Random fiction question: non-magical archaeology

[simont]

A question occurred to me last night. Perhaps the two best known fictional archaeologists (taking the term somewhat loosely), across fiction in all media, are Indiana Jones and Lara Croft. Both of them have in common that they investigate things about which there were rumours of ancient magical powers, or gods, or other such supernatural and powerful stuff. And they're right – the Ark of the Covenant, the Holy Grail, the Dagger of Xian, etc, all really do perform as advertised.

What are the best known examples of fictional archaeologists who do not unearth ancient magical artefacts, and the only thing they ever find out is information about what happened in the past?

For these purposes, I think I'm going to rule that the actual archaeological discoveries have to be part of the plot: having a character who happens to be an archaeologist isn't sufficient, if the story only focuses on some other aspect of their life. (Even if it's a somewhat work-related aspect, such as worries about career progression, or conflicts with co-workers.)

I only managed to come up with one example of this at all, namely Asimov's Nightfall. I'm sure there must be others, though.

Comments

[atreic.livejournal.com]

What about the Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis? It won a hugo, so it's pretty famous, and the protagonists are on the border between historians and archeologists - I think described as historians, but definitely excavating graves and old buildings etc. It's timetravel, so maybe that breaks your No Magic criteria, but it's not Magic in that the stuff they find out is Definitely Just As History Was, it's just Magic in the way they find it out...

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Oh, good example. Come to think of it there must be other time-travel stories which fulfil the spirit of "finding out about the past" even if there's 'magic' involved. Asimov's Ugly Little Boy. And surely I can think of others though I can't right now.

ETA: And I guess there's the reverse, like Da Vinci Code, where what's uncovered may or may not be magic, but is a matter of "ancient secrets which we need to re-learn"...

[ewx.livejournal.com]

Cowl (Neal Asher) arguably includes some very-distant-past paleontology by means of time travel, although that's incidental to the plot really.

[simont]

I haven't read it – perhaps another one to go on my list!

[atreic.livejournal.com]

I read it as part of my 'read books by people I will hear at Worldcon' project, and I enjoyed it, but it didn't rock my socks.