Forrestal death body in 1936
Ernest Forrestal (died 1935) was an American archaeologist who taught history and archaeology at Princeton University.
Biography[]
Forrestal and Indiana Jones had a professional rivalry in archaeology from the early days of Jones entering the field and each man held the abilities of the other in high regard. Forrestal also had at least some association with the French mercenary archaeologist René Emile Belloq, another of Jones' competitors. As part of his work, Forrestal acquired extensive experience in Central and South America, participating in digs at Aztec and Mayan sites. Jones speculated that Forrestal must have had a virtual intelligence network throughout the globe, with contacts from Lima to Mexico City.
At some point of his career, Forrestal explored the Cooley, Ireland digs and determined that the area was barren. However, Jones eventually visited the site and unearthed some pre-Viking relics about which he later wrote, a find deemed "brilliant" by Professor Karen Mays.
In 1930, Forrestal and Jones were both in Sweden searching for a pagan temple. Indiana Jones initially believed Forrestal to be one step ahead of him but Jones and Doctor Theresa Lawrence reached the site first due to better research.
Four years later, Forrestal met with a man in Shanghai who wanted the archaeologist to assist his organization, the Brotherhood of the Eclipse, in finding the Calendar of the Sun, an artifact in two parts believed to have the power to control eclipses.
Drawn to the seemingly centuries-old organization, Forrestal agreed and the group set up a camp in South America near an area littered with the bodies of adventurers who had succumbed to the traps around the mysterious Moon Door which led to the Moon Temple and the Calendar's Lunar Component.
The Brotherhood recovered the piece from its altar but betrayed Forrestal and left him to die in a trap when they flew out to Egypt. It was then that Indiana Jones arrived having fought off Brotherhood members to claim the Solar Component for himself. Jones, and a member of the Adventure Society who had been helping him look for the Lunar Component, rescued Forrestal and the grateful competitor revealed details of the Brotherhood to the pair.
Forrestal also discovered a river flowing out from beneath El Dorado and informed the Adventure Society, which was excavating the area in and around El Dorado, as a "gesture of goodwill".
In 1935, Forrestal organized an expedition to Peru while searching for the Temple of the Chachapoyan Warriors to uncover their solid gold fertility idol. Utilizing the research of the 19th century American explorer McHenry from the University of Chicago's library, Forrestal carried out some rewarding excavations of Chachapoyan sites in his hunt for the temple. He then took a flight to Peru's jungles through a pilot whom Jock Lindsey knew. Unknown to Forrestal, Belloq became aware of his intentions and hired the thieves Barranca and Satipo to steal a map to the Temple of the Warriors from one of Forrestal's campsites. The two thieves kept the map, which was incomplete, for themselves and told Belloq that it was useless.
Despite this setback, Forrestal still ended up finding the Temple of the Chachapoyan Warriors anyway. Upon entering into the structure, however, Forrestal never came back out. As the Hovitos later informed Belloq, Forrestal had rushed into the temple to find the idol without checking for the light-sensitive booby traps that ultimately cost him his life.
One year later, Indiana Jones discovered Forrestal's body, speared by a row of sharp spikes triggered by a source of light. It was the first of several traps protecting the relic. Feeling that nobody deserved to be killed in that way and even less in a godforsaken place like that jungle, Jones experienced a moment of sadness for his late rival.