Omnilingual archaeology

OMNILINGUAL ARCHAEOLOGY

Omnilingual
was first written by Henry Beam Piper in the year 1957 ,
as part of a collection of short science fiction stories. This unique fictional short story reflects many common archaeological misconceptions of the 21st century and continues to exemplify archaeology in popular culture through written frameworks and science fiction components.
OVERVIEW:
The basis behind this fictional story is to reflect a group of adventurers who make it to Mars to collect data, but when they reach the planet of Mars, they come upon a 50,000 year old Martian city that holds relics, information, and data that will signify and exemplify their expedition to Mars. Adventure, mystery, and imaginary ideas are all what makes this short story, a unique contribution to popular culture relating to archaeological methodologies in modern day. The name Omnilingual reflects a persons ability to read, speak, and understand all languages. Members of this expedition team that go to Mars in "Omnilingual" feature that unique characteristic/ability. This allows these adventurers to understand this Martian language during their exciting adventure on Mars.

POPULAR CULTURE & ARCHAEOLOGY:
What is determined popular culture is defined by the general population and the majority of their interpretations, opinions, and thoughts, which are in most cases incorrect in relation to reality. The media continues to misrepresent archaeology in popular themes and productions, such as Indiana Jones for one example, where non-fictional processes and skills are mixed with fiction. Omnilingual shares these fictional characteristics, as the implausibility of the events that occur on Mars within Omnilingual are far from reality and actual archaeological methodologies. Adventure, mystery, expeditions, travel, and danger are all common themes that a person might find in relation to Archaeology and popular culture. Omnilingual in this example exemplifies the fictional styles of publishing archaeological practices. The style of archaeology that is represented by the characters in Omnilingual, represent the theme of recreational archaeology and should be classified as such. Recreational archaeology is further emphasized as most of these individuals have no previous archaeological training, but are rather experts in numerous trades, that they have no actual experience in. Eventually these characters stumble upon an ancient Martian university where they obtain and translate Martian writing into English, due to being "Omnilingual". Reality and popular themes are what seem to mix within this story. Overall, some people might say that this story lacks the archaeological component of due process, much like many other fictional productions in popular mainstream culture.
FICTIONAL ARCHAEOLOGY:
Fictional Archaeology refers to archaeological methods and interpretations that are different from reality, in some cases these are enveloped under "Science Fiction". Omnilingual would be a good example of "Science Fiction" archaeology, as this story plots develops and is produced on Mars. The team members of this Omnilingual crew are all qualified in more than one specialization. The types of excavation tools mentioned within this short story, do not play any favour for Omnilingual and its fictional opposition. When you hear about aliens, martians, or any extraterrestrial life forms, you sometimes feel a sense of adventure, excitement, and interest. Omnilingual exemplifies on those human interests, because 50,000 year old Martian cities could spark anyone's interest. Adventure comes into play in Omnilingual, much like it comes into play in other popular media.
INFLUENCE:
Archaeology and popular culture is most commonly influenced by social expectations and misconceptions, along with the major fact of drawing public interest to media productions for capitalistic means. Archaeologists commonly look down upon such misrepresentation's that media and inexperienced individuals present in relation to archaeological methods and the profession as a whole. This is due to popular culture influencing these unrealistic expectations that many amature archaeologists seem to be drawn to and are unfortunately dissapointed after their first day in a excavation. Common expectations, which can be contributed from media's fictional take on archaeology are sword fights, adventure, travel, and the most common represented action during archaeology "saving the world from mummies", like seen in the popular media productions like the series "The Mummy" or the series "Tomb Raider". Guns, action, and travel are not always in the top ten likely to happen list, when working on an archaeological project as an archaeologist. Omnilingual, was formed under these fictional ways to attract popular culture, which will attract main stream society, due to these unrealistic factors. The truth to the matter is resolved, when we can clearly understand that actual archaeological representations tend to only be illustrated through academic texts and popular fictional archaeology which attracts the majority of society through its mind numbing adventure and climaxes, which non-fictional archaeology lacks (making it commonly uninteresting to observe in the general public's opinion). Omnilingual, Indian Jones, Tomb Raider, Stargate SG-1 to name a few are excellent representation of public influence, as these are promoted by main stream media due to public interest in the events that happen, which hold little relevance to actual archaeological taskings.
SEE ALSO:
Michael Moorcock
Isaac Asimov
A.E. Van Vogt
Robert Silverberg
REFERENCES:
Piper, Henry. Omnilingual. General Books, 2010.

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