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| 2 | %%% Zero Context Example entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. |
| 3 | %%% Add explanations to the entries before uncommenting them. |
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| 6 | %% Image reworked per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1306650097077800100 |
| 7 | %% Please do not change or remove without starting a new thread. |
| 8 | %% |
| 9 | [[quoteright:349:[[Website/{{Cracked}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/archaeolgicalmethod.png]]]] |
| 10 | [[caption-width-right:349: [[RuleOfCool Yeah, but who would you rather]] ''[[Franchise/IndianaJones be?]]'']] |
| 11 | |
| 12 | |
| 13 | ->''"No professional position, aside from perhaps police officer and horny pizza delivery boy, is more frequently misrepresented in film than archaeologist. In movies, archaeologists are all dashing figures, risking life and limb in the pursuit of knowledge while arcane artifacts and ancient traps besiege their efforts. Or else they're perpetually opening sealed, cursed tombs and stumbling into the haunted caves of unspeakable evils in the name of science."'' |
| 14 | -->-- '''Website/{{Cracked}}''', ''[[https://www.cracked.com/article_19837_the-7-most-terrifying-archaeological-discoveries The 7 Most Terrifying Archaeological Discoveries'']] |
| 15 | |
| 16 | In RealLife, archaeology, or modern archaeology to be specific, is ''not'' the most fast-paced of careers. It can involve a lot of research, dirt, and theorizing about small details like diet. A real archaeologist can make their career by the meticulous analysis of the contents of an ancient [[DownInTheDumps garbage dump]] and indeed, they (well, a few) would ''prefer'' to find the dump rather than a king's tomb, since the dump can tell them far more about the way ordinary people lived, with far fewer legal and ethical ramifications. Additionally, a dump will have items of low or underestimated value, reducing the allure for tomb robbers who might otherwise have broken into tombs and ruined the information. |
| 17 | |
| 18 | Not so in fiction. Since most of the world has [[EndOfAnAge the ruins of ancient and powerful civilizations]] littered under the surface, archaeology is a career that brings one constantly face to face with [[TempleOfDoom Temples of Doom]], LostTechnology, [[SealedEvilInACan imprisoned evils]], and {{MacGuffin}}s. Lots of {{MacGuffin}}s. If the story takes place on Earth and the writers don't make up a culture wholesale, it'll usually involve something like an Egyptian tomb (expect a {{mummy}} to pursue the hero) or a {{Mayincatec}} temple. |
| 19 | |
| 20 | Adventurer Archaeologists are capable of dressing up very well for more intellectual appearances, but forays into studying [[TheLawOfConservationOfDetail usually occur off-screen]], and it's never implied to take very long. (Compare BadassBookworm.) An Adventurer Archaeologist has an interesting morality. Ruins are rarely really "abandoned," as the descendants of the {{Precursors}}, or their ghosts, or even their mystically preserved selves are [[ChasedByAngryNatives very upset]] when outsiders intrude, and especially when they take the focal points of their culture with them. It's not imperialism if the people who are guarding them aren't even human after all. Of course, real imperialists didn't believe the people around ancient sites were worth considering either. Most people call this "theft", few others would call this "imperialism". In ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleOfDoom'', it's noted that the title character has been called a "{{grave robb|ing}}er" (although real archaeologists were once considered that [[UsefulNotes/NativeAmericans and some still are]]). However, to an Adventurer Archaeologist, it's okay as long as it [[ItBelongsInAMuseum goes into a museum]]. To keep the audience rooting for the Adventurer Archaeologist, they are often pitted against an EvilCounterpart who wants the same treasure for themselves to hoard in a private collection, or to give it to the bad guys or sell to the highest bidder, use it to TakeOverTheWorld, etc. Thus, in fiction, it seems perfectly reasonable to use any means to acquire said {{MacGuffin}}s, no matter how destructive. Who cares if you have to desecrate an ancient temple that could well be thousands of years old and is still frequented by its rightful people? There's a gold monkey at the end! ''And'' you get to wear a dashing AdventurerOutfit! |
| 21 | |
| 22 | This trope is OlderThanRadio, an accomplishment when considering that archaeology as a modern profession is less than two centuries old. Antiquarians, historians, and intellectual grave robbers were a staple of 19th Century gothic horror and ghost stories. They appeared regularly in pulp adventure novels and film adventures dating back to the dawn of talking pictures, including [[Film/TheMummysHand the Universal mummy movies]] and the Johnny Weismuller ''Franchise/{{Tarzan}}'' films. A certain Creator/GeorgeLucas and Creator/StevenSpielberg series made it big again in The80s. Indeed, while real archaeology is nothing like the ''Franchise/IndianaJones'' movies, it's often said that most every western archaeologist since 1981 was inspired by him to become one. The conflation of actual archaeology with the exploits that we see in ''Indiana Jones'' has fortunately faded from the public consciousness in recent decades, but adventure and danger ''can'' still happen... it's just not inherently more likely to than any other endeavor that involves travel and field work. |
| 23 | |
| 24 | It should be noted, however, that this Trope and its origins do come from [[TruthInTelevision Truth in err... Literature]]. Before archaeology evolved into a proper scientific discipline, many "archaeologists" tended to be more concerned about finding fortune, glory, and enticing-looking trinkets than actually discovering information about ancient cultures, or preserving knowledge for future research — let alone respecting or collaborating with the modern descendants of the people whose tombs and temples they excavated. As the Real Life examples below show, their methods were often unconsionable by modern standards, and they usually discarded artifacts that weren't glamorous or shiny, many of which would be considered quite scientifically or historically valuable today. Nobody will ever know how much historical evidence has been forever lost to us through the carelessness of 19th and early 20th century archaeologists. To be fair, Howard Carter's expedition to retrieve Tutankhamen's body and treasures was genuinely sensational. Finding the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terracotta_Army Terracotta Army of Qin Shi Huang]] would have been a glorious experience as well. So while you'll likely never have a career as illustrious as Indy himself, you may just be lucky enough to hit the jackpot and discover something of historical, monetary, ''and'' popular value. |
| 25 | |
| 26 | Additionally, "fighting bad guys over artifacts" in fiction ''also'' [[RealityIsUnrealistic had a small kernel of truth.]] Around the time archaeology had finished coming into its own as a respectable field, the world was hit by [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI one]] [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII major conflict]] [[UsefulNotes/ColdWar after another]], each of which saw archaeology politicized and militarized to a dangerous degree. For reasons ranging from [[ArchaeologicalArmsRace trying to dig up the remnants of heavily mythologized "advanced civilizations" for technological or ideological benefit]] or [[EspionageTropes as a neat cover to do some spying]], preservation and cataloging of the past often had to negotiate minefields of militarized looting, diplomatic relations, and warring superpowers and local factions. |
| 27 | |
| 28 | By the time UsefulNotes/WorldWarI began, most of the archaeologists in such endeavors — like Indiana Jones — tended to be formally trained professionals who tried to do their job properly and to keep military involvement with their work to a minimum. (For example, UsefulNotes/RalphBagnold was an archaeologist who signed up for the British military and used his experience and innovations to help form the Desert Rats.) But it wasn't uncommon for archaeological expeditions to be run like military expeditions, particularly during both world wars. On occasion, these forces and their affiliated armed forces and intelligence agencies even clashed like in any other battle, with people getting killed and some priceless finds being either damaged or destroyed — sometimes deliberately, just to deny them to the enemy. Small wonder that many archaeologists in real life learned to take up arms and get out of tight situations, and that those experiences have been distorted and blown out of proportion in the public imagination. |
| 29 | |
| 30 | With respect to ValuesDissonance, many of the old portrayals of the Adventurer Archeologist — especially those in the 19th and early/mid 20th century — are falling into DiscreditedTrope territory. Not only is archaeological knowledge becoming much more exposed to the general public, but how they have been portrayed has been facing scrutiny. The Archaeologist adventurers were traditionally depicted as MightyWhitey types with a colonial attitude towards the HollywoodNatives when they're not [[ChasedByAngryNatives running away from them]]. Archeology is a complex field with a long and complicated history. In older portrayals, artifacts that they collect for profit are given to museums under the authority of TheEmpire outside of their native country, practically stolen from whatever people or culture made them. Due to how risky this portrayal is, modern stories might opt for raiding an AncientTomb from a long gone group of {{Precursors}}, or perhaps the archaeologists will start off wanting to find an already stolen AncientArtifact for his own fame and glory and experience a character arc where he returns it to its home culture in the end. Although many artifacts were taken by force back in the colonial era, in RealLife, most modern Archaeologists work closely with local authorities and cultures for where to dig and what they can take back. This is not only to maintain respect, but it’s also because archaeology is a field of science, and learning with a culture allows the archaeologists to ensure their findings are accurate and present it more factually. Additionally, blatant theft would probably be a major career-ender today. |
| 31 | |
| 32 | Often the main character in a JungleOpera. Related to, but distinct from, the BoldExplorer. See also RaidersOfTheLostParody. |
| 33 | |
| 34 | ---- |
| 35 | !!Examples: |
| 36 | |
| 37 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 38 | |
| 39 | [[folder:Advertising]] |
| 40 | * A soap ad from the 1980s had such a character finding his way into ancient baths, which still have perfectly fresh water, sufficient for him to actually use them, along with the advertised product. |
| 41 | [[/folder]] |
| 42 | |
| 43 | [[folder:Anime & Manga]] |
| 44 | %%* Seta from ''Manga/LoveHina''; he takes on Keitaro as an assistant for a summer job. |
| 45 | * Midori Sugiura's university professor and Most Important Person in ''Anime/MyHime''; we only see him in the end, having a stereotypical Adventurer Archaeologist adventure with Midori. |
| 46 | * Prior to the start of ''Manga/TsubasaReservoirChronicle'' this was [[spoiler:clone]] Xiaolang's profession, giving him the seeds of skills needed for his task. (Being trained on the side by an [[VampireHunter obsessed Vampire Hunter]] helps too). |
| 47 | * Yuuno Scrya from ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha''. [[ImprobableAge At age 9]]. With [[ParentalAbandonment no parental supervision]]. On top of this, he's a high-class mage. He's more self-effacing than the usual example of this trope, and has some trouble with self-esteem and romance. However, though he fulfills this archetype before and sort-of during season 1, in [[Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaAs season 2]], he's introduced to the magically huge and horrendously disorganized Infinite Library. It holds any answer you might need... IF you can find it. He enters and [[DemotedToExtra practically never leaves again]]. |
| 48 | * Bakura Ryou's father is an archaeologist in the anime and the owner of the Domino museum in the ''Manga/YuGiOh'' manga. Supposedly he bought the Millennium Ring on the streets of Cairo. Also, Solomon Muto--he found the Millennium Puzzle in a pharaoh's tomb filled with all sorts of traps. |
| 49 | * Hunter Steele from ''Anime/SpiderRiders'' may be one. Before he found the way to the Inner World, he had several archaeological tools with him. Also his grandfather may have been one because he found it first. Actually [[spoiler:Mantid was first, arriving sometime during the 19th century, which means he may have also been an archaeologist.]] |
| 50 | * Nico Robin of ''Manga/OnePiece'' is an [[HeelFaceTurn ex-]][[TheDragon Dragon]] [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot archaeologist assassin pirate]]. |
| 51 | ** Robin's mother, Nico Olvia, and a group of her fellow scholars set out on the seas of the ''Manga/OnePiece'' world to locate clues to a blank spot in history known as the Void Century -- something that the World Government [[HeKnowsTooMuch wants to ''keep'' a blank spot by any means necessary]], resulting in Olvia and everyone else on Robin's home island being killed and Robin herself having a bounty put on her head. |
| 52 | ** It should be noted that the scholars of said island, as well as Robin herself, are more in line with the standard archaeologist, more concerned with genuinely studying history (the centerpiece of the island was even a giant library) than raiding temples for loot; they just [[HadToBeSharp have to have]] the Adventure aspect to them as well since they live in a WorldOfBadass. |
| 53 | * ''Anime/ExplorerWomanRay'', title character of the anime of the same name. A late 1980s attempt by the anime industry to cash in on the popularity of ''Franchise/IndianaJones'' and the GirlsWithGuns genre (EWR's theme music even sounds eerily similar to John William's Indiana Jones theme). |
| 54 | * Ruby Crescent from ''Manga/OPartsHunter'' is a young archaeologist who meets the main character while looking for her father. |
| 55 | * Two of ''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers'''s Alfred/America's hobbies are adventuring and archaeology. |
| 56 | * In ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'', the members of [[AcademyOfAdventure Mahora]]'s Library Club are all Adventure Archaeologists in training. Said [[GreatBigLibraryOfEverything library is filled with booby traps, cliffs, waterfall, and magical items]]. Students are actually banned from going to the lower levels because of the danger. Eventually Nodoka goes even further, spending a good chunk of her time in the Magic World dungeon crawling and searching for artifacts. |
| 57 | * ''Manga/MasterKeaton'': Taichi is an archaeologist, though he seldom has much adventure pursuing it. His other profession as an insurance fraud investigator more than makes up for that. |
| 58 | * Some Hunters in ''Manga/HunterXHunter'' "hunt" ancient ruins and artifacts instead of animals or people. Gon's father Ging earned recognition for his work in uncovering incredible archaeological finds. |
| 59 | * Pyramid King Brandon, one of the Frontier Brains from ''Anime/PokemonTheSeriesRubyAndSapphire''; exploring ancient ruins has certainly paid off for him, as he managed to tame [[OlympusMons Regirock, Regice, and Registeel]], making him the most powerful Frontier Brain (and indeed, one of the most powerful trainers in the world). Ash lost to him ''twice'' before winning on the third attempt with his four best and oldest Pokémon. |
| 60 | * The entire premise of ''Anime/MontanaJones'', which is essencially Indiana Jones with {{Catfolk}} - and SteamPunk AnimalMecha. |
| 61 | * ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventurePhantomBlood'': Jonathan Joestar had studied archaeology with the intent to become an archaeologist. His original goal was to study the mysterious Mesoamerican Mask that belonged to his family, but ended up training in Hamon to fight off the vampires created by the mask. |
| 62 | * ''Literature/ThatTimeIGotReincarnatedAsASlime'': One of the possible jobs members of the AdventureGuild can take involve exploring and mapping out ancient ruins for lost and rare treasures. Considering these ruins tend to be filled with ancient traps and infested/guarded by monsters, these are considered high-risk/high-reward missions. One of the most notable adventurers who prefers these types of missions is Kagali, an elf who acts as guild master Yuuki Kagurazaka's secretary in her free time and has made a name for herself exploring and mapping out the ancient ruins of the destroyed elven nation of Soma. Rimuru is impressed enough that with Yuuki's recommendation he allows her to lead an expedition into exploring the dark elf ruins located in the deceased Demon Lord Clayman's domain. [[spoiler:Of course, it turns out Kagali is well-equipped for this sort of mission because not only did she [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld live in Soma as elven royalty]], she was the one [[BeenThereShapedHistory who made the very fortress in Clayman's domain that became ruins because it was once her own domain]].]] |
| 63 | [[/folder]] |
| 64 | |
| 65 | [[folder:Card Games]] |
| 66 | * "Art/MysticalMedleysAVintageCartoonTarot": The "Page of Wands" wears the typical safari outfit while being in the desert. |
| 67 | [[/folder]] |
| 68 | |
| 69 | [[folder:Comedy]] |
| 70 | * Stand-up comic [[http://www.cc.com/video-clips/mkt491/stand-up-mike-macrae--professor-jones Mike McRae]] did a bit imagining that all the undergrads wanted to take Indiana Jones's Intro to Archaeology class because it's a total blow-off. "Every semester he has to go find some ceremonial Aztec staff in Mexico or something like that. Just take it, it's easy." |
| 71 | ** Though one would imagine that he has amazing stories to tell and -- oh yeah -- looks like ''[[{{Hunk}} god-damned]]'' '''Creator/HarrisonFord''' doesn't hurt. Even if he probably gives really hard assignments inspired by his adventures each time he comes home. |
| 72 | [[/folder]] |
| 73 | |
| 74 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 75 | * The Thief from Dan Hipp's ''[[http://www.thethiefisdead.blogspot.com Gyakushu]]'' is a great example of the trope. |
| 76 | * Fred Perry's ''ComicBook/GoldDigger'' is made of this trope, starring the Diggers sisters Gina and Brittany and Brianna, prime examples, as well as numerous archaeologist rivals, allies, and even Gina Digger's students in adventure archaeology. |
| 77 | * This was the SecretIdentity of the [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] ComicBook/{{Hawkman}}, who has returned as the current Hawkman. |
| 78 | * Archaeology is second only to research scientist on the list of "most SuperHeroOrigin-prone professions". |
| 79 | ** Franchise/TheDCU's [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] ComicBook/BlueBeetle Dan Garrett found the scarab that gave him his powers while looking through an ancient tomb. |
| 80 | ** Rex Mason, who was transformed into ComicBook/{{Metamorpho}} by an artifact in an Egyptian tomb. |
| 81 | ** The original ComicBook/DoctorFate's father. Lot of superpowers in them tombs... |
| 82 | ** Jared Stevens - who had a brief stint in the 90s as [[LegacyCharacter Fate]] - was a treasure hunter. |
| 83 | ** This trend may have been due, in part, to the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb in the 1920s. Egyptology was so popular in the 1920s and early 1930s that the Chrysler Building's architecture was modeled after ancient Egyptian designs. This carried over into UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks, when many super-heroes got their start. |
| 84 | *** Golden Age Hawkman was also an archaeologist, and it's been suggested that his civilian name, Carter Hall, was a deliberate ShoutOut to Howard Carter, the discoverer of Tutankhamen's tomb. |
| 85 | * ''Franchise/WonderWoman'': |
| 86 | ** Dr. Helena Sandsmark, mother of ComicBook/WonderGirl [[Characters/WonderGirlCassieSandsmark Cassie Sandsmark]], has spent time discovering ancient magical artifacts which Cassie later uses to become a superhero and which Helena has used for self defense and also had a fling with Zeus at some point in her studies of Ancient Greece. |
| 87 | ** ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'': Prof. Ainchent is an Egyptologist in a world where this means encountering immortal Pharos, vengeful mummies and tombs full of fully functional traps. |
| 88 | ** Dr. Sandsmark's friend and mentor Julia Kapatelis, who Diana lived with in ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1987'' and who introduced the Sandsmarks to Wonder Woman, is another archaeologist who has worked with magical artifacts, visited pocket dimensions and more even before she started hosting an Amazon princess in her home. |
| 89 | ** ''ComicBook/WonderWomanRebirth'': The more recent versions of ComicBook/WonderWoman’s iconic villain ComicBook/{{Cheetah}} is an archaeologist convinced that the Amazons and other myths are true and sets out to prove it by getting entangled with those myths. |
| 90 | * ''ComicBook/TheWarlordDC'': Mariah is an archaeologist who becomes a sword-swinging heroine upon her transport to the LostWorld of Skartaris. |
| 91 | * Goofy's cousin Arizona Goof from the ComicBook/MickeyMouseComicUniverse is a spoof of this trope (or just Franchise/IndianaJones). |
| 92 | %%* ''ComicBook/XMen'': Cain Marko, before he found the magic gem that turned him into the ''ComicBook/{{Juggernaut|MarvelComics}}. |
| 93 | %%* Charles and Marilyn Batson, parents of [[ComicBook/{{Shazam}} Billy "Captain Marvel" Batson]], before being killed by their associate Theo "Black Adam" Adam. |
| 94 | * Boom! Studio's ''[[http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=preview&id=3237&disp=table Hunter's Fortune]]'' is proudly a poor man's Indiana Jones. |
| 95 | * Armando Catalano, the central character of ''ComicBook/TheScorpion'', is an adventurer ''tomb robber'' as the comic is set in the 18th century and the science of archaeology doesn't exist yet. |
| 96 | %%* Savant from ''ComicBook/WildCATSWildStorm'' is an immortal alien Adventurer Archaeologist. |
| 97 | * Oklahoma Smith from the ''Cherry Comics'' parody "Oklahoma Smith and the Lost Temple of Doomed Raiders". |
| 98 | * Abbey Chase of ''ComicBook/DangerGirl'', at least before she joined the titular team of spies. She's actually wanted in several countries for graverobbing, among other things. The [[VideoGame/DangerGirl PlayStation Licensed Game]] of the comics even have her final mission being excavating a ancient tomb in India which is the hideout where the Hammer Empire's developing their doomsday device, in a scene lifted from the ''Indiana Jones'' films. |
| 99 | * [[Creator/CarlBarks Scrooge McDuck]] -- if the treasure exists, he must find it! His adventure in "The Seven Cities of Cibola" [[OlderThanTheyThink was actually Spielberg's inspiration]] for the [[Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk first]] ''Indiana Jones'' film! |
| 100 | * Annabelle Riggs of ''[[ComicBook/TheDefenders Fearless Defenders]]'' is an archaeologist, and one who apparently consciously modeled herself on Indiana Jones. |
| 101 | * Oklahoma Bones is a FunnyAnimal Indy parody, a prairie dog who appears in ''ComicBook/CaptainCarrotAndHisAmazingZooCrew'' as an expert on the mysterious statues on Easter Bunny Island. And his sidekick, Whipley the snake. |
| 102 | * ''ComicBook/StarWarsDarthVader'' introduces Doctor Aphra, basically a gender- and moral-flipped Indiana Jones (her first scene even parodies the opening of ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk''). She describes herself as a "rogue archaeologist", who specializes in retrieving rare and ancient objects (especially weapons) that she then sells to the highest bidder. Vader recruits her to act as his agent, helping him to build the resources necessary to stage a coup against the Emperor, and by the time the series reaches an end, she's become [[EnsembleDarkHorse popular enough]] that she gets [[ComicBook/StarWarsDoctorAphra her own]]. |
| 103 | * ''ComicBook/Robin1993'': Janet and Jack Drake shared a hobby of recreational archaeology and spent more time at exciting archaeological sites and at business meetings than at home with their son. After Janet's death Jack also indulges in his love for archaeology when he travels for his wedding to Dana Winters. |
| 104 | [[/folder]] |
| 105 | |
| 106 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 107 | * In ''Fanfic/TooMuchTooMuch'' we have Vallea Endrizzi, a plucky and tomboyish GirlNextSoor who enjoys discovering ancient Italian archeology in her spare time. |
| 108 | * ''Fanfic/TheWritingOnTheWall'' features Daring Do being WrongGenreSavvy because of her profession; she assumes that the ancient, imposing building constructed to last forever in the middle of the desert, surrounded by metallic spikes to keep intruders away, is an AncientTomb, and that the room full of writing in dozens of ancient scripts, the eponymous writing on the wall, is nothing more than a curse meant to keep future explorers away. The building isn't a tomb, and the writing isn't a curse, much to the detriment of everyone involved. |
| 109 | * ''[[http://archiveofourown.org/works/9577922/chapters/23321096 Waking to Another Sky]]'' is a ''Series/StargateSG1''/''Literature/SwordArtOnline'' DeconstructionCrossover where the staff Adventurer Archaeologist points out that the pressures of fighting the AncientAstronauts force him to do his job ''completely wrong.'' |
| 110 | -->'''Dr. Daniel Jackson''': What I do isn’t science, Janet. Science would be careful. Science would take time to develop theories and test them by experiment, instead of rushing through translations and hoping I get it right before something else blows up. What I do - it’s not science. It’s rescue archaeology. We pick our way through the ruins and yank out anything that might be worth saving, because god only knows if the planet will be there tomorrow. |
| 111 | * ''Fanfic/VoyagesOfTheWildSeaHorse'' features Penelope [=laFloo=], an archaeologist from the East Blue kingdom of Frauce so fascinated by the lost ruins and ancient relics of the world that she decided to mount a one-woman expedition to the [[DeathWorld Grand Line]]. Being unable to get any patrons to financially support her, she decided that the most logical method of proceeding was to sign on with a pirate crew, even if that meant having to help them in looting and plundering. Luckily for her, she signed on with the Kamikaze Pirates, [[ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything who don't do a lot of plundering merchant ships or ransacking innocent villages]]... but ''do'' enjoy fighting with marines and rival pirates for the sheer hell of it. |
| 112 | [[/folder]] |
| 113 | |
| 114 | [[folder:Films — Animation]] |
| 115 | * ''WesternAnimation/AtlantisTheLostEmpire'' fits this trope in regards to genre to a 'T'. The colourful cast that make up the crew (including a linguist, engineers, excavators, demolitions experts, doctors, soldiers and more) are for the most part [[OnlyInItForTheMoney just in it for the money]]. It's explained that most of this crew have been on more than one "archaeological adventure" together. It's worth noting that there is not one particular character that is an adventurer archaeologist, but the story itself is right up this trope's alley. |
| 116 | * ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo'': |
| 117 | ** ''WesternAnimation/ChillOutScoobyDoo:'' Professor Jeffries is a bold and fit man who is obsessed with finding the lost kingdom of Shangri-La. Ultimately, he's a negative example of the trope, as he's mainly concerned with padding his own pockets from a diamond mine that isn't his to take. |
| 118 | ** ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooInWheresMyMummy'' has Velma become one of these, as well as having another one as her friend and ''yet another'' one, this one a CorruptedCharacterCopy of Lara Croft, as a villain. |
| 119 | * ''WesternAnimation/TadTheLostExplorer'' is about a bricklayer who becomes one of these. The third movie even mockingly lampshades the differences to actual archaeology when Tad attends college classes with a heavy emphasis on dust-cleaning brushes. |
| 120 | [[/folder]] |
| 121 | |
| 122 | [[folder:Films — Live-Action]] |
| 123 | * ''Franchise/IndianaJones'' re-popularized this. Makes sense, as the movies are basically {{Genre Throwback}}s. But it's occasionally justified with the idea that ''(a)'' the adventures we see are a small fraction of Indy's overall work, and ''(b)'' he's considered pretty unorthodox. Maybe that's why [[https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/back-from-yet-another-globetrotting-adventure-indiana-jones-checks-his-mail-and-discovers-that-his-bid-for-tenure-has-been-denied he was denied tenure]]. Most of this is {{Fanon}}, but occasionally it's mentioned in supplemental material, which shows him actually spending most of his time teaching and analyzing artifacts, as well as a few {{Lampshade|Hanging}}s in the films themselves: |
| 124 | ** Heavily lampshaded in ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade'', where Indy is seen lecturing his class that "70% of all archaeology is done in the library", and that it isn't about uncovering ancient cities or finding BuriedTreasure, and "X never, ''ever'' marks the spot". He promptly ditches the class to go on an action-packed adventure that involves pretty much all those things. At one point he even says the exact words "XMarksTheSpot!" -- though it's a Roman numeral on the floor of a library rather than the indicator on a TreasureMap. It's further lampshaded by Henry Jones Sr.'s insistence that the Grail quest isn't actually archaeology. Jones Senior also eventually directly addresses the way the movies treat his profession: |
| 125 | -->"You call this archaeology?" |
| 126 | ** ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheKingdomOfTheCrystalSkull'', set fairly late in Indy's career, shows his students as pretty desensitized to his adventuring habit -- to the extent that they see him barreling into the library on a motorcycle and sliding under a table as an UnusuallyUninterestingSight. |
| 127 | * The O'Connell Family from ''Film/{{The Mummy|Trilogy}}'' movies and [[WesternAnimation/TheMummyTheAnimatedSeries cartoon]] act like this, even though none of them are officially archaeologists (Rick O'Connell is a military defector looking for treasure, and Evy is trained as a librarian rather than an archaeologist). |
| 128 | ** Their even-sillier-than-Indy antics as compared to actual archaeology are lampshaded briefly in the second movie. It opens with them having excavated a lot of mundane pottery from a tomb (pottery is very useful for historical reconstruction thanks to the evidence it gives about building materials, diet, and so on), and [[GoldfishPoopGang the three minor villains who show up]] complain that the pottery is all "useless junk". Shortly after, when they have to break through a tomb wall, Evie holds up a small brush and a tiny pick, while Rick totes a pickaxe. The pickaxe is used. |
| 129 | * Classic early appearance: in the opening scene of the original Creator/BorisKarloff version of ''Film/TheMummy1932'', a graduate student is studying a scroll at a table when the {{mummy}}'s bandaged hand reaches past him to touch the parchment. As the {{mummy}} walks away, the man starts laughing hysterically, later saying to his mentor "He went for a little walk!" One of them notes in a later scene: "He was still laughing when when he died two years later." Yep, life is tough on graduate students and archaeologists in general. |
| 130 | * Charlton Heston appeared as Harry Steele in ''Secret of the Incas''. Costume designers credit this film as being the inspiration for Indy's getup. |
| 131 | * Benjamin Gates (played by Creator/NicolasCage) from Disney's ''Film/NationalTreasure'' franchise is a historian and amateur cryptologist who does all that work to be prepared to find the treasure and he only keeps looking for it so as to protect it. |
| 132 | * Professor Robert Langdon from ''Film/TheDaVinciCode'' and other films in the series, is a symbologist who regularly finds himself involved in stopping terrorist plots that require him to uncover historical clues. Fun fact: symbology isn't an actual academic field, and most of the academic claims are conspiracy theories, nonsense, or outright bullshit. |
| 133 | * Most of the main characters in ''Film/TheAdventuresOfCaptainMarvel'' movie serial from 1941. Interestingly, the main exception to this is Billy Batson himself, who is chosen by the wizard Shazam to become Captain Marvel because he's the only person on the expedition except the native guide Tal Chotali who suggests maybe smashing one's way through tombs and grabbing whatever is in there isn't such a good idea. Later, Batson is entrusted with the scroll which explains how the serial's MacGuffin, the Scorpion, works because he "is probably the only one among us who can't translate it." |
| 134 | * ''Film/JumanjiWelcomeToTheJungle'': MrExposition Nigel. He is an experienced jungle field guide who knows a lot about ancient temples and is respectful about the potential misuse of the Jewel of Jumanji. |
| 135 | * Leslie Howard's ''Film/PimpernelSmith'', a 1941 take on ''Film/{{The Scarlet Pimpernel|1934}}'', is not only an Adventurer Archaeologist, but a ''Nazi-fighting'' Adventurer Archaeologist forty years before Indy himself. |
| 136 | * Darius Biederbeck, played by Robert Quarry, in ''[[Film/TheAbominableDrPhibes Dr. Phibes Rises Again]]''. |
| 137 | * ''Film/TwoBrothers'' has a something of a subversion of the trope. [=McRory=] dynamites apart old temple ruins to sell statues to the highest bidder. |
| 138 | %%* (Amateur) adventure archaeologist is one of the hats worn by the titular heroine of ''Film/TheExtraordinaryAdventuresOfAdeleBlancSec''. |
| 139 | * Wu Xie from the mainland Chinese show ''Series/TheLostTomb'' and its film spinoff ''Film/TimeRaiders'' is a WideEyedIdealist legitimate archaeologist at the start of the show, but his entire family have been [[RobbingTheDead tomb robbers]] for generations and he quickly gets sucked into their ways. |
| 140 | * ''Film/TheLibrarian'' (and its successor series ''[[Series/TheLibrarians2014 The Librarians]]''), while based around the adventures of librarians, definitely adhere to this trope--though usually in a [[DeconstructorFleet knowing and ironic way]]. |
| 141 | * In ''Film/ItsyBitsy'', Walter Clark was apparently the "steal important cultural artifacts from living cultures" sort. |
| 142 | * ''Film/{{Anaconda}}'': Professor Cale introduced having just hiked back through the jungle searching ahead for the anthropological documentary and is quite knowledgeable about the native lore and area. |
| 143 | * The Hong Kong pulp adventure hero, Dr. Wisely Wei (a clear Indiana Jones {{Expy}}), is featured in a series of Hong Kong films inclouding ''Film/TheSeventhCurse'' and ''Film/BuryMeHigh''. |
| 144 | * Jet Li plays one of these in an ActingForTwo role in the movie ''Film/DrWaiInTheScriptureWithNoWords'': as a writer in 1990s Hong Kong struggling with writer's block, trying to bring to life his fictional creation "Dr. Wai", and the titular doctor who in his adventure stories is trying to prevent an ancient scroll with supernatural powers from falling into the hands of the Imperial Japanese army in the 1940s. |
| 145 | * In ''Film/GentlemenExplorers'', Marcus O'Riley's motivation for doing what he does is to finally earn his doctorate and because he believes the mystic artifacts he locates [[ItBelongsInAMuseum belong in museums]]. His partner Charles, on the other hand, is OnlyInItForTheMoney. |
| 146 | [[/folder]] |
| 147 | |
| 148 | [[folder:Gamebooks]] |
| 149 | * In ''Literature/ZaltecII'', you play as a treasure hunter who searches through ancient ruins, seeking the legendary Stone. |
| 150 | [[/folder]] |
| 151 | |
| 152 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 153 | * Professor Robert Langdon from ''Literature/TheDaVinciCode'', is an adventurer symbologist. This is not actually a real field of study, and despite the protestations of the author, pretty much all of the history/iconography/etc is hilariously wrong. But that doesn't seem to slow him down all that much. |
| 154 | * Literature/{{Dirk Pitt|Adventures}}'s day job is to be one of these [[JustForFun/RecycledInSpace OFF THE COAST!]] |
| 155 | * ''Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse'': |
| 156 | ** Professor Literature/BerniceSummerfield, although she is a little bit of a subversion. She actually wants to be a respected academic who does serious archaeology and carefully peels back history, however she has the drawback of travelling with The Doctor. It means she does get to explore history and see firsthand how it used to be, in ways that she can extrapolate into academic work, but it also means people will be trying to kill them a lot and that most of the artefacts the Doctor is interested in will turn out to be lost superweapons or something. According to ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoNewAdventuresSkyPirates Sky Pirates!]]'', her book ''Down Among the Dead Men Again'' has a back cover blurb from "I. Jones" claiming that she taught him everything he knows. This may not be true. |
| 157 | ** Some of the novels cast the Fifth Doctor in this role in particular; ''The Sands of Time'' and ''The Ultimate Treasure'' see the Fifth Doctor join archaeological expeditions in ancient Egypt and on a distant planet to investigate an Osiran tomb and find a legendary treasure respectively. |
| 158 | * Professor Michael Murphy, in the ''Literature/BabylonRising'' series. |
| 159 | * ''Literature/SergeStorms'': Thad and the other dinosaur hunters travel across vast, untravelled terrain while looking for fossils and face some danger from murderous rivals and the potential of being caught in the crossfire of the Great Sioux War (although the Native Americans view the paleontologists' work as sacred and mostly leave them alone). |
| 160 | * ''Literature/MortalEngines'' has two of these: the cowardly SmallNameBigEgo Nimrod Pennyroyal is more of a subversion (and a Gilderoy Lockhart-style novelist - sadly, his one attempt to write a true story of what happened never becomes popular, or believed), while the driven, hard-edged Thaddeus Valentine plays it deadly straight. |
| 161 | * Literature/AmeliaPeabody and her husband, Radcliffe Emerson, Victorian Egyptologists in a series of mysteries by Elizabeth Peters. These two go out of their way to subvert several aspects of the trope: they regard their adventures as interruptions, most of the time, and are always itching to get back to The Dig; and they are stridently clear about Egyptian artefacts belonging to the Egyptians, not, for instance, the British Museum, and make frequent derogatory remarks about the treasure-hunting approach of their predecessors and some of their contemporaries. |
| 162 | ** This may have been inspired in part by Creator/AgathaChristie and her husband Sir Max Mallowan. She accompanied him on a lot of his digs and used the locales in her books. |
| 163 | * An anthropologist and zoologist rather than an archaeologist, but Professor George Edward Challenger from ''Literature/TheLostWorld1912'' and its sequels by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle otherwise fits the bill to a T. |
| 164 | * Lucinda Carlyle from Creator/{{Ken MacLeod}}'s ''Newton's Wake'' is a self-described "combat archaeologist." This involves mostly jumping through wormholes and gunning down post-singularity alien robots. |
| 165 | * Averted with professional archaeologist Jacob Ramsey in Christie Golden's [[VideoGame/StarCraft Dark Templar trilogy]]. Though described as a "maverick" by his peers, he points out that archaeology is not all adventures and being chased by boulders and he doesn't go about trying to manhandle his way into the Xel'Naga "temple". |
| 166 | * ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'': |
| 167 | ** Miss Alice Band is a "stealth archaeologist" who also teaches traps and climbing at the Guild of Assassins. Any similarity to Lara Croft is entirely coincidental. |
| 168 | ** Adora Belle Dearheart qualifies as this in ''Literature/MakingMoney''. She travels about the Disc, looking for a digging up old golems. |
| 169 | ** As mentioned below, the Guild of Archeologists is portrayed as this in ''Discworld Noir'', including "tomb excavator" Loreda Cronk. Averted by ''The Compleat Ankh-Morpork City Guide'', which portrays the Guild as very interested in dusty old pots that, to the layman, don't look any different from other dusty old pots. The head of the guild is named [[Series/TimeTeam Mr Robinson, and the Guild stamp shows him as looking like Mick Aston]]. |
| 170 | * ''Literature/HandOfMercy'' features Helen Hawthorn. Technically Helen is an antiques dealer, but that doesn't stop her rifling through [[AncientArtifact ancient artifacts]], and theft and trespass at Isham house. |
| 171 | %% * Literature/DocSavage |
| 172 | * Surprisingly, the predecessor or unbuilt form of this trope is OlderThanFeudalism: A piece of Egyptian literature from the 1st century CE, ''Setna-Khaemwase and Na-Nefer-Ka-Ptah'' tells the story of Setna, a prince of Egypt and a powerful wizard, searching necropoleis for the magical Book of Thoth which grants the reader great power. It does not end very well for him. |
| 173 | * ''The Takers'' by Jerry Ahern, though it's actually the BigBad who's the archaeologist. The protagonists are an action-adventure novelist, and his girlfriend who writes books on [=UFOs=], Atlantis and the occult. |
| 174 | * ''[[Literature/TheLordsOfCreation In the Courts of the Crimson Kings]]'', a sci-fi novel by S.M. Stirling set on ''Literature/JohnCarterOfMars''-type world made plausible with BioPunk technology. The archaeologist protagonist jokes about the differences between himself and the tomb raiders of the movies. "I don't even have a bullwhip!" His colleague points out that (due to the dangerous Martian environment and culture) he ''is'' carrying a gun and a sword. |
| 175 | * The ruinmen in ''Literature/StarsReach'' operate like this, though they’re more interested in salvaging raw materials for profit. |
| 176 | * Aemelia Harsh in Creator/StephenHunt's ''The Kingdom Beyond the Waves''. |
| 177 | * Dr. Roger Burrows of the ''Literature/{{Tunnels}}'' series thinks about himself this way. In reality, while he is an archaeologist and he does go on a perilous adventure, he is too much of a CloudCuckooLander to really fit the mold. |
| 178 | * Dr. Nina Wilde in Andy [=McDermott's=] TheHuntForAtlantis and subsequent sequels; she specializes in mythological legends such as Atlantis and Excalibur. [[InTheBlood Her parents were also archaeologists]] and were murdered on an expedition to the Himalayas to find evidence of Atlantis. |
| 179 | * ''Franchise/StarTrek'': |
| 180 | ** In the ''Literature/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineRelaunch'', the crew of the ''Even Odds'' are often in line with this trope. Technically they're a retrieval squad, but they usually have a genuine archaeologist or two among them. While research is implied to be their primary activity, the resident archaeologists certainly participate in the actual retrievals, which usually involve the sort of excitement you don't find on genuine digs. |
| 181 | ** In the ''Literature/StarTrekMirrorUniverse'', the novel ''Worst of Both Worlds'' has Jean Luc Picard of the Mirror Universe as a treasure hunter and slave to Gul Madred. He eventually runs away and uses the treasures and wonders he's found to destroy the Borg Cube that invades the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance. |
| 182 | * In the ''Literature/{{Virals}}'' series by Kathy Reichs, Tory Brennan and her fellow virals are this when trying to find a female pirate's treasure. |
| 183 | %%* Alex Benedict, the titular antiquities dealer of the ''Literature/AlexBenedict'' series, is one. |
| 184 | * In the ''Literature/HarryPotter'' series, Ron's badass older brother Bill is said to work as a "curse-breaker" in Egypt. It's implied that this line of work involves being a cross between this trope and a BombDisposal technician. |
| 185 | * The [[Franchise/StarWarsLegends old Star Wars Expanded Universe]] has a side character, never featuring clearly, named [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Corellia_Antilles Corellia Antilles]] who is basically a {{Gender Flip}}ped {{Expy}} of Indy. Her name is similarly "place plus common last name" - her real name is Henrietya - she specializes in "dangerous artifact collection" aka treasure hunting, and she was the subject of a popular series of holos. |
| 186 | ** The new canonical Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse has a similar character named Doctor Aphra, who works for Darth Vader. |
| 187 | ** ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear'''s Hoole is actually more of an Adventure Anthropologist - or xenoanthropologist, whatever word would be used for the study of different sentient species - but he gets roped into a spot of archaeology in ''Spore'', when some miners have DugTooDeep and found a DoorOfDoom with weird inscriptions on it. |
| 188 | * Justified in the ''Literature/EarthGirl'' trilogy: In the 28th century pre-history teams are digging through the ruins of EarthThatUsedToBeBetter for one reason, and one reason only: To uncover LostTechnology and fundamental research preserved in stasis boxes before their power supplies fail or the places where they are buried become even more inaccessible due to fallen skyscrapers or collapsed land rafts. Thus they actually cannot afford to dig out and brush off stuff slowly. Explosives and laser cutters are often used and rubble is just unceremoniously piled up next to an excavation. |
| 189 | ** But all of that pales in comparison to the adventures of Jarra, Fian, their dig team, their pre-history class, and Asgard 2 dig team over the course of three books: [[spoiler:They remember the Ark caves to evacuated the handicapped to, excavate a rubble-buried crash-landed spaceship, dig out and reactivate alien tech, make first contact with an alien probe, run away from a space ship armed with a frigging Laser beam and [[FakingTheDead fake their own death]], survive an attack of a [[MacrossMissileMassacre missile-filled space ship]], get Alpha Sector to allow Earth to join them, get the Earth government to be democratically elected, have her immune system replaced by a risky potentially fatal experimental technology to be able to leave Earth and is the first [[HandicappedBadass disabled]] person in history to go on an extrasolar travel, figure out the chimera could still be around, become pioneers in xenoarchaeology, have a statue/memorial for her and her teams, win at life.]] |
| 190 | ** ''Literature/EarthAnd'' sees Jarra and her school History club training to be this trope as they search the ruins of [[EarthThatUsedToBeBetter New York]] for ancient artifacts. Although school History groups only use the Fringe dig sites rather than the much-more-hazardous Main sites, Jarra and her group still see some action. In ''Earth and Air'', Jarra tells Wren about the time she, aged eleven, had to be lowered into an oil tank to save a group member as she was the only one who could fit and they were running out of time. |
| 191 | ** [[MilesGloriosus Felipe]] tells the class a thrilling tale of being lowered into a narrow space to use a laser gun to free a trapped colleague. In fact, he did no such thing; he stole a story about Valeshka Orlova, a genuine example of this trope, to make himself look cool. |
| 192 | ** In the prequel, ''Literature/ScavengerAlliance'', Tad, along with Phoenix and Braden, try to be this but fail miserably. They do successfully reach New York and find the Rosetta component, but manage to get their aeroplane destroyed by falling debris having left it in the lee of a building to protect it from the wind. This leads to their having to appeal to the Resistance for help and kicks off the plot. |
| 193 | * Tanner from ''Literature/{{She Fell Among Thieves|1964}}'' is a treasure hunter more than he is an archaeologist. He's wanted in both Mexico and Cambodia for smuggling artifacts. Miller joins in on his illegal activities when they decide to steal the statue. |
| 194 | * Creator/AMerritt's lush 1924 fantasy novel, ''Literature/TheShipOfIshtar'': John Kenton was this, and had intended to go on a major expedition to unearth Babylonian treasures until UsefulNotes/WorldWarI intervened. Now he's an embittered ReturningWarVet StrangerInAFamiliarLand. The original ship, a model carved of semiprecious stone, is sent to him by a fellow archaeologist who went in his place on the Babylonian expedition, and he has no trouble reading the cuneatic script on the stone block in which it was inclosed. He has a room full of "his spoils from many a far away corner of the world", some of which he uses to disguise himself when he goes aboard the real ship. |
| 195 | * Creator/CliveCussler's adventure works continue with the ''Literature/FargoAdventures'' series, starring Sam and Remi Fargo, who constantly travel the world to find the greatest treasures, to return to their rightful owners, almost invariably facing the entire spectrum of human scum and villainy from whom they will have to protect the treasure; from drug lords and silly-but-ruthless little rich girls who will do anything to get what they want, to terrorists and the Eastern European gangsters who supply them. Sam is an engineer, while Remi is an anthropologist/historian; otherwise they fit the archetype. |
| 196 | * Creator/IsaacAsimov's ''Literature/FoundationsEdge'': Janov Pelorat is a Foundation historian fascinated with the myths of humanity's origin. When Trevize asks why humanity couldn't have arisen on multiple planets (as convergent evolution), Pelorat prepares to launch into an in-depth explanation, but recognizes the enormity of information and instead requests that Trevize trust him. He wants to visit the Library on Trantor to read more second-hand accounts of humanity, but Trevize convinces him that they should physically ''go'' to the sites and see for themselves what is there. So they head to the Sayshell system to learn about Gaia. Their archaeological adventures (conspiracies and physical violence) continue in ''Literature/FoundationAndEarth''. |
| 197 | * In ''Literature/PleaseDontTellMyParentsIveGotHenchmen'', The Inscrutable Machine encounter Emilia St. Daphne, a "legally ambiguous archaeologist" who breaks into sites involving mystical threats, sometimes to learn about their history and sometimes to disarm something that might destroy the world. Either way, her approach involves having to find a way past a lot of ancient traps. By the end of the book, and within the next few books, [[spoiler:Ray becomes her apprentice]]. |
| 198 | * Literature/PriscillaHutchins is a spaceship pilot, but she often flies for archaeological expeditions on alien worlds, and while the novels stress the BoringButPractical aspect of archaeology she somehow manages to have a lot of life-threatening adventures. In ''Chindi'' she's working for the Contact Society who are wealthy enthusiasts hoping to make FirstContact with aliens, and she gets into several arguments with them because they're more inclined to act like this trope. |
| 199 | * Gavin Kane in ''Sheba'' by Creator/JackHiggins is an archaeologist hired by a woman to find her missing archaeologist husband in 1939. It just so happens that the temple site said husband has found is also being used as a base by ... Nazis! ''Sheba'' was actually one of Higgins' earlier books — initially published as ''Seven Pillars to Hell'' in the 1960s — but it's no wonder he had it republished after the success of the ''Indiana Jones'' movies. |
| 200 | * Flin Brodie in ''The Hidden Oasis'' by Creator/PaulSussman is an archaeology professor at the American University in Cairo who has often gone on expeditions into the desert — and does so again in the story. He is named after [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flinders_Petrie Flinders Petrie]]. |
| 201 | [[/folder]] |
| 202 | |
| 203 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 204 | * On ''Series/ThirdRockFromTheSun'', Dick and Mary get invited on an archaeological dig. Dick shows up dressed like Indiana Jones and waving around a bullwhip, but it turns out he's WrongGenreSavvy, and the dig is actually realistic. |
| 205 | * Examples of this trope IN SPACE are apparently common in the Verse of ''Series/BabylonFive'', among them Sheridan's wife, who disappeared on an archaeological expedition. |
| 206 | ** Max Eilerson, from the short-lived spinoff ''Series/{{Crusade}}'', is an archaeologist who joins the crew of the Excalibur to gallivant across the Galaxy exploring the ruins of ancient alien civilizations. Of course, Max, working for a corporation, is mainly concerned with financial gain from any alien artifact or knowledge. This frequently puts him in conflict with the rest of the cast, who only do this out of necessity. |
| 207 | %%* ''Series/{{Bonekickers}}'' |
| 208 | * Though an anthropologist rather than an archaeologist, Dr. Temperance Brennan of ''{{Series/Bones}}'' appears to harbor the occasional delusion of Lara Croft-hood. The series has established that she's an accomplished martial artist, markswoman and survival expert: |
| 209 | -->'''Caroline:''' Fine. Stop me when I get something wrong. Trained in three types of martial arts, two assault charges, registered marksman with the NRA, hunting licenses in four states...\ |
| 210 | '''Booth:''' You ''hunt?''\ |
| 211 | '''Brennan:''' Only for food.\ |
| 212 | '''Caroline:''' Shot an unarmed man...\ |
| 213 | '''Brennan:''' He was trying to light me on fire! |
| 214 | ** The pilot episode hangs a few more lampshades on this, as the first five minutes show her returning from some South American jungle with a carry-on full of skulls, for which she neglected to obtain the proper importation permits, and then [[spoiler:executing vigilante justice on Cleo Eller's murderer when it looks like the man will escape prosecution]]. |
| 215 | *** To be fair, as she said in the above quote, he ''was'' trying to light her on fire. |
| 216 | ** It is worth pointing out that, while she does enjoy joining Booth in the field, from what she's described of her anthropological excursions, she doesn't go looking for adventure. She gets plenty of excitement just looking at the skeleton in a lab. It's just that the places she goes aren't exactly known for being safe (identifying victims in a mass grave in a war-torn country, for example). Her combat skills, etc. are for her own protection. |
| 217 | * ''Series/{{Castle|2009}}'': Will Medina the victim from ''Wrapped up in Death'' is described as "a modern day ''Franchise/IndianaJones'' once waking into a rain forrest with just a backpack and coming out a month later with a priceless artifact. That being said, he wasn't above tricking natives into leading him to a sacred burial chamber, or selling a mummy that wasn't login to be displayed on the black market. |
| 218 | * ''Series/{{CSINY}}'': A guy in "[[Recap/CSINYS05E05 The Cost of Living]]" breaks into a disused part of the UsefulNotes/NewYorkCitySubway and retrieves an item, in a large-scale homage to ''Franchise/IndianaJones'' that probably left many viewers wondering what they were watching... Then the team find his corpse: |
| 219 | -->'''Stella:''' Seems James [Sutton] fashioned himself a real Indiana Jones.\ |
| 220 | '''Mac:''' [[QuipToBlack Until someone made this]] his [[Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade last crusade]].\ |
| 221 | Late in the episode it is revealed that [[spoiler:the adventurer archaeologist was a fraud. Having purchased the identity of a legitimate archaeologist, the man proceeded to live the fantasy of an adventurer archaeologist. He ended up being more successful than the person whose identity he was using]]. |
| 222 | * ''Series/DoctorWho'': |
| 223 | ** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E8TheImpossiblePlanet "The Impossible Planet"]]/[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E9TheSatanPit "The Satan Pit"]] has an aversion: although Toby Zed is the archaeologist of a team of explorers sent to a dangerous EldritchLocation, he's not a soldier or any kind of fighter, he's just there to take a look at the artefacts retrieved. |
| 224 | ** Doctor, later Professor, River Song. |
| 225 | *** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E8SilenceInTheLibrary "Silence in the Library"]]: |
| 226 | ---->'''The Doctor:''' Tell me you're not archaeologists?\ |
| 227 | '''River:''' Got a problem with archaeologists?\ |
| 228 | '''The Doctor:''' I'm a time traveller. I ''point and laugh'' at archaeologists.\ |
| 229 | '''River:''' ''[grins, holds out her hand]'' Professor River Song, ''archaeologist''. |
| 230 | *** He quickly learns not to underestimate her, because when you have a time travelling archaeologist, you get awesome. In fact, [[spoiler:''they're married''!]] |
| 231 | ---->'''Rory:''' [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E2DayOfTheMoon So... What kind of doctor are you?]]\ |
| 232 | '''River:''' Archaeology. ''[[[OffhandBackhand shoots alien behind her]]]'' Love a tomb. |
| 233 | *** Being a time-travelling archaeologist gives River plenty of foresight for her schemes. She had no need to fear Flemming in [[Recap/DoctorWho2015CSTheHusbandsOfRiverSong "The Husbands of River Song"]] because [[spoiler:she dug him up]]. |
| 234 | * ''Series/TheFlash2014'' Season 3 introduced Julian Albert, who in the past embarked on an expedition to finding the Brahmastra (or Philosopher's Stone). He donned a fedora and an attire much like that of Indiana himself. Later when Team Flash visit Gorilla City in Earth-2, Julian tags along once again wearing the same outfit, not wanting to pass up a trip to a parallel dimension that housed sentient apes. |
| 235 | * On ''Series/{{Friends}}'' a department store saleswoman flirts with Ross, using the absurd equation "paleontologist+works out=Indiana Jones." Talk about laying it on with a trowel. Ross is pleased, however (it helps the woman is gorgeous, much to Rachel's chagrin). |
| 236 | * ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow'': Season 2 introduces Nate Heywood, who is actually a historian, but also joins the time travelling team. He gets a lot more adventure than his typically literature job offers, being able to meet the historical figures and places up close. |
| 237 | %%* ''[[Series/TheLibrarians2014 The Librarians]]''; as with its predecessor films, the titular librarians are not technically archaeologists but definitely fulfill this trope. |
| 238 | * Charlotte from ''Series/{{Lost}}'' may fit. She's been identified as an anthropologist rather than an archaeologist, but in her first scene, she was butting in on a dig to [[spoiler:unearth a Dharma polar bear in Tunisia]] and the show runners even addressed the archaeologist/anthropologist/Indiana Jones issue in a podcast. She also appears to be something of an ActionGirl. |
| 239 | * In the ''Series/MurdochMysteries'' episode "Murdoch and the Temple of Death", the VictimOfTheWeek is an Adventurer Archaeologist who [[spoiler:found the Holy Grail in an exact duplicate of the Hagia Sophia built in Canada by ''another'' Adventurer Archaeologist, who took it from the real one]]. Crabtree is inspired to write a novel about "a swashbuckling archeologist", although Murdoch thinks ItWillNeverCatchOn. The whole thing is, of course, an ''Indiana Jones'' pastiche. |
| 240 | %%* This is Alexia's occupation in-game in ''Series/{{Pixelface}}''. |
| 241 | * ''Franchise/PowerRangers'', ''Franchise/SuperSentai'': |
| 242 | ** ''Series/GoGoSentaiBoukenger'''s theme is "adventure". It's even part of their roll call. |
| 243 | ** In ''Series/PowerRangersOperationOverdrive'', the English localization of ''Boukenger'', the Rangers spend the bulk of the season generally following in the footsteps of their mentor/the father of Red Ranger. This unique combination of BigDamnHeroes and Adventurer Archaeologist tends to result in a ''lot'' of property damage to ancient temples/exotic locales, not just their CityOfAdventure. |
| 244 | ** ''Series/PowerRangersZeo'': Prior to the events of ''Mighty Morphin' Alien Rangers'', Tanya was left in an African village while her parents ended up disappearing. When Yellow Ranger Aisha, her and most of the world altered by Rita and Zedd putting the world back in time, came to retrieve a fragment of the Zeo Crystal, the two swap places. Not only does she become the new Yellow Ranger, being this allows her to rescue her parents and retrieve Auric the Conqueror. |
| 245 | * In the show ''Series/RelicHunter'', Sydney Fox (played by Creator/TiaCarrere) is a globe-trotting "relic hunter" who hunts for ancient treasures and artifacts so that she can bring them to their her university’s museum or the descendants of the original owner. |
| 246 | * In ''Series/TheSentinel'', Blair Sandburg is an anthropologist but has serious Adventurer Archaeologist moments such as taking out a bad guy with a vending machine and jumping out of an airplane into the South American jungle with Jim to rescue Simon & Daryl Banks. Not bad for a neo-hippie witch doctor punk. |
| 247 | %%* Professor George Edward Challenger from ''Series/SirArthurConanDoylesTheLostWorld''. |
| 248 | * In ''Series/StargateSG1'', Daniel Jackson is a "purer" example in flashbacks, but modifies the way he works once he joins the SG team. He is occasionally mentioned to be on more traditional archaeology digs when his schedule permits, and some episodes show this - on Earth, and on other planets. It's frequently implied that if Daniel had his way, he'd have the Stargate be used ''solely'' for this purpose. Daniel's status as this (as well as [[TookALevelInBadass the levels in badass he's taken]]) are lampshaded in one episode when one of the soldiers on the team that SG-1 will be guarding mentions [[SarcasmMode how much safer he feels]] knowing that an archaeologist has his back. [[DeadpanSnarker Daniel]] responds by holding up a knife and asking which end he's supposed to put the bullets in. Also lampshaded when the team questions a man that claims to be an archaeologist about his weapon[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpxIwaOMugY]]: |
| 249 | -->'''Jack:''' What kind of archaeologist carries a weapon?\ |
| 250 | '''Daniel:''' Uh, I do!\ |
| 251 | '''Jack:''' (pause)...Bad example. |
| 252 | * ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': Vash, sometimes a love interest for Captain Picard, is a student of archaeology. But she is a dishonest rogue motivated by profit, and said to get into hazardous adventures (mostly off-screen) while searching for ancient treasures. |
| 253 | ** In "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E19CaptainsHoliday Captain's Holiday]]", Captain Picard meets Vash while on a resort planet for vacation. The two of them go on an adventure to find an AncientArtifact, while trying to avoid being targeted by Vash's dangerous former colleague. |
| 254 | ** Vash appears again in ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Deep Space Nine]]'s'' "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS01E07QLess Q-Less]]". This time she has returned from adventuring off-screen with the omnipotent being Q. While Q tries to convince Vash that she can continue on countless wonderous adventures if she stays with him, Vash herself is mostly interested in selling the historical artifacts she has gathered for a substantial profit. Although she does care enough about the archaeology enough that she almost turns the auction into a lecture on the historical context of her goodies until Quark takes over. |
| 255 | * Briefly lampshaded in ''Series/{{Warehouse 13}}'', when the agents are sent to unearth Warehouse 2 in Egypt, [[Creator/HGWells Helena Wells]] changes into a very Lara Croft-esque outfit. When asked by Myka what she's doing, Helena explains that she's done research what female archaeologists wear. Myka corrects her, explaining that this is what American film-makers ''think'' female archaeologists wear. |
| 256 | * Janice Covington, from a clip-show episode of ''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess'', was clearly this trope in action (she had a ''[[MoreDakka Gatling gun]]'' in her tent!) who was obsessed with finding evidence of Xena's travels. She fancied herself a direct descendent of Xena, and was initially disappointed to find out that she was a descendant of Gabrielle instead. |
| 257 | * Interestingly, ''Series/TheYoungIndianaJonesChronicles'' mostly averts this. The show was intended as {{edutainment}}, and only one episode, ''Treasure of the Peacock's Eye'', follows the traditional Indy {{Treasure Hunt|Episode}} formula. The DVD sets include documentaries about people and events in the show, including one [[HypocrisyNod about what real archaeology is like]]. The trope is even deconstructed in the very first episode: |
| 258 | -->'''Indy:''' I'd like to be an archaeologist.\ |
| 259 | '''UsefulNotes/TELawrence:''' Maybe you'll add a new page to history. Or discover a treasure beyond price.\ |
| 260 | '''Indy:''' And get rich!\ |
| 261 | '''Lawrence:''' No, Henry. Archaeologists don't get rich. Archaeology doesn't steal from the past. It opens it, so that everyone may learn from its treasures. |
| 262 | [[/folder]] |
| 263 | |
| 264 | [[folder:Podcasts]] |
| 265 | * ''Podcast/AintSlayedNobody'': |
| 266 | ** Professor Henry was an archaeologist conducting research alongside his assistant Kate Caldwell, [[spoiler:who failed a few too many sanity checks and became a devotee of Shub-Niggurath, summoning one of her Dark Young and performing a FreakyFridayFlip on it and Kate. By the time the Posse encounter him, he's an eccentric old hobo going by "Sparky"]]. |
| 267 | ** Professor John Wilkinson, who debuts in Episode 4, is employed as a chemistry professor by the newly established New Mexico College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts, but his true passion is archaeology. He ropes the Posse into helping him conduct an expedition to the mines and caves under Baylor Peak in search of evidence of Indigenous inhabitation or a lost conquistador expedition. [[spoiler:It turns out these caverns are infested with ghouls, with the conquistadors having fallen prey to them.]] |
| 268 | * The ''Podcast/TwilightHistories'' episodes “The Isle of the Lost” and “The Drowned City” have you in this role. In the former, you explore the ruins of Atlantis, while the latter see you explore a Mesopotamian city that has been abandoned under mysterious circumstances. |
| 269 | * ''Podcast/TheMagnusArchives'': An early episode, seemingly unconnected to the MythArc, revolves around an unusually realistic take on the trope: A moderately down-on-her-luck archaeology graduate encounters a treasure hunter type who is OnlyInItForTheMoney, and eagerly becomes a black market grave robber, culminating in an unauthorised off-the-books dig at a previously untouched tomb in a remote part of Egypt. It doesn't end well. |
| 270 | [[/folder]] |
| 271 | |
| 272 | [[folder:Radio]] |
| 273 | * Prof. Anton Edwards, the hero of ''Radio/MoonOverAfrica'', is a professor, an expert in ancient languages who goes on an exciting journey through DarkestAfrica to uncover a lost civilization. |
| 274 | [[/folder]] |
| 275 | |
| 276 | [[folder:Roleplay]] |
| 277 | * ''Roleplay/DinoAttackRPG'' has Gahiji "Dust" Thutmose and Rick "Adventure" Spherus; the latter is even described as looking like a shameless knock-off of Indiana Jones. |
| 278 | * ''Roleplay/EquestrianLegends'' has Icefox, a blatant Indiana Jones {{Expy}}. |
| 279 | [[/folder]] |
| 280 | |
| 281 | [[folder:Tabletop Games]] |
| 282 | * The one, the only, Beckett of Clan Gangrel in ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade''. [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1677764/20/Gehenna_The_Musical Hot like Croft and cool like Jones]], baby. |
| 283 | * ''TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness'' games: |
| 284 | ** ''TabletopGame/MageTheAwakening'': "Archeomancers" are a faction of the Mysterium (collectors of magical lore) who search old ruins for artefacts. Since those ruins have a tendency to have [[TempleOfDoom hostile magic, traps, and/or ghosts]], practiced archaeomancers are usually well-armed and magically adept. |
| 285 | ** ''TabletopGame/HunterTheVigil'' has two such groups: the Loyalists of Thule, who track down arcane secrets to defend humanity from occult dangers and [[StupidJetpackHitler make up for that whole Hitler thing]], and the Aegis Kai Doru, who collect magical artifacts and use them in their fight against threats to humanity. |
| 286 | * ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'': |
| 287 | ** ''{{TabletopGame/Eberron}}'': The ''Forge of War'' book indicates that it's possible to run a war campaign in which one is attempting to locate ancient artifacts to deny them to enemy forces, "[[Franchise/IndianaJones like a certain whip-wielding, fedora-wearing archaeologist.]]" |
| 288 | ** Pretty much the main draw of the 5th edition ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'' adventure ''TabletopGame/TombOfAnnihilation'' (a spiritual successor to ''TabletopGame/TombOfHorrors''). A mystical curse is ravaging the world, and the players will have to delve into the jungles of Chult to find the forgotten city of Omu, where a cure can hopefully be found. The book even includes an Archeologist background clearly inspired by the man himself pictured above (the one to the right). |
| 289 | * ''TabletopGame/SeventhSea'' has the Explorer's Society, a continent-spanning organization of Adventurer Archaeologists. And their rivals. |
| 290 | * ''TabletopGame/FengShui'''s ''Seal of the Wheel'' supplement has the Two-Fisted Archeologist, which is a direct homage to Indiana Jones, with a unique schtick that allows them to defy death, showing up ten sequences later all banged up and with a crazy story to tell about how they survived. Most of them work for the Ascended, but some of them go independent or join the Dragons. There's also several fan archetypes lurking about the net. |
| 291 | * One of the character classes in ''TabletopGame/{{Rifts}}'', Rogue Scholar is this, the picture of the character template even looks like Indy. |
| 292 | ** The Rogue Scientist fits the bill as well, only with a slightly different set of priorities. Both classes are adventurers dedicated to combing the ruins of Rifts Earth in search of lost knowledge from the Golden Age of Mankind (i.e. the late 21st Century). Rifts Earth is such a CrapsackWorld that if they didn't know how to defend themselves, they probably wouldn't make it ''to'' the ruins alive, let alone get back in one piece. |
| 293 | * The ''Back East'' supplements for ''TabletopGame/{{Deadlands}}'' included an Archaelogist archetype suitable for use as a player character that was very heavily based on Indiana Jones. |
| 294 | * In ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'' this profession is called "Scavenger Lord," and in some parts of the world is a very respectable, even honored career. The Second Age is littered with the ruins, and sometimes the incalculably valuable/dangerous artifacts/superweapons/LostTechnology of the First Age, which may be guarded by ghosts, monsters, or demons. A successful Scavenger Lord must be much more than a bookworm to survive, but the potential payout is high. |
| 295 | * Techpriests from ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' combine this with CargoCult and LostTechnology. In true [[DarkerAndEdgier 40k fashion]], there's not much romantic adventure in their work. Though if they end up waking up some Necrons (again), things can get far too adventurous for one's comfort... |
| 296 | ** Speaking of Necrons, [[Literature/TheInfiniteAndTheDivine Trazyn the Infinite]] scours battlefields looking for artifacts and knickknacks to add to his collection. Some of his finds have been alien monsters, powerful artifacts, and five regiments of Imperial Guard an Inquisitor "gave" to him. Most of Trazyn's collection is still alive, stored in stasis. Some of the beings in his collection are so powerful that Trazyn could turn the galaxy upside down, saving and/or dooming multiple interstellar civilizations, if he ever chose to release them. |
| 297 | * ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'': |
| 298 | ** The Pathfinder Society is an in-universe organization of these, dedicated to uncovering the AdventureFriendlyWorld's ancient knowledge and publishing it in the Pathfinder Chronicles. They are frequently pitted against the Aspis Consortium, who at best sell to the highest bidder and at worst will grind down precious historical artifacts into powder for use as spell components. |
| 299 | ** "Archaeologist" is an archetype for the Bard {{class|AndLevelSystem}}, replacing the Bard's MagicMusic with [[BornLucky personal luck]], SuperReflexes, expertise in trapfinding, and roguish abilities. |
| 300 | ** The futuristic version of Pathfinder, ''TabletopGame/{{Starfinder}}'', has the Starfinder Society, which is the Pathfinder Society [[JustForFun/RecycledInSpace IN SPAAAAACE!]]. |
| 301 | * In ''TabletopGame/RocketAge'' most members of the ICIC count. The Ahnenerbe also have Archaeologists on Mars plus various freebooters and scientists also qualify. |
| 302 | * ''TabletopGame/ArkhamHorror'' spinoff ''TabletopGame/EldritchHorror'' turns most of the playable characters into this, as they must fight monsters and often go on Expeditions to historical sites. In the game, however, Monterey Jack is an archaeologist by profession, and Ursula Downs is an explorer, so they fit the trope from a professional standpoint. |
| 303 | * In ''TabletopGame/TheMadnessDossier'', Some "Sandmen" are fully qualified archaeologists as well as being highly effective field agents. They search for anomalous remnants of the true history of Earth (which was rendered unreal in 535 AD) and probe for dangerous weaknesses in the structure of our universe. |
| 304 | * ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'': Lorehold College, one of the colleges of [[WizardingSchool Strixhaven Academy]] and the one specializing in White/Red magic, are entire department of these, combined with magic; White-aligned members lean more into the "archaeologist" part and Red-aligned ones lean into the "Adventurer" part. They're most famous for teaching students how to summon spirits of dead historical figures to get first-hand accounts of past events. |
| 305 | [[/folder]] |
| 306 | |
| 307 | [[folder:Theatre]] |
| 308 | * Subverted with archaeologist Professor Davis in ''Theatre/TheThousandYearRose'', immediately abandoning the treasure quest to pursue a relationship with [[SilverFox hot grandma]] Maryann Foley. Played straight with his research intern, Kimmi Larkin. |
| 309 | [[/folder]] |
| 310 | |
| 311 | [[folder:Toys]] |
| 312 | * Johnny Thunder of Toys/LEGOAdventurers and Jake Raines of LEGO Pharaoh's Quest both fit this trope to a tee. Based on his bio on the Toys/LEGODinoAttack website, Digger might also qualify. |
| 313 | [[/folder]] |
| 314 | |
| 315 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 316 | * ''VideoGame/TheAgeOfDecadence'': Characters who choose the Loremaster class are specifically geared toward becoming this. Searching ancient ruins and uncovering the events that directly led to the game's apocalyptic setting. Often, however, digging up and fiddling with highly advanced ancient technology can have incredibly destructive results for the inhabitants of what remains of the world. |
| 317 | * ''Barbie Explorer'', an action/adventure game from the ''Franchise/{{Barbie}} Software'' line. |
| 318 | * ''VideoGame/{{Battleborn}}'': Phoebe has a great interest in the ancient Eldrid {{Precursors}} known as the Aztanti and the various mysteries associated with them. As such, she has a fondness for going on expeditions into Aztanti ruins. Whether it's going to recover an Aztanti skeletal relic to serve as the base for her fellow Battleborn Kelvin's physical form as detailed in his and Miko's lore challenges, or exploring deep within the bowels of Ekkunar to discover secrets as what happens in her DLC Story Operation, Phoebe is always up for an adventure into the ruins of the ancient precursor civilization. |
| 319 | * The main characters of the ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'' series in the most technical sense. They're Vault Hunters, searching for ancient Eridian Vaults hidden in Pandora and in the process finding tremendous power, loot, and knowledge. |
| 320 | ** Maya from ''VideoGame/Borderlands2'' is a more specific example, as she is traveling the galaxy to learn more about Sirens like herself, and Pandora has close connections to Sirens and their powers. |
| 321 | ** Continued in ''VideoGame/Borderlands3'', which expands the scale to multiple Vaults across multiple planets, in search of an even greater Vault. In this case, both the academic and profit motives take a back seat to that of keeping the Great Vault out of the hands of [[BigBadDuumvirate the Calypso Twins]]. |
| 322 | * ''VideoGame/CaveIn'': The PlayerCharacter of the game is an archaeologist exploring a cave system to find a lost crown. He has a gun with him to deal with the animals in the cave. |
| 323 | * ''VideoGame/TheCliffhangerEdwardRandy'': The titular hero is as close a CaptainErsatz of Indy as it can get, being an adventurer in the 1930s who explore ruins and goes around beating up enemy mooks using his whip, while trying to stop a warlord called "Black Ogre" from stealing a powerful AncientArtifact to TakeOverTheWorld. There's even a tank boss in the desert stage which homages the third Indy film. |
| 324 | * ''VideoGame/DiscworldNoir'': The Guild of Archeologists is a lot like this. It may be notable that their spokesperson is a young woman named "Laredo Cronk". |
| 325 | * ''VideoGame/TheDungeonOfDoom'': The "[[Franchise/IndianaJones Jones]]" class is a clear ShoutOut. |
| 326 | * ''VideoGame/DungeonsOfDredmor'' - The Archeology skill tree is chock full of shout outs to ''Franchise/IndianaJones'' (you even start the game with a familiar hat), but the only exploration and taking of valuable ancient artifacts you do is for your own survival, and anything you're not currently equipped with is probably getting sold. |
| 327 | * ''VideoGame/{{Egoboo}}'' has an Archaeologist class that is directly derived from Franchise/IndianaJones and all of its other CaptainErsatz and hommage characters like VideoGame/{{Spelunky}} and [[VideoGame/LaMulana Lemeza Kosugi]] with a whip, a fedora and according skills. |
| 328 | * ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'': |
| 329 | ** In ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]'', the [[PlayerCharacter Nerevarine]] has the opportunity to be this as part of Edwinna Elbert's Mages Guild quest line. You'll collect rare [[OurDwarvesAreDifferent Dwemer]] items and schematics from dangerous ruins, as well as check in on an actual archaeologic expedition at a Dwemer ruin. If you collect a set of unique books throughout these quests and take them to a knowledgeable scholar, you can come up with [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence the best]] [[GoneHorriblyWrong theory]] to date about why the Dwemer [[RiddleForTheAges disappeared]]. |
| 330 | ** In ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'', there are many Ayleid ruins scattered across Cyrodiil, some of which involved in quests while the others are simply there to provide you some treasure (and trap)-filled dungeons to explore. Umbacano's quest specifically invokes this trope, as it involves the Hero exploring a good dozen of those ruins to find specific ancient artifacts. |
| 331 | ** In ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'', the [[PlayerCharacter Dragonborn]] will engage in this, especially during the College of Winterhold questline, but there's also Katria from the ''Dawnguard'' expansion. Katria dedicated her life to locating the Aetherium Forge, which is split into a number of shards all over Skyrim. The catch is that Katria's life was cut short by a Dwemer automaton, but her ghost will assist you through the quest. Once you help her complete her life's work (and prove her apprentice as a fraud), she thanks you as a friend and wishes you luck in your adventures before fading away. |
| 332 | * ''VideoGame/EndlessFrontier'' begins with the hero and his RobotGirl sidekick getting permission to explore a crashed spaceship... that they were recovered from when he was a baby. |
| 333 | %%* Dr. Edwin Linsey in the sixth chapter of ''VideoGame/EternalDarkness''. |
| 334 | * One career path in ''VideoGame/EVEOnline''. Recovering artifacts is part of exploration, and it can be dangerous - as with most things in EVE, the best sites are in low-security space, exposing any would-be archaeologist to attack by pirates. Also, EVE archaeologists are less concerned with studying history and more concerned with finding useful bits of LostTechnology. |
| 335 | * ''VideoGame/{{Extrapower}}'': Professor Ace, allegedly a professor of archaeology but spends his time as the LovableCoward following Zophy around. It's certainly a good source of adventure, and sometimes riches. Like the time in ''[[VideoGame/ExtrapowerGiantFist Giant Fist]]'' when he steals a large jewel from Blackberry's pyramid, prompting Ogonmushi to brain them robbers and attack. Though always the first to run from a fight, he nonetheless follows Zophy into the heart of danger, and surprises everyone when his archaeological expertise means he actually has insight in the adventure at hand. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking He's even got the hat]]. |
| 336 | * ''VideoGame/FableII'': There is a series of artifact fetch quests you can perform for archaeologist Belle Rennock - likely a reference to Rene Belloq from ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk''. |
| 337 | * ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'': Locke represents the thief class in the game and has the "steal" command. [[InsistentTerminology But you'd better call him a treasure hunter]] [[BerserkButton or he'll rip your lungs out]]!!! |
| 338 | * ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX2'': The original idea of sphere hunters was this - dive into the ruins, grab the recording sphere, haul it back to a historian and let the contents be known. Within only a couple of years, however, it seems to have devolved into a mixture of this, tomb robbery, and a bit of out-and-out piracy, and that's just the heroes. |
| 339 | * ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsA2'': Subverted in the mission to recruit Montblanc. The reason he went to Jylland was treasure hunting. However, after Montblanc learned the treasures were already ''found'' by Luso, he says "Please, kupo, let's be realistic here. My life is more than bauble-hunting!" |
| 340 | * ''VideoGame/GuardianRock'': The {{Mooks}} in this Flash game also qualify, though they have antagonizing roles. |
| 341 | * ''VideoGame/GuildWars2'': The Durmand Priory. They vowed to seek ancient artifacts (Dwarf artifacts especially) in order to find a way to defeat the Elder Dragons. |
| 342 | * Henry Hatsworth, from ''VideoGame/HenryHatsworthInThePuzzlingAdventure''. |
| 343 | * Franchise/IndianaJones himself is the hero in two classic PointAndClickAdventure games: ''VideoGame/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade'' (based on the movie) and ''VideoGame/IndianaJonesAndTheFateOfAtlantis'' set in the summer of 1939, just before World War II kicks off. There's also the 3D action-adventures ''Videogame/IndianaJonesAndTheInfernalMachine'' and ''Videogame/IndianaJonesAndTheEmperorsTomb'', which certainly owe something to, well... |
| 344 | * ''VideoGame/{{Infidel}}'': The protagonist is a deconstruction, a greedy treasure hunter whose only interest in the pyramid he's exploring is the valuable treasures it may contain, and who is acting as a lone adventurer only because he's such a jerkass the rest of his expedition abandoned him and went home. [[spoiler: His ambitions lead to a DownerEnding when he sets off a trap that leaves him BuriedAlive with no hope of rescue.]] |
| 345 | * ''VideoGame/KingdomOfLoathing'': One of the 2015 annual familiars available to donors at Mr. Store is the Indiana Jones-esque Adventurous Spelunker, who increases money and item drops, attacks with his whip, and drops an item that gives access to a ''VideoGame/{{Spelunky}}''-inspired mini-game. |
| 346 | * ''VideoGame/KultHereticKingdoms'': Joran Cynessa ''claims'' to be this, telling people who wonder why he's in a warzone that he intrepid ventured there for the sake of his work. Of course, if he happens to find a few interesting weapons along the way, selling them to carefully screened, discerning buyers is a perfectly respectable way to finance his work. (He's actually just a weapons smuggler.) |
| 347 | * ''VideoGame/LaMulana'': The PlayerCharacter is Lemeza Kosugi, who is a parody of Indiana Jones, down to the hat and constant use of a whip as a tool and a weapon. He sets out to the ruins of La-Mulana after receiving a letter from his father claiming that "He found it!" and that he "won" over Lemeza, like it's a competition. Due to the competitive relationship Lemeza and his father Shorn (or Shawn) share, the actions in which you get money in the game (by breaking pots with your weapon), and the the lack of character development afterwards, ''WebVideo/ArmoredChocobo'' portrayed him as a greedy version of this trope in his Let's Play, going as far as saying his clothes are green because they are "made out of dollar bills" and the phrase "It doesn't belong in a museum, it belongs in Lemeza's pockets!" |
| 348 | ** ''VideoGame/LaMulana2'' stars Lemeza's daughter Lumisa, who is similar to her father in ability. [[spoiler:Lemeza and Shorn also appear, stealing Lumisa's discovery]]. The game also implies that ''all'' archaeologists in-universe are this, as several signs warn you that a dangerous activity should not be attempted unless you are a highly trained ninja... or an archaeologist. Whether this means that all archaeologists recieve ninja training as part of their profession or that they're badass enough on their own to not need it is unclear, though the first game did mention that Lemeza recieved training. |
| 349 | * ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' features Ezreal, the Prodigal Explorer, an adventurous, talented, but also astonishingly cocky young man who fancies himself as one of these, equipped with [[TrickedOutGloves a one-of-a-kind gauntlet]] that lets him teleport across Runeterra in search for treasure, thrills, and glory. The game frequently puts a lampshade on how [[DeconstructedCharacterArchetype as an archeologist, he kind of sucks at his job]] in spite of his powers -- he's bad at planning expeditions ([[SkewedPriorities he prioritizes his stylish pomade over]] ''[[SkewedPriorities food]]''), his "research" largely amounts to GraveRobbing from ancient crypts, and he frequently gets into legal trouble due how he mishandles the magical (and often dangerous) artifacts he gets his paws on. |
| 350 | ** While the name 'Safari Caitlyn' calls to mind a GreatWhiteHunter, the description of the skin is closer to this trope, and she even dresses in a manner similar to [[Franchise/TombRaider Lara Croft]]. |
| 351 | * ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsInTheSky'' : Professor Alba starts out as a subversion. As Estelle and Joshua encounter him in numerous ruins across the world, he is the typical absent-minded academic, possessing no offensive power of his own and needing to be kept safe on escort missions. [[spoiler:Then, at the ''very'' end of First Chapter, he is revealed to be the BigBad of the series. When Estelle confronts him in ''SC'', he reveals that his archaeologist credentials are real, ultimately making him a double subversion. Too bad he wants to use his knowledge to unleash the Aureole upon Liberl.]] |
| 352 | * ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'': Zelda, and to a lesser extent Link, in the backstory. Zelda traveled the kingdom researching the dilapidated ruins of Old Hyrule and the LostTechnology associated with that civilization. She was the original owner of the Sheikah Slate, and was very annoyed to find that the Shrines were only designed to work for the hero bonded to the Master Sword. |
| 353 | * ''Franchise/MassEffect'': Subverted with Dr. Liara T'Soni. When you first meet her, she's a meek, shy scientist that's fallen foul of one of the death traps in the ruin she's excavating. Once she's off-planet, however, she's able to keep up with three trained marines, a former Special Forces soldier and a thousand-year-old krogan battlemaster. In the second game she's switched career paths and is now an up-and-coming information broker. Her personal DLC sees her [[spoiler:killing and replacing the most influential information trader in the galaxy, promoting herself to Illusive Man-level mover and shaker.]] |
| 354 | ** When asked about how traveling with Shepard's crew compares to her previous work, Liara laments that she'd be happier with more exploration time and fewer explosions. |
| 355 | ** Referenced again in Lair of the Shadow Broker. Liara comments at one point that information trading isn't that different from archaeology, in that you're sifting mountains of refuse for a few valuable scraps - however, dead bodies tend to smell a bit more when they're not thousands of years old. Later in the DLC, a search of her apartment will turn up a framed copy of her doctorate (another character comments that "she really got her money's worth out of that education"), a painting of the ruins on Ilos, and several display-cased Prothean artifacts. |
| 356 | ** One of the uncharted worlds mentions the planet is occupied by a Volus billionaire who is obsessed with searching the planet's abandoned crypts for "lost beings of light" who hid away weapons to fight a "darkness from beyond the stars." It's implied the volus is insane (although Shepard and their crew would likely disagree), but he has his own army of mercenaries digging up the planet. |
| 357 | ** Shepard can play Adventurer Archaeologist in both games, recovering ancient asari writings, turian clan insignia, Prothean artifacts and data disks from sites spanning the galaxy. You can even keep a Prothean relic in your cabin as an art piece. |
| 358 | ** By the time of ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', archaeology has become a necessity. The Reapers are invading, and the best bet to stop them is to build the Crucible: an ancient Prothean-designed weapons system. The most effective way to decipher the Prothean script surrounding this weapon is to study Prothean artifacts, effectively ''militarizing'' archaeology. |
| 359 | * ''VideoGame/MegaManClassic'': Pharaoh Man is a robot created for the purpose of being one of these. He's designed to explore Egyptian ruins, and was built with superior speed and agility for the sake of evading {{deathtrap}}s, and powerful optical sensors that allow him to perceive objects through walls, making it easier to navigate the dark catacombs. His likeness to a pharaoh is even intended to stave off any ancient curses by making it seem like he belongs there. |
| 360 | * ''VideoGame/MegaManZX Advent'': Grey/Ashe can meet Meg, self-proclaimed "antique Hunter" who spends her time hunting through ruins to uncover LostTechnology and preventing them from being stolen and sold off by thieves (and tracking said thieves down if they do). As a registered [[BountyHunter member of the Hunter's Guild]], she has a legal license from the government of Legion to carry these operations out and this is a major part of the job of a Hunter (the other part being hunting down Mavericks for bounties, but she seems to prefer the exploring part). In fact, she was in the middle of one such operation when the stage in question [[FloatingContinent suddenly lived up to its name as the "Floating Ruins"]] and she got stuck. She asks Grey/Ashe as a fellow Hunter to find four artifacts hidden throughout the four parts of the Floating Ruins and bring them back to her as a sidequest, where she provides some handy exposition on each one (for bonus points, they're all items from the ''VideoGame/MegaManClassic'' time period centuries prior) and upon getting all four she'll give them a Sub-Tank. |
| 361 | * ''VideoGame/NetHack'' has an Archaeologist class that starts with a whip and fedora. |
| 362 | * ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'': Goombella is an archaeology student, but every bit as adventurous as many examples here. |
| 363 | * ''VideoGame/PeretEmHeruForThePrisoners'': Professor Tsuchida is an older version who recognizes that he's a bit past his prime. However, he refuses to let this slow him down too much, seeking further prestige and to keep strengthening his reputation. Unfortunately, this leads him to recruit a tour group as {{Unwitting Pawn}}s when he discovers a hidden ruin and decides that he'd rather not wait to explore it, or let any organizations know about his find and steal his glory... |
| 364 | %%* The protagonist of ''VideoGame/PharaohsTomb'' and sequel ''ArcticAdventure'', one Nevada Smith. |
| 365 | * ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'': |
| 366 | ** [[VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl Sinnoh League Champion Cynthia]]. The focus of her study is the historical (and prehistoric) interactions and relationships between humans and Pokemon, and she seems to have a special interest in the mythology of [[OlympusMons legendary Pokemon]], which explains her involvement in the events of ''Platinum''. |
| 367 | ** [[VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite Gym Leader Lenora]] is hinted to be a retired one, and is the curator of her own museum. |
| 368 | ** In ''VideoGame/PokemonLegendsArceus'', Cynthia's [[IdenticalGrandson identical grandfather]] Volo is revealed to be one of these, as he has a fascination with ancient ruins and legends that often supersedes his day job as an IntrepidMerchant. [[spoiler:He's soon revealed to be [[TheDogWasTheMastermind a dark example of this]], as learning of the TopGod Arceus led him to GoMadFromTheRevelation and RageAgainstTheHeavens.]] |
| 369 | * ''VideoGame/ProfessorLayton'': Herschel Layton from the series is technically an archaeologist, though he spends more time in the games solving puzzles ([[AmateurSleuth and crimes]]). He does get in some ruin-exploring in a few games, such as ''Miracle Mask''. More specifically, he doesn't actually ''like'' adventuring, but he often does so anyway due to people giving him strange or dangerous artifacts whose true nature only he can solve, of which adventuring tends to happen. [[AllThereInTheManual According to his social media accounts]], he turned down an invitation to ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' due to it being about fighting--he would prefer to study and solve puzzles. |
| 370 | * ''VideoGame/TheRiddleOfMasterLu'': This game's fictionalized version of [[Franchise/RipleysBelieveItOrNot Robert Ripley]] is not a real archaeologist, but his search for clues in sometimes dangerous ancient locations in order to get to enter the tomb of the first emperor of China to stop a magical McGuffin from falling into the wrong hands is just like something from Indiana Jones -- except that he isn't good at the fighting, he lets his girlfriend do that. |
| 371 | * ''VideoGame/RuneScape'' both plays this straight and deconstructs it. Archaeology is one of the 28 skills and the player certainly has a lot of adventures doing it. In the story though, many [=NPCs=] found being academics and not a god-like hero, means they are ill-equipped to deal with the AncientConspiracy, CosmicFlaw, EldritchAbomination, ArtifactOfDoom and the like they dig up. |
| 372 | * ''VideoGame/SecretFiles'' has [[{{Deuteragonist}} Max Gruber]] who fits the trope. In the second game of the series, Sam Peters, a classmate of Max, is a rare female version. |
| 373 | * ''VideoGame/TheSecretWorld'' features a rather prominent example in the form of Iain Tibet Gladstone, Templar scholar. A historian, anthropologist and adventurer, Gladstone spent most of his younger days roaming around the world, investigating mysteries almost too esoteric for mainstream secret worlders and conducting some extremely questionable experiments; he even went so far as to indulge in MentalTimeTravel via a number of rare and prohibited substances. He even defends his approach by claiming that there's things in history that scholars need to confront head-on. Apparently, his employers disagree: by the start of the game, [[DeconstructedTrope Gladstone has been forcibly retired and is currently spending the rest of his days under house arrest]]. |
| 374 | * ''VideoGame/ShadowGuardian'': Jason Call is an ex-soldier turned journalist and treasure hunter, who spends the whole game infiltrating ancient tombs, taking down enemy mercenaries in shootouts and fighting giant monsters to prevent a doomsday device from falling into the wrong hands. The game is inspired by the then-recent ''VideoGame/{{Uncharted}}'' franchise, and Jason is a rather blatant Nathan Drake {{expy}}. |
| 375 | * ''VideoGame/TheSims3'': In the "World Adventures" expansion pack allowing you to be such an archaeologist, exploring tombs in the three travel locations for valuable treasures and unique furniture. |
| 376 | ** ''VideoGame/TheSims4'' has a SpiritualSuccessor game pack called "Jungle Adventure." |
| 377 | * ''VideoGame/SkyOdyssey'': The [[NoNameGiven nameless hero]] is said to be the latest in a line of explorers who set out to find the [[AdvancedAncientAcropolis Hidden Tower of Maximus]] within the Islands of the Dark Sea. While we don't actually see him [[InformedAbility doing any archaeology in the game]], given that his goal is to rediscover the ancient lost city it makes sense that he would be one of these. |
| 378 | * ''VideoGame/{{Spelunky}}'': The player character is an Indiana Jones lookalike with a whip who finds hidden ruins and lost treasure. |
| 379 | * ''VideoGame/StarOceanTheSecondStory'': Ernest is like Indiana Jones with three eyes. |
| 380 | * ''Franchise/StarWars:'' ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'': In the FanGame ''VideoGame/TheJediMasters'', the PlayerCharacter is one of these who's [[EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep referred to simply as Doctor]], and the plot kicks off with them seeking funding for an expedition to track down what happened to [[TheParagon Revan]]. Later on they end up being trained in the ways of the Force by the [[SpiritAdvisor ghost of the Sith Lord Freedon Nadd]] while exploring his tomb. |
| 381 | * ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'' allows any character to become this by taking the Archaeology crew Skill. The Jedi and Sith classes also spend some of their early levels delving into ancient ruins on their respective home planets and one of the Sith Inquisitor's companions, Talos Drellik, is a member of the Imperial Reclamations Unit whose job is to specifically seek out ancient Sith ruins and artifacts though he's more of a scholar than a fighter. |
| 382 | ** The Sith Inquisitor's job essentially becomes this at the end of their storyline, as their position becomes head of the "Sphere of Ancient Knowledge" with their seat on the NotSoOmniscientCouncilOfBickering, tasked with researching Sith artifacts. [[OneHourWorkWeek Not that they actually do much research.]] |
| 383 | * ''VideoGame/{{Suikoden}}'': Across the series, Lorelei, Zweig, and Killey are all Adventurer Archaeologists, with Lorelei even wielding a [[{{Homage}} whip]] in one game. |
| 384 | %%* Waffle's uncle in ''VideoGame/TailConcerto''. |
| 385 | * ''VideoGame/TalesOfZestiria'''s main character [[TheHero Sorey]] and his [[TheLancer best friend]]/"[[HoYay boyfriend]]" [[MakingASplash Mikleo]] are this, having an adorkable passion for history and ruins that comes up more than once on their quest to save the world. In fact they start off their adventure exploring ruins and discover the unconscious [[RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething Alisha]], dragging them into the standard hero's journey and world saving. In fact, they would prefer to just explore the world and uncover the history over fighting evil...though they aren't averse to multi-tasking! [[spoiler:In the epilogue, an older Mikleo is seen living out their dream of exploring ruins around the world...just before Sorey, who'd been [[RipVanWinkle asleep since right after the final battle]], shows up in time to rescue him from a fall.]] |
| 386 | * ''VideoGame/{{Thief}}'': Garrett [[AtLeastIAdmitIt freely admits to being a looter]] rather than an archaeologist. He winds up otherwise fulfilling the role anyway, though, as he usually manages to grab at least one MacGuffin without meaning to. One treasure in a lost city setting in ''Thief 2'', however, prompts him to ponder aloud that "Archaeologist sounds much more dignified than thief". Archaeologists normally don't break into museums to reacquire the artifacts they had previously sold to them, after all. |
| 387 | * ''Franchise/TombRaider'': Lara Croft from the games and [[Film/LaraCroftTombRaider movies]]. In fairness, when she gets into these kinds of situations, she's usually chasing far more powerful enemies seeking artifacts. Both the movies and games occasionally had a BigBad wanting to abuse some mystical power - in other words, Lara Croft isn't so concerned about preserving the ancient ruins because she's in a race against time to keep some villain from using a powerful artifact with horrendous consequences. |
| 388 | %%* In ''VideoGame/{{Tutankham}}'', the player character is obviously one of these. |
| 389 | * ''VideoGame/{{Uncharted}}'': Although Nathan Drake is considered by some to be an archaeologist, not a single character in the series calls what he does 'archaeology'. They all refer to him as a thief, and they're absolutely right, though [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI he'd probably prefer "treasure hunter"]]. It's just that sometimes treasure is inside museums, or under guard by heavily-armed mercenaries. [[spoiler:Funnily enough, the series actually ends with him transitioning ''into'' legal, more realistic archaeology.]] |
| 390 | --> '''Nathan:''' You don't deserve it! \ |
| 391 | '''[[{{Foil}} Rafe]] [[BigBad Adler]]:''' [[NotSoDifferentRemark And you do?]] [[VillainHasAPoint Last I checked we are all a bunch of thieves digging around where we shouldn't.]] |
| 392 | * ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'': |
| 393 | ** Brann Bronzebeard and [[CaptainErsatz Harrison Jones]] are the leading examples, joined by Belloc Brightblade in Cataclysm. |
| 394 | ** The Explorers' League seems to lean towards this somewhat. This is likely a reflection of its recent birth out of renewed Dwarven interest in their origins and thus a lack of well-developed procedures. Their leaning towards more aggressive archaeology is seen in the numerous large pits dug by dwarven archaeologist, often with explosives, and the angry, displaced locals trying to kill them as a result. |
| 395 | ** With Cataclysm the early connotations of archaeology's sordid early years has become even more obvious. The Reliquary and League, Horde and Alliance archaeology initiatives respectively, often find themselves at direct cross-purposes. Their solutions usually involve asking players to murder their opposition, sabotage their opposition, and/or steal finds from their opposition. |
| 396 | ** As of ''Cataclysm'', [[AnAdventurerIsYou the players]] are this. Digging up artifacts, it's not uncommon for player Archaeologists to find themselves first needing to fight off the rightful or not-so-rightful owners of the artifacts before making a break for it. Although the tedium and long work involved does show fairly effectively (in MMO terms). It can take a round-continent trip of an hour to complete a single project, which is often something you had found previously. Then, like many early archaeologists, you sell it to the highest bidder. |
| 397 | *** Similar to real archaeology, most finds are relatively common with little value, with the more valuable finds being rarer. The most sought-after artifacts can only be discovered once per character and can be exceedingly rare to discover. |
| 398 | *** A large portion of Uldum is an archaeology adventure styled after ''Raiders of the Lost Ark'', complete with wanton destruction of ancient artifacts. |
| 399 | ** ''Mists of Pandaria'' adds new dimensions to archaeology, including an actual museum, crates to store completed artifacts, and a map allowing you to locate new sites. While this produces a slightly more mature take on archaeology, digging now has the potential to wake the continent's native [[TheHeartless Sha]]. |
| 400 | ** ''Warlords of Draenor'' brings back Harrison Jones giving a series of quest chains to [[ArchaeologicalArmsRace recover powerful relics for your faction]]. Most of the hard work is done by other archaeologists who are killed by the unhappy natives. The profession now wakes angry ghosts of the related race rather than monsters. |
| 401 | ** ''Legion'' has a very focused Archaeology experience, where each week a different "project" is active in one of the zones, led by a different archaeologist. An overarching plot is Brann Bronzebeard's endeavor to rebuild a Titan artifact whose pieces are scattered through the Broken Isles. |
| 402 | *** Aside from hostile mobs spawning while collecting artifacts, there is a rare chance to spawn a mini-boss, such as by unearthing the skull of a Pit Lord who then regenerates. |
| 403 | ** ''Battle for Azeroth'' features this in Zandalar. In Zuldazar the two factions fight over control of an artifact buried at a forbidden site while elsewhere Horde players explore the ruins of the ancient Zandalari empire and discover hidden Titan facilities. |
| 404 | ** One of the quest chains in Wetlands involves helping a team of dwarven archaeologists to clear the digging site from [[DishingOutDirt elementals]] and TheUndead. The quest giver claims that it is nearly impossible to have an archaeological career without awakening some ancient evil at least once. |
| 405 | * ''VideoGame/WorldFlipper'' has Mia, an adorable, upbeat tiger girl and self-proclaimed "treasure hunter extraordinaire", she even has [[Franchise/IndianaJones a whip!]] |
| 406 | [[/folder]] |
| 407 | |
| 408 | [[folder:Web Comics]] |
| 409 | * In ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'', Riff's father appears to be one of these, as well as the ''Franchise/TombRaider'' parody ''Lara Craft Macaroni & Cheese''. |
| 410 | * Montana Jones from ''Webcomic/IrregularWebcomic'', an AffectionateParody of Franchise/IndianaJones, and, to a lesser extent, his father, Professor North Dakota Jones (an AffectionateParody of [[Creator/SeanConnery Indy's father]]) and his grandfather, Schliemannian Chair of Archaeology Minnesota Jones. Also Ginny Smith [[spoiler:although she's also a FemmeFatale in a constant HeelFaceRevolvingDoor]] |
| 411 | * From ''Webcomic/WapsiSquare'', Monica's grandfather was one of these. Monica herself, on the other hand would claim to be an archaeologist of the far more mundane variety. She spends most of her time either in a library, or analyzing things for the museum, and she doesn't do field work. However, that being said, she still did manage to help bring down a smuggling ring in the process of acquiring an artifact. |
| 412 | ** [[http://wapsisquare.com/comic/comfortnotspeed/ Lampshaded here]] |
| 413 | * ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'': [[GenkiGirl Aradia Megido]] was one before she died. [[StringyHairedGhostGirl Even after death]], she continued exploring and retrieving items from ruins, except she was focused on one set of pre-discovered ruins with the intent of using them to create [[TheGamePlaysYou Sgrub]]. Her user initials are even aA; except it stands for apocalypseArisen. |
| 414 | ** Jade's Grandpa [[spoiler:and his Alpha counterpart, Jake]] is also one. |
| 415 | * Stomp's uncle in ''{{Webcomic/Stomp}}'' claims to be one of these. Whether this is true or not isn't exactly certain. |
| 416 | * In ''Webcomic/{{Underling}}'' [[http://underlingcomic.com/page-one-hundred-fifty-five/ Caleb claims to be one.]] |
| 417 | * Some of the platoons in ''Webcomic/{{Pacificators}}'' are orientated towards archaeology. The most prominent archaeologist platoon is Commander Breanne Geothe's platoon (who we meet in the second chapter). |
| 418 | * In ''Webcomic/RavenWolf'', Fitz and his now-retired mentor, Eve's dad and owner of the museum of the city of Cordella, fit in this trope. |
| 419 | * ''Webcomic/OurWorld'': Chad Ivington, as seen on the ShowWithinAShow "Mysteries of the Unexplained." |
| 420 | * Vesper's father in ''Webcomic/{{Plume}}'' seems to be this - he's always away from home and civilization in general, raiding ancient cities and searching for magical artifacts. |
| 421 | * In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'', the storyline "Nanase Craft and the Crypt of Zappiness" is a parody of this. Especially, ''Franchise/TombRaider''. |
| 422 | * Lupin in ''Webcomic/BreakingCatNews'' is occasionally this. Wearing an Indy outfit and fedora, he explores the mysterious corridors of the connecting kitchen cabinets and is awestruck to discover a giant bag of cat food ("My God... it's beautiful."). In another exciting episode, we find our hero balanced on the rim of the bathtub ("I'm in a tropical paradise... I'm on a cliff, far above a waterfall") when the Man is taking a shower. |
| 423 | * ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'': While the Toughs are mercenaries they sometimes find themselves engaging in this when their contract involves protecting and/or exploring ancient [[BigDumbObject Big Dumb Objects]]. This improvised archaeology results in [[DeconstructedTrope rather realistic consequences.]] |
| 424 | -->'''Kevyn:''' We got the canisters open. They're made of gold-plated graphite. Two of them held ingots: some gold, some aluminum. Mostly empy space. The third contained a rolled up sandwich of aluminum foil and gold foil. It's very fragile. The cylinder was filled with neon, though, so nothing decayed.\ |
| 425 | '''Tagon:''' But you tore it, and now it ''has'' started decaying. Right?\ |
| 426 | '''Kevyn:''' Learning history by destroying artifacts is a time-honored atrocity. |
| 427 | * ''Webcomic/TheLastHumanInACrowdedGalaxy'': Shenya the Widow is a retired archaeologist. She also happens to be a [[InsectoidAliens giant spider alien]] and a famously deadly warrior whom even law enforcement agents hesitate to antagonize, though the extent to which she exercised those skills in her old career is unknown. |
| 428 | * ''[[https://m.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1755327434793968.1073741830.1540660122927368&type=3 Arkeofacts]]'' by French archeologist Céline Piret ridicules and deconstructs the idea by comparing Indiana Jones and Lara Croft to reality. Yet, all characters wish to be like Indiana Jones. |
| 429 | [[/folder]] |
| 430 | |
| 431 | [[folder:Web Original]] |
| 432 | * ''Website/TheOnion'': [[https://local.theonion.com/archaeologist-tired-of-unearthing-unspeakable-ancient-e-1819566285 "Archaeologist Tired Of Unearthing Unspeakable Ancient Evils"]]. |
| 433 | * In the other direction: [[https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/back-from-yet-another-globetrotting-adventure-indiana-jones-checks-his-mail-and-discovers-that-his-bid-for-tenure-has-been-denied Indiana Jones Denied Tenure]]. |
| 434 | * ''Website/SCPFoundation'' has several anomalous objects and containment sites that were originally found by these sorts, many of whom came to a bad end as a direct result. [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-557 SCP-557]] is a fairly typical example, although [[AmbiguousSituation nobody knows exactly what happened]] or what [[SealedEvilInACan "the bastard son of Apep"]] really was. |
| 435 | [[/folder]] |
| 436 | |
| 437 | [[folder:Web Videos]] |
| 438 | * Parodied in the ''WebVideo/LoadingReadyRun'' episode [[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/loadingreadyrun/7862-The-Fountain The Fountain]]. The Indiana Jones character wants to travel the globe to solve the riddles and open the door to the FountainOfYouth but the financier backing him points out that they can just use explosives to blast it open instead. |
| 439 | * In ''WebVideo/WorldsGreatestAdventures'', Talltales claims to be one in Episode 3. Please don't notice the fence and obvious modern buildings in the background of his "undiscovered ruins". You'll just upset him. |
| 440 | [[/folder]] |
| 441 | |
| 442 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 443 | * The fictional version of Creator/JackieChan from ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures''. This trope is parodied, however, when he comes to his niece's career day and gives an accurate explanation of what real-life archaeology is like. He'd rather do proper archaeology, but rarely has time before the bad guys show up to try to grab the artifact. |
| 444 | * On ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'', this is the career of Lord Monty Fiske, until he reveals himself as Lord Monkey Fist (in his first appearance). |
| 445 | * In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Ben 10}}'', Grandpa Max stepped into this role, with Ben and Gwen along for the ride, to keep an ancient superweapon from falling into the hands of the Forever Knights. All three are pretty glad when it's over. |
| 446 | * ''WesternAnimation/TaleSpin'' features three different Adventurer Archaeologist guest star characters, one of whom is an Franchise/IndianaJones parody. |
| 447 | * Scrooge [=McDuck=] from ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987'' fits the trope very well when on one of his thrilling treasure hunts. His original comic book even predates Indiana Jones! |
| 448 | * Dr. Crockery from the ''WesternAnimation/ChipNDaleRescueRangers'' episode "Throw Mummy from the Train". |
| 449 | * In ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'', ComicBook/RedTornado, in his secret identity as an archaeology professor, tells his students that archaeology is not about adventuring but rather long hours of boring research. [[HypocriticalHumor Then he saves Christmas alongside Batman.]][[note]]The adventure itself had nothing to do with archaeology.[[/note]] |
| 450 | * Niko and Audra Miles in ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfTheGalaxyRangers'', though the latter is technically an anthropologist. |
| 451 | * I.J. Domiwick from ''WesternAnimation/StormHawks'' is a villainous example. |
| 452 | * ShowWithinAShow example from ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''. In "Read it and Weep", while Rainbow Dash is in the hospital, she reads about Adventure Archaeologist JustForFun/DaringDo[[note]]Yes, we have an article on the book[[/note]], as we watch her exploits on screen. It's basically an homage to Indiana Jones. Then later in "Daring Don't", we learn Daring Do exists for ''real'' and she's been writing the books under an assumed name. |
| 453 | * Argentina and Phillipe from ''WesternAnimation/TheBagelAndBeckyShow'' are villainous examples of this, as they will go to any lengths to discover something before Bagel and Becky. |
| 454 | * In ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'', when not on Kids Next Door missions, Numbuh 5 will sometimes go "candy hunting". As a parody of Indiana Jones, she seeks out ancient candy-related artifacts in exotic lands. |
| 455 | * ''WesternAnimation/{{Digman}}'' follows an adventurer archaeologist in a world where archaeologists are treated as celebrities. The trailer shows off the characters doing things that wouldn’t be out of place in an ''Franchise/IndianaJones'' movie - uncovering lost artifacts, running from traps meant to protect the artifacts, chasing after bad guys who have stolen said artifacts, the works. |
| 456 | * ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': In "The Seemingly Never-Ending Story", [[NestedStory Moe's story-within-the-story]] shows that Springfield's resident recidivist criminal, Snake, was an adventure archaeologist until Moe stole some Mayan coins Snake planned on donating to a museum, leading Snake to declare "I'll take my revenge on society — by which, I mean convenience stores.". |
| 457 | [[/folder]] |
| 458 | |
| 459 | [[folder:Real Life]] |
| 460 | * UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte's visit to Egypt arguably codified this trope. When Napoleon went to Egypt as a General, he carried an entire scientific expedition with him and he tried his best to blend in with the locals (try being the big word, [[PrettyFlyForAWhiteGuy his behaviour was actually quite embarrassing]]), while visiting Alexandria and seeing the Pyramids. During his time there, his scientists collected a huge range of data and one of his officers discovered the Rosetta Stone. The stone would later fall into the hands of the English, but the French made etchings of it and took many samples and transcriptions back to France. It would take some two decades before Napoleon's expedition lead to the publication of "Descryption of Egypt" the birth of modern Egyptology including alongside it, Champollion's translation of the Rosetta Stone which deciphered the hieroglyphs. This was considered a seminal moment in modern archaeology and it sparked and led to a huge drive among the English and other governments to start raiding tombs, discovering ruins, and grabbing stuff that didn't belong to them. |
| 461 | * [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Bruce,_7th_Earl_of_Elgin#Elgin_Marbles Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin]] spent much of his ambassadorship to the Ottoman Empire during the Greek War of Independence at the Parthenon, recently exploded after the Turks used it as an ammo dump. Elgin collected and removed various friezes and sculptures and sent them back to Britain and sold them to the British Museum, where the 'Elgin Marbles' still reside. This is despite the complaints of the Greek government, whose repeated requests/demands for the repatriation of the Marbles are enough of a feature that the Museum actually has small pamphlets in the gallery summarising their views on the matter: in essence, 'lol, nope'. Whether Elgin was a saviour of the priceless sculptures or, as Lord Byron phrased it, "a dishonest and rapacious vandal" is still an open question. Incidentally his descendant was the guy who ordered [[MonumentalDamage the destruction of the Old Summer Palace at Beijing]], so some things do [[InTheBlood run in the family]]. |
| 462 | * Sometimes of course, archaeology is about being in the right place at the right time. Two of the biggest and most influential archaeological finds of the 20th Century were found by amateurs outside the profession: |
| 463 | ** Poor Greek sponge divers in 1908 discovered the shipwreck that included the Antikythera Mechanism, the OlderThanYouThink gear-driven computer that everyone is still scratching their heads over. |
| 464 | ** Bedouin shepherds likewise discovered the Dead Sea Scrolls, the series of documents that overnight altered Biblical scholarship and the history of the Levant. |
| 465 | * UsefulNotes/TELawrence, a.k.a. Lawrence of Arabia, was an archaeologist who was sent to Arabia by the British government specifically because of his academic knowledge of the area. So, being an archaeologist really can lead to exciting adventures! Although most of Lawrence's activities were of the non-archaeological kind. |
| 466 | * Gertrude Bell, a peer and a mentor to T E Lawrence, was a famous spy and diplomat to the Middle East during and after World War One, helped reshape the region after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, founded the Iraqi Archaeological Museum ([[WhyWeCantHaveNiceThings which was sadly extensively looted (by an inside job) during the 2003 invasion]]) and is still remembered with fondness among the people of the region, no small accomplishment for both a foreigner and a woman. |
| 467 | * The statement about archaeologists out for personal glory and museum loot rather than knowledge is also true for old-time paleontologists. Many people believe that Indiana Jones is based on the adventure paleontologist Roy Chapman Andrews, and the famous "Bone War" between the Americans Marsh and Cope, which resulted in the discovery of many of the dinosaurs that are considered iconic today, also involved shoddy science, theft, fistfights, murder, and wanton destruction, like dynamiting a quarry at the end of the season to destroy what was left to prevent the other guy from coming in and going through it. |
| 468 | ** The WackyWaysideTribe subtrope was also common place since many of the dinosaur sites in the western USA were located in barely-charted InjunCountry. It was later taken to the next level when Andrews decided to look for fossils in 1920s Mongolia. When UsefulNotes/RomanVonUngernSternberg was in charge. When the whole of Central and East Asia was in a civil war and/or dominated by warlords. ''Even though no fossil had been found in Mongolia before''. And guess what, he was successful, and uncovered one of the world's greatest dinosaur fossil beds, that of the Gobi Desert.[[note]]His original plan was to find remains of prehistoric men not dinosaurs, but, AllIsWellThatEndsWell, right?[[/note]] |
| 469 | *** There exists a series of cartoon-like illustrations made by Andrews depicting various events during that expedition such as vehicles getting stuck in the mud and sand. One illustration is captioned something like "getting ready for bed" and shows an illustration of Andrews laying on a cot in his tent, pointing a pistol at the entrance flap. |
| 470 | * Heinrich Schliemann may be the ur-example of this, considered one of the most instrumental figures in inventing modern archaeology... based entirely on [[AntiRoleModel his example of what]] ''[[AntiRoleModel not]]'' [[AntiRoleModel to ever,]] ''[[AntiRoleModel ever repeat]].'' A businessman by trade, he obsessed over the works of {{Creator/Homer}} and used his wealth to pursue archaeology as a hobby, which he acted on by stealing, digging, and bombing his way [[WindmillCrusader in search of the lost city of Troy]] (a city which, at the time of the mid-late 1800's, was just seen as fictional and with no historical basis). The good news is that Schliemann was actually correct -- the city that Schliemann zeroed in on, Hisarlik, is widely believed by modern archaeologists to have been the historical Troy. The bad news is that Schliemann was the one to have discovered it first, and [[NoKillLikeOverkill he irresponsibly used TNT to destroy several massive layers of the city that he was in search of]], [[TrueArtIsAncient believing that only the bottom of the city was worth preserving]], but irreparably destroying vast amounts of important historical context forever[[note]]It's believed that said layers that he attempted to reach were too old to have been Homer's Troy (circa 2350-2250 BC), while the younger layers that ''were'' closer to the real deal (circa 1700-950 BC), Schliemann carelessly blew up. Oops[[/note]]. Combined with other destructive acts and generally reckless tendencies, even for the time -- including claiming any artifact he found to be treasure from Homeric stories and giving them fancy names like "the Treasures of King Priam" or the "Mask of Agamemnon" based on ''guesswork'', as well as smuggling ancient Ottoman artifacts to allow his wife to casually wear in public -- he's widely considered the case study on how ''not'' to practice archaeology. |
| 471 | * Frederick Albert "Mike" Mitchell-Hedges could be considered this later on in his life (having started as an upper-class delinquent who made several nice discoveries). |
| 472 | * Sylvanus Morley was, by all accounts, an excellent archeaologist whose excavations of Mayan ruins in Mexico were highly influential. They also made a [[PlausibleDeniability good cover]] for his spying for the American government during UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. |
| 473 | * Zahi Hawass, currently one of the most famous archaeologists in Egypt, is well aware of this trope and plays it up. (That brown fedora is [[Franchise/IndianaJones not a coincidence]].) This has made him very popular with TV crews, incidentally helping popularize Egyptology itself and get it proper funding, but because his methods can be a bit sloppy he's alternately loved and hated by "proper" archaeologists. |
| 474 | * [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Belzoni Giovanni Belzoni]] led quite the interesting life, working as a circus strongman before he moved on to finding lost temples in the Egyptian desert. |
| 475 | ** Belzoni is another guy cited as a possible inspiration for Franchise/IndianaJones, particularly the part about an unscrupulous French[[note]]Well, an Italian in French employ[[/note]] rival working for an expansionist empire led by an infamous dictator (in this case, Napoleon). The main difference being said rival was less an archaologist and more of a greedy, unethical businessman as well as the corrupt French consul for Egypt. He's the most deplorable example of "bad archeaology" on this page as he actually would intentionally destroy some of the stuff his men found to drive up the value of what was left over. |
| 476 | * Any archaeologist who does field work in the really unstable parts of the world fits this trope. Like the guys who work in Afghanistan looking for some of the old Buddhist remnants. Standard practice is to hire mercenary guards for any and all excavation efforts, both to avoid getting killed/kidnapped and to protect the items themselves since many religious militants are dead set at destroying any non-Muslim historical artifacts (and sometimes, Muslim artifacts as well). |
| 477 | * Another possible inspiration for both Franchise/IndianaJones and [[Creator/ArthurConanDoyle Arthur Conan Doyle's]] Professor Challenger was Percy Fawcett whose written exploits in South America read like something from fiction -- such as fighting giant snakes -- undoubtedly because they ''were'' fictions and most of his "adventures" were made-up tall tales greatly exaggerated by himself and his family out of proportion. Most anthropologists and archaeologists considered him a dangerous incompetent and idiot who got himself and his son killed during his "quest" to search what he claimed was ''Film/TheLostCityOfZ'', making basic mistakes, insulting native tribes, [[JerkAss beating their children and insulting them]], and in the opinion of the Brazilian anthropologists, the Villa-Boa brothers, he was a victim ''"[[TooDumbToLive as anyone else would have been, of the harshness and lack of tact that all recognised in him]]."'' In other words, Fawcett had the recklessness, casual racism, and maverick approach to archaeology of the Victorian BoldExplorer and died for trying to live up to what [[WrongGenreSavvy was already a highly popular heroic ideal in that time]]. |
| 478 | * It is not uncommon to find guns on the archaeologists at modern dig sites. Also just doing field work is normally physically demanding so many archaeologists are pretty fit. |
| 479 | * Explorer and archaeologist Josh Gates has produced and hosted several shows that place him in this territory, most notably ''Series/DestinationTruth'' (focusing on cryptozoology and ghost-hunting in exotic locations such as Pompeii) and its SpiritualSuccessor, ''Expedition Unknown'' (dealing with more traditional treasure-hunting, such as a search for Jesse James' lost gold or Saint Petersburg's Amber Room, which was even looted by ThoseWackyNazis; occassionally, he even gets to visit real archeaological dig sites in Egypt, Scandinavia, etc. including helping to find a ''whole new city'' in the Central American jungle at the start of season 5). |
| 480 | ** He really plays up this trope to a slightly ridiculous degree, considering the fact that he and his film crew generally are in no real danger (well, except for sudden tropical storms, bat-dropping-based diseases, and at least once per season: "SNAKE!!!" ), and considering that what he manages to find within the brief filming time is usually fairly unimpressive. Though to be fair to him, he does avert the trope in that he gets as excited as a real archaelogist about "garbage dump" type artifacts and even more so about simple coins or still intact but mundane pottery, and he explains to the audience why even such things as a nail stuck in a bit of rotted but clearly human-crafted wood are important and what can be inferred from them. |
| 481 | [[/folder]] |
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