>From - National Post Thursday, May 22, 2008 When the fourth of the Indiana Jones movies opens today, more than thrills and spills will be in evidence. Fans of the Jones saga all know how the U. S. government recruited the indestructible archaeologist in the first (and so far still the best) instalment to counter a Nazi plot. It is now clear that Jones is, in fact, a part-time secret agent, undertaking covert missions in the name of national security. For archaeologists in general, that is where the Jones series really becomes interesting, because archaeology and espionage have been entangled for generations. In 2003, Archaeology magazine brought the long-contentious issue of intelligence connections out in the open with an article by David Price, who detailed the escapades of more than a dozen scholars over the course of almost a century. Actually, Price underestimated the phenomenon, which appears to be up to 170 years old. Hints of what was to come were already visible in the first half of the 1800s. Karl E. Meyer and Shareen Blair Brysac, in a 1999 study of imperialism in Central Asia, highlighted the case of James Lewis. A soldier in the British army in colonial India, he survived several years of warfare before deciding that the warrior's life was not for him. Deserting his unit, he fled to Afghanistan and, under the alias of "Charles Masson," developed a reputation as a traveler and connoisseur of antiquities. In fact, he was so adept at scouring Central Asia for old coins that his collection eventually wound up in the British Museum. By the 1830s, British authorities back in India were so impressed that they were forced to overlook the desertion and recruit him as an informant. He provided such good service that he felt free to return home in 1842. [snip] ----- Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar Nagpur, India