Do Re Mi Archaeology

Yesterday I was sitting around listening to my music when Indiana Jones's theme popped up. Naturally, this is an awesome song, but for all its catchiness, it's more about adventure than archaeology (although I'm sure that if it had lyrics, they would be about both trowels and muscle chests). This did get me thinking about actual archaeological songs, and quick Google search later got me to this:

(Skip to a minute in if you just want to get right to the lyrics.)

This is a song by Wintersleep, titled, funnily enough, Archaeologist. I can't say I know exactly what it's about, but the fact that there is mention of a winged boy "stained by the fire and clouds" has some thinking that it's Icarus's body. The repeated refrain of "belly of the whale" also makes me think of the story of Jonah and the Whale. So it looks like the song might have to do with certain mythologies, but that's really neither here nor there.

The band Wintersleep, being vaguely archaeological
by sitting outside.

What is here and there is that the song also contains a critique of archaeology. This comes up in the second verse where after the body is shipped to London they "discard the rotted parts". If the boy is Icarus or some other mythological character, it comes across as rather cold to be so disinterested in the whole body. Even if the body is just any old boy, there could be quite a lot to be learned from an old body that's been digesting in a whale's gut for some time. The whole song has a lamenting quality to it, despite its rather rocking tempo, as if it's upset about the fact that with all their focus on the facts archaeologists sometimes forget that they are still digging up dead people. Unlike the usual portrayal of archaeologists as dashing adventurers, here they come off as more distant and scientific. It's an interesting twist, and not necessarily any more correct than the former line of thought, but I'm all for taking things in new directions that aren't usually seen. So bravo, Wintersleep, bravo.

Also, the catchy tune doesn't hurt either.