History Main / AdventurerArchaeologist

** He ended up destroying the very ruins of Troy he was trying to find - and ended up finding some even older ones under them.

%%* Savant from ''ComicBook/WildCATS'' is an immortal alien Adventurer Archaeologist.

* ''VideoGame/RuneScape'' both plays this straight and deconstructs it. Archaeology is one of the 28 skills and the player certainly has a lot of adventures doing it. In the story though, many NPCs found being academics and not a god-like hero, means they are ill-equipped to deal with the AncientConspiracy, CosmicFlaw, EldritchAbomination, ArtifactOfDoom and the like they dig up.

* ''VideoGame/RuneScape'' both plays this straight and deconstructs it. Archaeology is one of the 28 skills and the player certainly has a lot of adventures doing it. In the story though, many NPCs found being academics and not a god-like hero, means they are ill-equipped to deal with the AncientConspiracy, CosmicFlaw, EldritchAbomination, ArtifactOfDoom and the like they dig up.

[[caption-width-right:349: Yeah, but who would you rather ''[[http://www.cracked.com/funny-138-archaeology/ be]]''?]]

Not so in fiction-land. Since most of the world has [[EndOfAnAge the ruins of ancient and powerful civilizations]] littered under the surface, archeology is a career that brings one constantly face to face with [[TempleOfDoom Temples of Doom]]; LostTechnology, [[SealedEvilInACan imprisoned evils]], and {{MacGuffin}}s. Lots of {{MacGuffin}}s. If it takes place on Earth and the writers don't make one up, it'll usually be something like an Egyptian tomb (expect a {{mummy}} to haunt our hero) or the HolyGrail.

* Prior to the start of ''Manga/TsubasaReservoirChronicle'' this was [[spoiler:clone]] Syaoran's profession, giving him the seeds of skills needed for his task. (Being trained on the side by an [[VampireHunter obsessed Vampire Hunter]] helps too).

A soap ad from the 1980s had such a character finding his way into an ancient baths, which still have perfectly fresh water, sufficient for him to actually use them, along with the advertised product.

* Franchise/IndianaJones himself is the hero in two classic Adventure games: ''VideoGame/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade'' (based on the movie) and ''VideoGame/IndianaJonesAndTheFateOfAtlantis'' set in the summer of 1939, just before World War II kicks off.

* Professor Alba of ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsInTheSky'' starts out as a subversion. As Estelle and Joshua encounter him in numerous ruins across the world, he is the typical absent-minded academic, possessing no offensive power of his own and needing to be kept safe on escort missions. [[spoiler:Then, at the ''very'' end of First Chapter, he is revealed to be the BigBad of the series.]]

'''[[{{Foil}} Rafe]] [[BigBad Adler]]:''' [[NotSoDifferent And you do?]] [[VillainHasAPoint Last I checked we are all a bunch of thieves digging around where we shouldn't.]]

* Literature/PriscillaHutchins is a spaceship pilot, but she often flies for archaeological expeditions on alien worlds, and while the novels stress the BoringButPractical aspect of archaeology she somehow manages to have a lot of life-threatening adventures. In ''Chindi'' she's working for the Contact Society who are wealthy enthusiasts seeking proof of alien life, and she gets into several arguments with them because they're more inclined to act like this trope.

* In ''Film/GentlemenExporers'', Marcus O'Riley's motivation for doing what he does is to finally earn his doctorate and because he believes the mystic artifacts he locates [[ItBelongsInAMuseum belong in museums]]. His partner Charles, on the other hand, is OnlyInItForTheMoney.

* In ''VideoGame/MegaManZXAdvent'', Grey/Ashe can meet Meg, self-proclaimed "antique Hunter" who spends her time hunting through ruins to uncover LostTechnology and preventing them from being stolen and sold off by thieves (and tracking said thieves down if they do). As a registered [[BountyHunter member of the Hunter's Guild]], she has a legal license from the government of Legion to carry these operations out and this is a major part of the job of a Hunter (the other part being hunting down Mavericks for bounties, but she seems to prefer the exploring part). In fact, she was in the middle of one such operation when the stage in question [[FloatingContinent suddenly lived up to its name as the "Floating Ruins"]] and she got stuck. She asks Grey/Ashe as a fellow Hunter to find four artifacts hidden throughout the four parts of the Floating Ruins and bring them back to her as a sidequest, where she provides some handy exposition on each one (for bonus points, they're all items from the ''VideoGame/MegaManClassic'' time period centuries prior) and upon getting all four she'll give them a Sub-Tank.

* Pyramid King Brandon, one of the Frontier Brains from ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}''; exploring ancient ruins has certainly paid off for him, as he managed to tame [[OlympusMons Regirock, Regice, and Registeel]], making him the most powerful Frontier Brain (and indeed, one of the most powerful trainers in the world). Ash lost to him ''twice'' before winning on the third attempt with his four best and oldest Pokémon.

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

* Oklahoma Bones is a FunnyAnimal Indy parody, a prairie dog who appears in ''Comicbook/CaptainCarrotAndHisAmazingZooCrew'' as an expert on [[Main/EenieMeenieMinyMoai the mysterious statues on Easter Bunny Island]]. And his sidekick, Whipley the snake.

* [[http://archiveofourown.org/works/9577922/chapters/23321096 Waking to Another Sky]] is a Series/StargateSG1 / LightNovel/SwordArtOnline ''DeconstructionCrossover'' where the staff Adventurer Archaeologist points out that the pressures of fighting the AncientAstronauts force him to do his job ''completely wrong.''

* Techpriests from ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' combine this with CargoCult and LostTechnology. In true [[DarkerAndEdgier 40k fashion]], there's not much romantic adventure in their work. Though if they end up waking up some Necrons (again), things can get far too adventurous for one's comfort...

* In ''VideoGame/KingdomOfLoathing'', one of the 2015 annual familiars available to donors at Mr. Store is the Indiana Jones-esque Adventurous Spelunker, who increases money and item drops, attacks with his whip, and drops an item that gives access to a VideoGame/{{Spelunky}}-inspired mini-game.

* Lemeza Kosugi of ''Videogame/LaMulana'', who is a parody of Indiana Jones, down to the hat and constant use of a whip as a tool and a weapon. He sets out to the ruins of La-Mulana after receiving a letter from his father claiming that "He found it!" and that he "won" over Lemeza, like it's a competition. Due to the competitive relationship Lemeza and his father Shorn (or Shawn) share, the actions in which you get money in the game (by breaking pots with your weapon), and the the lack of character development afterwards, ''WebVideo/ArmoredChocobo'' portrayed him as a greedy version of this trope in his Let's Play, going as far as saying his clothes are green because they are "made out of dollar bills" and the phrase "It doesn't belong in a museum, it belongs in Lemeza's pockets!"

[[folder:Web Comics]]

** ''VideoGame/LaMulana2'' stars Lemeza's daughter Lumisa, who is similar to her father in ability. [[spoiler:Lemeza and Shorn also appear, stealing Lumisa's discovery.]]

* Herschel Layton from the ''VideoGame/ProfessorLayton'' series is technically an archaeologist, though he spends more time in the games solving puzzles ([[AmateurSleuth and crimes]]). He does get in some ruin-exploring in a few games, such as ''Miracle Mask''.

** [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] heavily in ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade'' where Indy is briefly seen lecturing a class that archeology is concerned with facts and research, a lot of the work is done in libraries, and he specifically tells the students it is not about finding lost cities, buried treasure or following maps to a big "X". He then promptly ditches the class to go on an action-packed adventure that involves everything he just spent class period dismissing. [[ThoseWackyNazis And some Nazis.]]

* Benjamin Gates (played by Creator/NicholasCage) from Disney's ''Film/NationalTreasure'' franchise is a historian and amateur cryptologist who does all that work to be prepared to find the treasure and he only keeps looking for it so as to protect it.

* The protagonist of ''VideoGame/{{Infidel}}'' is a deconstruction, a greedy treasure hunter whose only interest in the pyramid he's exploring is the valuable treasures it may contain, and who is acting as a lone adventurer only because he's such a jerkass the rest of his expedition abandoned him and went home.

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

* Creator/AMerritt's lush 1924 fantasy novel, ''Literature/TheShipOfIshtar'': John Kenton has a ship because a fellow archaeologist sent it to him, and he has no trouble reading the cuneatic script on the stone block in which it was inclosed. He has a room full of "his spoils from many a far away corner of the world". We learn later that he's also a veteran of UsefulNotes/WorldWarI and pretty good at hand-to-hand combat.