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

Comments

[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 ;)

[simont]

Hmmm, I think I did read that once, but a long time ago and it didn't stick in my head.

Since my (not really well articulated) initial point was to try to avoid the trope that the only way archaeology can possibly be interesting in fiction is to have it conclude 'OMG all our ancient cultures' myths and religions were true after all!' (not to mention the bits about having to shoot lots of people and dodge rolling boulders), I think archaeology on alien planets is perhaps not disqualified for this exercise but probably ought to fall into a separate category.

('But wait,' you object, 'your own example of Nightfall is set on an alien planet!' Well, yes, but it's not alien to the characters - they're doing archaeology on their own home planet and investigating their own civilisational history, regardless of whether that planet and civilisation is also that of the readers

[ewx]

The Engines of God (Jack McDevitt) certainly falls into the category of plot-relevant archaeology on remote planets. What they are digging up - or in some cases finding lying around in space - are inert objects constructed by a departed civilizations, rather than the high tech detritus of Revelation Space, and interpretation becomes critical as the plot progresses.

[cartesiandaemon]

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..." :)

[simont]

No, I haven't read those, so thanks! Perhaps I should attempt to borrow one from you.

[cartesiandaemon]

I don't know if you'd like them, but I think it's worth trying. The first is Labyrinth Maker, I'm happy to lend you any time.

[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!

[simont]

I haven't done the 'middle-click every link' exercise to check, but I wonder if some of them might become more obvious if the name of the fictional work was listed as well as the name of the character. I couldn't tell you off the top of my head what the Nightfall archaeologists' names were (though I suppose, given the Nightfall culture's distinctive personal-name system, they'd probably at least be easily recognised in a list of that nature).

[timeplease]

Here's one: Echoes of an Alien Sky by James P. Hogan.

[atreic]

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]

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]

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!