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

[pseudomonas]

Lintilla (×3)?

[rmc28]

City of Gold and Shadows by Ellis Peters is all about an archaeological dig (Romans on the Welsh borders)

[azurelunatic]

The Amelia Peabody series is sort of archaeological soap opera, in that there's a lot of stuff concerning the logistics and relationships. It's been long enough since I read them that I'm not sure how integral the actual archaeology is.

[lnr]

Currently re-reading Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space. Does weird alien stuff count as magical? I suppose it's not unearthing if it's not on Earth ;)

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Hm. Have you read the Anthony Price cold war books? I've often recommended them as having non-stupid plots and non-stupid characters. The main character, David Audley is a historian rather than an archaeologist, but I think there are one or more other characters who are an archaeologist, and the plots often involve excavating something.

And sometimes the historical mystery is relevant and sometimes its fabircated, but it's always "knowing about what happened" rather than "following ancient secret instructions..." :)

[gerald_duck]

Wikipedia has everything.

Frankly, most of those are utterly obscure to me. But for your stipulation that their archaeology has to be part of the plot, Jean-Luc Picard stands out!

[timeplease.livejournal.com]

Here's one: Echoes of an Alien Sky by James P. Hogan (http://www.baenebooks.com/p-121-echoes-of-an-alien-sky.aspx).

[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...

[songster.livejournal.com]

Pretty much anything by David Gibbins would fit the bill. It's a bit Dan-Brownish with various revelations of what REALLY happened back in the past, but it doesn't involve magic / the supernatural at all.

[songster.livejournal.com]

Also, Robert Harris' 'Fatherland' involves archaeological discovery within the alternate-history Nazis-won-WW2 premise, so that plausibly counts.

[writinghawk.livejournal.com]

Agatha Christie had a keen interest in archaeology and travelled widely with her archaeologist husband. Murder in Mesopotamia is set on a dig, and the principal character is an archaeologist. It's moderately well known, I suppose; it's been done with David Suchet and all.

[geekette8.livejournal.com]

Do you count the Jurassic Park lot? They were technically palaeontologists rather than archaeologists I think. If we do count palaeontologists then Ross Geller in Friends definitely made it very clear how boring it was.