History Main / ArchaeologicalArmsRace

** Of course, it's something of an aversion in that this is unique to the Nazis. The Allies simply send [[{{Badass}} BJ Blazkowicz]] in and a few hours and hundreds of Nazi corpse's later, the Reich is down one super weapon. Played straight with VideoGame/WolfensteinTheNewOrder, in that [[spoiler:Set did say that some of their Ancient Technology was gifted to the Allies, however, by that point, the Nazis had already developed nukes, so it wound up being moot.]]

** ''VideoGAme/FalloutNewVegas'' was particularly blatant about this, featuring a power plant called "HELIOS One" which fanatical former Brotherhood Elder Elijah (hoping to dig up an ancient weapon system) defended to the bitter end, refusing to abandon the site despite his forces being massively outnumbered by the NCR even with their technological superiority. The worst part is he was [[spoiler:[[http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Archimedes_II absolutely right]]]]. However, he wasn't [[spoiler: completely right]] as HELIOS One damaged after the Great War and various programs left behind in the terminals further reduce the energy production of the plant and [[spoiler: a small boy uses [[http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Euclid%27s_C-Finder the trigger]] as a toy ray gun.]]

* In the ''Videogame/{{Borderlands}}'' setting, this is part of the reason why so many people are on [[DeathWorld Pandora]]. Everyone is racing for control over the legendary Vaults, which hold various [[{{Precursors}} Eridian]] secrets, and in all of the games, the players are "Vault Hunters" who are trying to seize the priceless alien ruins. The Atlas corporation, in particular, owes much of its superiority to capturing and repurposing Eridian technology. Later on, the Hyperoin corporation rises to prominence by exploiting the opening of a Vault to harvest the extremely valuable element Eridium, which began growing on Pandora after the events of the first game. The second game even has an outright arms race, as [[BigBad Handsome Jack]] is racing to unlock one particular Vault which houses [[PersonOfMassDestruction an ancient Eridian Warrior]].

* Deliberately averted in the ''Literature/SchooledInMagic'' books by Creator/ChristopherNuttall. In several of his [[WordOfGod Author's notes]] the author comments on the unlikelihood that ancient magical spells and/or objects are somehow more powerful than those created by contemporary magicians who have a longer history of experimentation to draw upon.

* Deliberately averted in the ''schooled in magic'' books by Creator/ChristopherNuttall. In several of his [[WordOfGod Author's notes]] the author comments on the unlikelihood that ancient magical spells and/or objects are somehow more powerful than those created by contemporary magicians who have a longer history of experimentation to draw upon.

* Creator/AndreNorton's ''Literature/TheTimeTraders'' revolved around a Cold War compeitition to recover lost alien tech.

* Rivalry over long-dead races' LostTechnology creates conflict in some of Creator/LarryNiven's ''Literature/KnownSpace'' stories, such as "The Soft Weapon".

* This is all over the place in ''VideoGame/SeriousSam''. It's made clear in the intro videos alone that Earth is only holding out against Mental thanks to caches of Sirian technology scattered across the world. No fewer than four ancient cultures (Pre-Helenistic Egypt, proto-Babylon, pre-Columbian Aztec, and (oddly) Harold of Saxony-era England) had access to working Sirian ships, teleporters, and radios, though only the Egyptians and English managed to maintain them. The Egyptians even had a working time machine, which still functioned in the year 2060. Sirian tech wound up being the only way the UN could successfully send explorer ships out amongst other star systems, too, though that may have been what [[NiceJobBreakingItHero attracted Mental's attention in the first place]].

** In [[VideoGame/{{Fallout 2}} the second game]], the Enclave has access to enough fossil fuel to manage a small army, complete with helicopters. This made them more powerful than the Brotherhood of Steel, and they could curb stomp any faction in the Wasteland. They also genetically engineered a genocidal virus.
** ''VideoGAme/FalloutNewVegas'' was particularly blatant about this, featuring a power plant which a fanatical former Brotherhood leader (hoping to dig up an ancient weapon system) defended to the bitter end, refusing to abandon the site despite his forces being massively outnumbered by the NCR.

-->-- '''''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}'', "Eberron Campaign Setting, Chapter 7: Life in the World"'''

* A surprising but logical use has been found for metal from ships wrecked before August 1945. These represent the only metal available which preserves the far lower level of background radiation present in the world before the dawning of the atomic age, which has been preserved as such due to long immersion in the depths of the sea. There are ethical issues present when considering ships sunk in battle, which class as war graves; but the German fleet surrendered to the British in November 1918 (not considered a war grave as trhe Germans deliberately scuttled their fleet rather than surrender it intact) at Scapa Flow, off the Shetland Islands, has been extensively "mined" for its non-irradiated metal content, which is of value in the nuclear industry.

* ''{{Exalted}}'': All types of Exalts are in a race to unearth ancient Solar superweapons (and there are TONS of them), with the ones coming ahead being the Houses of the Dragon-Blooded, ready to use them in the inevitable civil war. The only ones who aren't in the race are Sidereals, whose interest is in [[InvertedTrope keeping the artifacts buried.]]

* A surprising but logical use has been found for metal from ships wrecked before August 1945. These represent the only metal available which preserves the far lower level of background radiation present in the world before the dawning of the atomic age, which has been preserved as such due to long immersion in the depths of the sea. There are ethical issues present when considering ships sunk in battle, which class as war graves; but the German fleet surrendered to the British in November 1918 (not considered a war grave as trhe Germans deliberately scuttled their fleet rather than surrender it intact) at Scapa Flow, off the Shetland Islands, has been extensively "mined" for its non-irradiated metal content, which is of value in the nuclear indfustry.

** By the time of ''VideoGame/{{Halo 4}}'', humans has closed much of the gap with what's left of the Covenant in the Forerunner arms race, in part due to them acquiring both their own Forerunner shield world in Onyx/Trevelyan plus a number of [[GadgeteerGenius Engineer/Huragok]] defectors, and also because the vast majority of the Covenant's species had their own scientific skills deliberately limited by their now all-but-extinct Prophets (though supplemental materials indicate that at least a few post-Covenant factions have managed to recover a lot of their previously suppressed technical skills). Subsequently, the struggle between the UNSC and the more hostile Covenant remnants over Forerunner sites has become a major source of conflict, as seen ''Halo 4'''s ''Spartan Ops'', ''Halo: Spartan Assault'', and various other media.

-->-- '''''{{Eberron}}'', "Eberron Campaign Setting, Chapter 7: Life in the World"'''

* {{Implied|Trope}} in ''{{Eberron}}''. Several countries are gearing up for war and there are a great deal of powerful magical artifacts to uncover. Whether the trope is played straight is up the DM, of course.

** [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS2E11Contagion "Contagion"]] has Picard and co travel to a planet in the Romulan Neutral Zone to find the homeworld of the legendary Iconians, a highly advanced civilization with potentially dangerous technology. Naturally the Romulans are none to pleased about this and set out to stop Star Fleet and gain any technology for themselves first.

* A non-military version in the ''Brave New World'' ExpansionPack to ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}} V''. After the discovery of Archaeology, you can start training Archaeologist units who can excavate antiquity sites for cultural artifacts that boost your Tourism rating. There are also hidden antiquity sites that are only visible to players who have maxed out the Exploration policy tree. These aren't any better than the regular sites, but, being the only one who can see and excavate them can give a huge advantage to somone going for a cultural victory. Also, other civs get annoyed when you start excavating within their borders, especially since excavating a site on an improved tile destroys the improvement.

* ''Anime/TheBigO'' has both Giant Robots and other technology, collectively referred to as "Memories", due to the mass-amnesia accompanying the apocalyptic war in the series' backstory.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{BattleTech}}'', during the Succession War era, the discovery of [[LostTechnology Lostech]] caches can cause small-scale wars over their possession. Then the Gray Death Legion mercenaries discovered the Memory Core with almost complete lostech schematics and spread it contents through the Inner Sphere despite the efforts of [=ComStar=].