History Main / AdventurerArchaeologist

* ''Film/TwoBrothers'' has a something of a subversion of the trope. [=McRory=] dynamites apart old temple ruins to sell statues to the highest bidder.

* ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'': Sloan "Venture" Cameron is an eccentric explorer working as part of the freelance archeology group known as the Wayfinder Society, expressing constant curiosity with the ancient world around them, and should there be danger in the form of potential curses or [[NebulousEvilOrganization the forces of Talon]], they're always eager to run headfirst with [[ThisIsADrill their giant drill cannon]].

* ''ComicBook/TheWarlordDC'': Mariah is an archaeologist who becomes a sword-swinging heroine upon her transport to the LostWorld of Skartaris.

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 heroes though. In older portrayals, artifacts that they collect for prophet are for 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.

* In the ''Series/{{CSINY}}'' episode "The Cost of Living", one of these 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:

'''Mac:''' [[QuipToBlack Until someone made this]] his [[Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade last crusade]].
** 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]].

** Dr. Helena Sandsmark, mother of ComicBook/WonderGirl 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.

%%* ComicBook/XMen has Cain Marko, before he found the magic gem that turned him into TheJuggernaut.

** Professor Franchise/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.

* 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 [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome and died for trying to live up]] to what [[WrongGenreSavvy was already a highly popular heroic ideal in that time]].

[[caption-width-right:349: [[RuleOfCool Yeah, but who would you rather]] ''[[Franchise/IndianaJones be]]''?]]

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 TheEighties. 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.