post them to share my interests with fellow readers.

According to this article on Arutz Sheva - Israel National News, famed archeologist Dr. Vendyl Jones has been blessed by an unnamed Kabbalist to uncover the Holy Ark of the Convenant.

Most of you are probably familiar with the Ark from the Lucasfilm movie, Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark, however, the film artifact is based on a supposedly real object as described in the Hebrew Bible. The Ark, a sacred container built at the command of Moses which contained the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments, has been rumored to rest at several different places during its history including a church in Ethiopia, Egypt, and even Ireland. Modern speculation even had the Ark operating as an ancient electrical capacitor.

The article comments on the possible finding of the sacred object:

Dr. Jones says the discovery of the lost ark will “flip the whole world right-side-up.”

“I just gotta drill a bore-hole into the chamber, drop a pin-camera in and there it is. And everything is gonna change, believe me. The Jewish people are gonna come back.”

Check out the article above for more on the real Dr. Jones and the new search for the Ark.

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More exciting archaeological news for you. National Geographic features this report and photo of an amazingly life-like recreation of the young ruler of Ancient Egypt.

Photograph: Supreme Council of Antiquities, Egypt, and National Geographic Society, 2005

Based on an earlier CT Scan of the boy king’s mummy, Paris-based forensic sculptor Elisabeth Daynès created a silicon-skinned bust using the previously acquired data and combined it with average traits of today’s Egyptians. The CT data was then sent to a U.S. forensic team, who worked to verify the findings, without knowledge of who their subject was.

The reconstruction will be featured in the June issue of National Geographic, in the touring exhibit Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs, and on the National Geographic Channel’s upcoming special King Tut’s Final Secrets.

You can read more about the reconstruction at scotsman.com, CNN.com, and The Washington Post Online.

Also recently in the news was a discovery that is considered to be “the most beautiful mummy ever found in Egypt,” according to Dr. Zahi Hawass, the head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities. The nearly 2600 year-old mummy was buried in a wooden sarcophagus beneath 20 feet of sand in the necropolis of King Teti, who ruled Egypt more than 4,300 years ago. While the mummy’s identity and sex are unknown, it’s certain that it dates back to the 30th Dynasty (380-343 B.C.), which lasted about 40 years and marked the end of Egyptian rule over the country.

More photos can be viewed here, with further information available this Dicovery Channel link.

Recent CT scans performed by Dr. Zahi Hawass and his research team seem to conclude that the 19-year-old ruler of Egypt, King Tutankhamun, was not murdered violently. A blow to the back of the head had been suggested as one possible cause due to findings in X-rays performed in 1968 and 1978 which showed a bone fragment in Tutankhamun’s skull.

However, the discovery of a break in the left thigh is causing the team to differ their opinions on whether the fracture happened before or after death. An open wound from the break could have caused a life-threatening infection and been the real cause of death, but the fracture may also have come from the embalmers, which doesn’t seem likely, given the great care they put into preparation of the bodies. A stronger possibility is that the break occured during Howard Carter’s original excavation in 1922 when the mummy was removed from his tomb. This seems a more likely scenario given the damage that happened to many mummies during that time period.

Artistically and scientifically, I’ve always held a fascination for ancient cultures, notably the Egyptians. The dedication poured into everything from the grand scale of their architecture to the colorful, detailed art of murals and funerary masks is nearly unmatched by anything we see today. The discovery of King Tutankhamun’s remains by Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon was also exciting for the fact that so many artifacts were found along with the mummy. Even more remarkable is the fact that centuries after the demise of the Ancient Egyptian culture, we continue to make new discoveries about their lives.

You can read more about the recent CT scan at National Geographic.

If you have a passion for movies, ancient cultures, and ‘rare antiquities’, then like myself, there’s a good chance you’re a fan of Indiana Jones.

As was the case with Superman, Batman, and Spider-Man, Indy was a hero I would pretend to be as a young boy - grabbing a pocket-filled jacket, my mom’s old handbag, some adventurous-looking boots, and an old rope for a whip - and set off on quests to lost jungle temples and Egyptian tombs, hoping to find the next big archaeological wonder. In reality, the ‘temples’ and ‘tombs’ were only my basement, or the local forest, but my imagination knew no boundaries. Only when supper time came, would I have to relinquish my imaginary adventures to the reality of nourishment provided by mom and dad.

What some of you daring readers may not know, is that much of the Indiana Jones lore is rooted in reality. Creator George Lucas, Director Steven Spielberg, and writer Lawrence Kasdan, would combine stories of ancient civilizations, mythology, and their own adventures and nightmares, and bring Dr. Henry ‘Indiana’ Jones, Jr. to the silver screen.

Through my continuing career as a creative specialist, I have had the good fortune to meet real-life adventurers. From palaeontologists like Dr. Philip Currie and Dr. Michael J. Ryan - who have discovered new Dinosaur species in the infinite southern Badlands of Alberta and remoteness of Argentina, to Dr. David West Reynolds, an archaeologist who turned his love of science and movies into a career as a scientific consultant for Lucasfilm and recently as Director of The Phaeton Group, a multi-disciplinary team of individuals dedicated to bringing field science, history, and exploration to a wider audience.

With their careers, both Dr. Ryan and Dr. Reynolds have had opportunities to travel to foreign countries, unearthing new dinosaurs or excavating lost cities. They’ve also helped discover lost filming locations of both the Star Wars and Indiana Jones film sagas, long before the many tours that exist now. Had it not been for the dedication to their work and love of the films, it would probably have been a while, before these locations were rediscovered.

What makes all this relevant, is that with their scientific backgrounds and international travel, they are able to compare reality to fiction and make that knowledge available to us, the fans of Indiana Jones and Star Wars. Many of us will never have the chance to see a real dinosaur dig, or the interior of an Egyptian tomb, so we can only rely on the information in books and the Internet, and the images in movies and television.

In Dr. Reynolds’ latest series of writings for IndyGear.com, we get to discover a little more of what grounds the Indiana Jones stories in reality and where some of the locations in the films - or inspirations for them - can be seen. In 2000, I was able to visit the island of Kauai, Hawaii with my wife, and armed with local maps and The Kaua’i Movie Book, we were able to track down locations of some of our favorite films including Raiders of the Lost Ark and Jurassic Park. It was like being that young boy again, venturing through the ‘jungles’ looking for the Golden Fertility Idol seen at the beginning of Raiders. I can only imagine how much more fun we would have had in Kaua’i with somebody like David West Reynolds, helping us discover the filming locations and painting a more detailed picture about the reality behind the mythology of Indiana Jones.

Head on over to IndyGear with the link below!

IndyGear.com Presents David West Reynolds’ The Archaeology of Indiana Jones