Random fiction question: non-magical archaeology
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.
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