Anime and Manga
Yu: Yoshino Somei, infamous tomb robber and pain-in-the-ass. Sixteen relics totally destroyed, twenty-nine relics rendered unusable, forty-five relics escalated to international incidents and declared untouchable indefinitely. She's worse than an entire army of incompetent soldiers.
Yoshino: Hey! You don't have to make it sound that horrible!
Yu: We should just throw her into the ocean now. Don't worry, there's no way she would die.
Yoshino: Hey! You don't have to make it sound that horrible!
Yu: We should just throw her into the ocean now. Don't worry, there's no way she would die.
—Spriggan, "The Forgotten Kingdom"
Films — Live-Action
Major Eaton: Doctor Jones, we've heard a lot about you.
Indiana Jones: Have you?
Eaton: Professor of Archeology, expert on the occult, and how does one say it... obtainer of rare antiquities.
Indiana Jones: Have you?
Eaton: Professor of Archeology, expert on the occult, and how does one say it... obtainer of rare antiquities.
"If adventure has a name, it has to be Indiana Jones"
"Archaeology is about facts. Not truth. If it's truth you're interested in, Dr. Tyree's philosophy class is down the hall. Forget any ideas you've got about lost cities, exotic travel and digging up the world. We do not follow maps to buried treasure, and X never, ever marks the spot."
—Henry "Indiana" Jones Jr., Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (You may now laugh)
Literature
TOMB, n.
The House of Indifference. Tombs are now by common consent invested with a certain sanctity, but when they have been long tenanted it is considered no sin to break them open and rifle them, the famous Egyptologist, Dr. Huggyns, explaining that a tomb may be innocently "glened" as soon as its occupant is done "smellynge," the soul being then all exhaled. This reasonable view is now generally accepted by archaeologists, whereby the noble science of Curiosity has been greatly dignified.
The House of Indifference. Tombs are now by common consent invested with a certain sanctity, but when they have been long tenanted it is considered no sin to break them open and rifle them, the famous Egyptologist, Dr. Huggyns, explaining that a tomb may be innocently "glened" as soon as its occupant is done "smellynge," the soul being then all exhaled. This reasonable view is now generally accepted by archaeologists, whereby the noble science of Curiosity has been greatly dignified.
Live-Action TV
Rory: So, what kind of doctor are you?
River: Archaeology. (shoots alien behind her) Love a tomb.
River: Archaeology. (shoots alien behind her) Love a tomb.
—Doctor Who, "Day of the Moon"
Scratch: What "meteor strike"?
Computer: Alert! Meteor storm imminent!
River: That meteor strike.
Concierge: How could you know?!
River: I'm an archaeologist from the future. I dug you up.
Computer: Alert! Meteor storm imminent!
River: That meteor strike.
Concierge: How could you know?!
River: I'm an archaeologist from the future. I dug you up.
—Doctor Who, "The Husbands of River Song"
Jack O'Neill: (to Malakai) What kind of archaeologist carries a weapon?
Daniel Jackson: Uh, I do.
Jack O'Neill: Bad example.
Daniel Jackson: Uh, I do.
Jack O'Neill: Bad example.
—Stargate SG-1, "Window of Opportunity"
Music
I love to wonder
What's undiscovered
It's one big world out there
So much to plunder
We're climbing castles and
Going down under
I got here first
So you can go find another!
What's undiscovered
It's one big world out there
So much to plunder
We're climbing castles and
Going down under
I got here first
So you can go find another!
Video Games
Equipped with a map, a whip, and a silver tongue, this treasure seeker hunts gold by day and ladies by night. He's never found an artifact that didn't belong in a museum or a bad guy he couldn't outsmart.
—"Indiana James" description, Atlantis Underwater Tycoon
Wrex: With all this exploration of Prothean culture, this must be like a survey for you, Liara.
Liara: Our travels now are somewhat different from my normal excavations. I would prefer lengthier studies, and fewer explosions.
Wrex: It's good for you. A nice explosion now and then keeps the mind sharp.
Liara: Our travels now are somewhat different from my normal excavations. I would prefer lengthier studies, and fewer explosions.
Wrex: It's good for you. A nice explosion now and then keeps the mind sharp.
Olivia: Ooh, this is exciting, getting to work with an actual professor!
Prof. Toad: Yes, yes, well... don't get too excited. Much of out time is merely spent uncovering incredible ancient relics and being chased by adversaries.
Prof. Toad: Yes, yes, well... don't get too excited. Much of out time is merely spent uncovering incredible ancient relics and being chased by adversaries.
"Some things you can't study in books and expect to even begin to understand. The oral traditions of star-forms over Uluru. Latin graffiti bombed on Trastevere stone. Tree-ring calendars from Tunguska, beehive databases writ in wax, chamber music played in reverse to create arcane tone poems... there is much in history you need to confront and tackle head-on, preferably wearing some kind of protection."
—Iain Tibet Gladstone, The Secret World
"Listen, lass, any good archaeologists know the risks that come with the job. If you don't unearth an ancient evil or get cursed by wicked spirits at least once in your career, you're not digging up anything worthwhile!"
—Prospector Whelgar, World of Warcraft
Webcomics
Lewis: Wait, he's an archaeologist. Where's his trove of guns and explosives?
Nelson: He might not have done as much field work as we have.
Nelson: He might not have done as much field work as we have.
Kevyn: We got the canisters open. They're made of gold-plated graphite. Two of them held ingots: some gold, some aluminum. Mostly empy space. The third contained a rolled up sandwich of aluminum foil and gold foil. It's very fragile. The cylinder was filled with neon, though, so nothing decayed.
Tagon: But you tore it, and now it has started decaying. Right?
Kevyn: Learning history by destroying artifacts is a time-honored atrocity.
Tagon: But you tore it, and now it has started decaying. Right?
Kevyn: Learning history by destroying artifacts is a time-honored atrocity.
Web Animation
"Digging in dirt or sand to a kid, it's- it's magical. Mostly because there's a slim chance that you might actually find something. But, there were two main things that we were all looking for as kids. Say it with me: buried treasure and dinosaur bones! Which makes archaeologists and paleontologists adults that never outgrew it."
"Lara Croft — world's worst archaeologist. When she's not putting her foot through inestimably valuable samples of ancient pottery, she's stealing every slightly shiny thing that was ever buried with some royal dead guy and hoarding them in her basement."
— Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw, Zero Punctuation review of Tomb Raider: Underworld
Web Original
"Moreover, no one on the committee can identify who or what instilled Dr. Jones with the belief that an archaeologist's tool kit should consist solely of a bullwhip and a revolver."
— Andy F. Bryan, "Back From Yet Another Globetrotting Adventure, Indiana Jones Checks His Mail and Discovers His Bid for Tenure Has Been Denied," McSweeney's
"Back in 1981 Bill Trotter took me to see Raiders of the Lost Ark thereby sparking my long-standing interest in archaeology. Former EIC Trent Ward's mom was an amateur archaeologist and helped to cultivate this interest throughout my high school years. Once I entered college, I quickly discovered that there was a lot more to archaeology than shooting Nazis and whipping guys in turbans. My own experiences in the field of archaeology always seemed to involve an awful lot of dusting of pot sherds. (Don't call them shards.) In the true spirit of the university hierarchy it was the grad students who seemed to draw all the choice jobs that involved mine cart racing or Thuggee punching."
HASAKE, SYRIA—When archaeologist Edward Whitson joined a Penn State University dig in Hasake last year, he did so to participate in the excavation of a Late Bronze Age settlement rich in pottery shards and clay figurines. Whitson had hoped to determine whether the items contained within the site were primarily Persian or Assyrian in origin.
Instead, he found himself fleeing giant flying demon-cats as he ran through the temple's cavernous halls, jumping from ledge to ledge while locked in a desperate struggle for his life and soul for what seemed like the thousandth time in his 27-year career.
"All I wanted to do was study the settlement's remarkably well-preserved kiln," said the 58-year-old Whitson, carefully recoiling the rope he had just used to clamber out of a pit filled with giant rats. "I didn't want to be chased by yet another accursed manifestation of an ancient god-king's wrath."
Instead, he found himself fleeing giant flying demon-cats as he ran through the temple's cavernous halls, jumping from ledge to ledge while locked in a desperate struggle for his life and soul for what seemed like the thousandth time in his 27-year career.
"All I wanted to do was study the settlement's remarkably well-preserved kiln," said the 58-year-old Whitson, carefully recoiling the rope he had just used to clamber out of a pit filled with giant rats. "I didn't want to be chased by yet another accursed manifestation of an ancient god-king's wrath."
