http://www.vendyljones.org.il/vendyl.htm
"During the 1977 dig, Vendyl told the story of his quests to a free-lance American journalist, Randy Fillmore, who was working as a volunteer at the caves. The story became a screenplay entitled 'The Search of the Ashes of the Red Heifer.' The script changed hands and form several times before being lost in the 'Hollywood shuffle'."
Randolph Fillmore
Email: rfillmore@nasw.org
http://www.movie-page.com/scripts/Raiders-of-the-Lost-Ark.html
RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK
Screenplay by LAWRENCE KASDAN
Story by GEORGE LUCAS
REVISED THIRD DRAFT
AUGUST 1979
http://www.answers.com/topic/raiders-of-the-lost-ark
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Directed by Steven Spielberg
Written by George Lucas, Philip Kaufman, Lawrence Kasdan
"George Lucas originally became involved in the project in 1977... Lucas had conceived of the idea in discussion with Philip Kaufman who had worked on a treatment. While on holiday with his close friend Steven Spielberg the pair worked out the basis for the film. At the time Spielberg's career was suffering due to the expensive bomb 1941 so it was agreed that Lucas would produce and Spielberg direct. A new screenplay was commissioned from Lawrence Kasdan."
The screenplay for Raiders of the Lost Ark was written by Lawrence “Larry” Kasdan.
[snip] In 1973, George Lucas wrote The Adventures of Indiana Smith. Like Star Wars, which he also wrote, it was an opportunity to create a modern version of the film serials of the 1930s and 1940s. Lucas discussed the concept with Philip Kaufman, who worked with him for several weeks and came up with the Ark of the Covenant as the plot device. Kaufman was told about the Ark by his dentist when he was a child. The project stalled when Clint Eastwood hired Kaufman to direct The Outlaw Josey Wales. Lucas shelved the idea, deciding to concentrate on his outer space adventure that would become Star Wars. In late May 1977, Lucas was in Hawaii, trying to escape the enormous success of Star Wars. Friend and colleague Steven Spielberg was also there, on vacation from work on Close Encounters of the Third Kind. While building a sand castle at the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel, Spielberg expressed an interest in directing a James Bond film. Lucas convinced his friend Spielberg that he had conceived a character “better than James Bond” and explained the concept of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Spielberg loved it, calling it “a James Bond film without the hardware”, although he told Lucas that the surname ‘Smith’ was not right for the character. Lucas replied, “OK. What about ‘Jones’?” Indiana was the name of Lucas’ Alaskan Malamute, whose habit of riding in the passenger seat as Lucas drove was also the inspiration for Star Wars’ Chewbacca. [/snip]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raiders_of_the_Lost_Ark
The character was originally named Indiana Smith, after an Alaskan Malamute called Indiana that Lucas owned in the 1970s and on which he based the Star Wars character Chewbacca. Spielberg disliked the name Smith, and Lucas casually suggested Jones as an alternative. The Last Crusade script references the name’s origin, with Jones’s father revealing his son’s birth name to be Henry and explaining that “we named the dog Indiana”, to his son’s chagrin.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiana_Jones