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"Ravenwood is the real expert. Abner did the first serious work on Tanis. Collected some of its relics. It was his obsession, really. But he never found the city."
―Indiana Jones on Abner Ravenwood's search for the Ark of the Covenant.[src]

Abner Ravenwood was an Egyptologist and archaeologist at the University of Chicago in the 1920s. He was a mentor of Indiana Jones, whom he taught at the university, the father of Marion Ravenwood, and posthumously grandfather to Mutt Williams. Ravenwood's lifelong obsession was to find the Ark of the Covenant.

Biography[]

Abner Ravenwood spent his early days assisting Flinders Petrie, helping excavate Palestine, and earned degrees in history and archaeology at Yale and Harvard.[2] He also studied anthropology under Franz Boas. On one occasion, while discussing anthropology with Sir Adrian Braidthwaite, Ravenwood accused the British of practicing "armchair anthropology," theorizing on other cultures from the comfort of home, based on reports from braver individuals. Braidthwaite bristled at the suggestion, but later realized the accusation was largely correct. Ravenwood's accusation was partially the impetus for Braidthwaite's 1910 expedition into Africa.[3] At some point in his career Ravenwood also partnered up with Bill Kershaw and Andre LaFonte, but ended it after he caught them cheating on invoices.[4]

At some point in his career, Ravenwood explored Malekula, an island in the Pacific Ocean, where he lost an Ebony Dove after being chased off by the island's inhabitants.[5]

In March 1909, Ravenwood's daughter Marion was born.[1]

Later, in June, Abner for the first time met the young boy Henry Jones Jr, later known as Indiana Jones, in Jerusalem. Jones learned that Ravenwood owned a map showing the potential resting place of the Ark of the Covenant under the Temple Mount. Ravenwood later explained that he believed the Ark was buried somewhere else, and that one day a real archaeologist would find it.[6]

By the 1920s, Ravenwood was a longtime professor of archaeology at the University of Chicago. Among his students were Harold Oxley and Indiana Jones.[7] Ravenwood considered Jones to be the most gifted student he had ever trained, and as their relationship evolved, came to love him like a son. [8] At one point the professor and student attended a lecture by polar explorer Evelyn Briggs Baldwin.[9]

His summers spent on excavations in Egypt and the Middle East, amassing clues to find the Ark of the Covenant, led to obsession. When Ravenwood's scholarly obligations suffered as a result of ignoring them, it prompted the University of Chicago to ask him to give up on the relic or leave. Abner chose the latter and continued his search.[2] Professor David Pierson, one of Abner's colleagues at the University, remained in correspondence with Abner for a while, but ceased contact with him when Abner spend a long time without answering his messages.[10] Unwilling to see his only child living alone, Ravenwood brought Marion along on his travels all over the world. In search of clues to the Ark's location they journeyed across Europe, Egypt, Iraq and Iran before the pair eventually settled in Nepal and started an inn/bar. Abner used their income to finance his excavations in the surrounding mountains.[2]

In 1925, struggling with funding, Abner sent Indiana Jones his journal with a written request for his assistance in finding the Ark of the Covenant on one last expedition before returning to Marshall College.[10] During that time Jones and Marion became romantically involved but the relationship didn't last a year.[1] Jones rejoined Abner Ravenwood in Jerusalem 1926,[11][12] but it was in Egypt where Abner recovered the Headpiece to the Staff of Ra, near the village of San el-Hagar. However, he didn't find Tanis' Map Room let alone the Well of the Souls.[1]

A 1927 journal reported on an expedition by Abner and Jones in Sinkiang.[13] Sometime after the July, Abner confronted Jones about the man's involvement with his young daughter which led to the collapse of their friendship. In their last conversation together, Abner accused the then twenty-eight-year-old of taking advantage of Marion's "brainless infatuation" with Jones, and twisting her to his purpose.[14]

While exploring the Himalayas in the 1930s, Ravenwood—as an authority on antiquities of Orient—was interviewed by a newspaper via cablegram interested in his opinion on the lost tomb of Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huang.[15] In 1935, several letters with Ravenwood's name attached were exchanged with Indiana Jones following his former student's discovery of the Temple of the Forbidden Eye in India.[16] After months of research in the mountains following a theory that the Ark had been taken through Nepal by Alexander the Great's army, Ravenwood was believed to have perished in an avalanche in 1936 while searching for the artifact in Nepal, shortly after realizing the Ark was back in Tanis.[2][17]

Legacy[]

Later the same year, the Nazis under orders from Adolf Hitler started searching for the Ark of the Covenant. The U.S. government intercepted a message from Cairo to Berlin saying "Tanis development proceeding. Acquire headpiece, staff of Ra, Abner Ravenwood, U.S." The government at first suspected Ravenwood as being in cahoots with the Nazis, but Indiana Jones and Marcus Brody discarded that theory at once. Jones was then requested by the government to find the Ark before the Nazis.[8] As he still had Abner's old journal in his possession, Jones was able to trace the last known whereabouts of his former mentor to Nepal.[10]

The Gestapo agent, Major Toht, was ordered by Hitler to acquire the headpiece from Ravenwood, but he found that Abner was gone and Indiana Jones had also come looking for it. In the end, Indy and Marion located the Ark, and Abner's lifelong search came to an end.[8]

The mysterious masked man.

Following the Ark's discovery, Marion Ravenwood received a telegram from her father's former associate Bill Kershaw implying that Abner was still alive. She was joined by Jones and the search for Abner took them back to Nepal, to the hidden city of Ra-Lundi whose god was said to be a caucasian man. What they found was a man in a golden mask who possessed neither voice nor memory, that had been found wandering in the snow.[4]

Convinced that he could be her father, Marion kept repeating her name to the man in the mask in the hope he'd recognize her to no avail. However, once she and Jones had left, the masked man repeated her name back. He later helped the pair blow up the city's actual god, the F'han-Tal, to protect its power from Andre LaFonte's men, but he was believed to have been killed in the large explosion created to destroy it. Marion decided that if the man had indeed been her father, Abner Ravenwood was finally at peace.[18]

Two years later, Ravenwood posthumously became a grandfather with the birth of Marion's son, Mutt Williams,[1] and by 1939 was the father-in-law of Colin Williams.[7] In 1957, he gained a son-in-law in his former student when Marion married Indiana Jones.[7]

Behind the scenes[]

"He should have a mentor in this. Somebody you never see but he refers to from time to time, somebody you want to see. The man who taught him everything."
Steven Spielberg, developing Indiana Jones' background for Raiders of the Lost Ark.[src]

Abner Ravenwood is frequently mentioned but has never appeared in any published Indiana Jones adventure; plans to include him in the action were made, but never materialized:

Abner Ravenwood's proposed look for Emperor's Tomb.

  • Dark Horse Comics' Indiana Jones and the Lost Horizon was intended to present Ravenwood's story and would have marked the character's first appearance, but the project was scrapped early in development. The series would show how Ravenwood with the help of Indy found the headpiece to the Staff of Ra in the belongings of a Chinese warlord. According to artist Hugh Fleming, actor Wilford Brimley was the model for Abner Ravenwood's planned appearance in the comic.[22] The events were referenced in The World of Indiana Jones.
  • Ravenwood was also originally intended to appear as Indy's partner in the Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb video game, but it complicated the game design. Concept art for the character — showing an Abner not quite as hefty as the Fleming version, but still sporting a mustache and fedora — can be unlocked during the game. Ravenwood's appearance seems to be inspired be the look of actor Tom Selleck, who originally was cast in the part of Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
  • IndianaJones.com, the franchise's official website, originally claimed that John Hurt would be playing Abner Ravenwood in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull before the information was removed.[23][24] The reason for this announcement is unknown, as it was later revealed that Hurt was in fact playing Harold Oxley. As the cast listing on the official site also included Ian McDiarmid as reprising his role of Professor Levi, it is possible that the names were a red herring meant to solidify mid-2007 rumors about John Hurt's appearance as Abner Ravenwood.[23][25][26][27]

Appearances[]

Sources[]

Notes and references[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Indiana Jones: The Ultimate Guide
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Raiders of the Lost Ark Sourcebook
  3. Indiana Jones Magic & Mysticism: The Dark Continent
  4. 4.0 4.1 Marvel Comics logo.png The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones – "The Search for Abner: The Grecian Earn"
  5. Indiana Jones and the Curse of Horror Island
  6. 6.0 6.1 StarWars.com The Lost Chronicles of Young Indiana Jones on StarWars.com (backup link on Archive.org)
  7. 7.0 7.1 7.2 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
  8. 8.0 8.1 8.2 Raiders of the Lost Ark
  9. Indiana Jones and the Hollow Earth
  10. 10.0 10.1 10.2 The Lost Journal of Indiana Jones
  11. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Annual 2009
  12. Indiana Jones Annual 2010
  13. Grail Diary (game documentation)
  14. Raiders of the Lost Ark novel
  15. Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb: 1935 Journal
  16. Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Forbidden Eye
  17. 1934 according to the Raiders of the Lost Ark novelization.
  18. Marvel Comics logo.png The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones – "The Search for Abner: The City of Yesterday's Forever!"
  19. 19.0 19.1 The Complete Making of Indiana Jones
  20. Indiana Jones: Making the Trilogy
  21. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade Trivia at TheRaider.net
  22. Interview with Dark Horse artist Hugh Fleming at TheRaider.net
  23. 23.0 23.1 Indy Update: Indiana Jones 4 Casting Confirmations. Ugo.com. Archived from the original on 2013-05-23. Retrieved on 2008-07-04.
  24. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull Cast: John Hurt (source code). Lucasfilm. Archived from the original on 2008-02-11. Retrieved on 2019-09-22.
  25. Franklin, Garth (2007-06-10). The Random Spiel: June 10th 2007. Dark Horizons. Archived from the original on 2007-06-12. Retrieved on 2019-09-22.
  26. Faraci, Devin (2007-06-28). The Adventures of Mutt and Abner. CHUD.com. Archived from the original on 2007-07-01. Retrieved on 2019-09-22.
  27. Sciretta, Peter (2007-07-31). Did John Hurt replace Sean Connery in Indiana Jones 4?. /Film. Archived from the original on 2011-03-08. Retrieved on 2019-09-22.

External links[]

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