10 Real-Life Archaeologists More Badass Than Indiana Jones

By Tom Baker /

4. Roy Chapman Andrews, Dinosaur Hunter

What is it that makes Indiana Jones who he is? Well, it's mostly the dichotomy between his stuffy establishment day-job and the free-wheeling, death-defying adventures he goes on to facilitate that archaeologist profession he has on his passport. It's a dichotomy that Roy Chapman Andrew also straddled, as he spent time as both director of the American Museum Of Natural History and as a nine-year-old with a shotgun. An early interest in hunting and taxidermy lead to his later career as a naturalist, which saw him leading a series of expeditions through the China into the Gobi Desert and Mongolia €“ where, amongst other things, he discovered what are considered to be the first-known fossil dinosaur eggs. Andrews is apparently the main inspiration for Indiana Jones, being an impeccable performer who had many of his adventures filmed €“ so he was on the big screen a good half century before Harrison Ford. He was an explorer, hunter, and archaeologist who ventured into some of the most dangerous territories of his age, fighting off Mongolian attack, apparently a crack shot with a pistol.