Archaeology skills

[Corven_Ren]

I am building a super who is an archaeologist in his secret id..what kind of skills should he have. other than what I have already which is
Langauges: I have him completley fluent and literate in 12 languages
Knowledge skill: Ancient culture, Mythology
Science Skill: Archaeology, Geology

Any other suggestions

[The JeRQ]

Due to the popularity of CSI and its clones, I would suggest Forensic Archeology.

[Sketchpad]

Survival would be a plus ... as would Riding, a few TFs and maybe even a PS: Archeaologist or PS: Teacher

[CraterMaker]

Hmm.. Area Knowledges, History, extra running, PS: Foreman, deduction, Contacts in prestigious colleges and museums, bribery, persuation and beurocratics, Favors from customs officials, Survival (deserts, tropical jungles),
Transport familiarity Camels and Sled dogs, immunity to poison (malaria, yellow fever, dysentery), extra presence only for dealing with native porters, bump of direction, KS: architecture (when you unearth a greek temple in the antarctic, so you KNOW it's a greek temple), weapon familiarity clubs and whips..

and of course luck.


-CraterMaker

[Vorsch]

1 skill Archeology 3pts thats it

plus the languages

and KS each and every ancient culture ever.

and there languages

350pts

[Kid Chaos]

CraterMaker has some good suggestions and don't forget....

Climbing, Structural Engineering, Research (what you thought it was all out in the field digging in the dirt?), Theology. I'm sure you could work in more as well...

As a side note KS every ancient culture is silly...most Archealogists have general knowledge of all cultures (history) and specific knowledge of a handful of related cultures.

[mangahunterd]

KS: Field Survey
KS: Field Excavation
KS: Pottery/Artifacts of Specific Culture and period that they are studying.
KS: Dating techniques (Flurocarbon, tree ring, Carbon etc...) you can probably lump these as a general skill. The more intensive dating techniques are done in a laboratory and while you will know about the throry and practice behind them they would not do you any good in the field. However you may want to take carbon dating alone since it would allow the character the ability to test his own materials.
KS: Funereary Practices
KS: Mythology/Religion
KS: Anthropology Especially since Archaeology is a subfield.
KS: Linguistics
KS: Forensic Anthropology
KS: History (specifically time period and culture that you are studying)
KS: Art History
KS: Archaeology of course...
KS: Cartography
KS: Geology
KS: Research
KS: Statistics... yeah statistics... how else you gonna analyze the data...
KS: Customs Especially of the culture you are studying..
KS: Diplomacy/Law What permit?? I thought it was okay to dig up these ancient and sacred ruins....
KS: Technical Writing
Then depending on the specific culture that you are studying you may want to know about lithics, military history then there are some good general skills to have like deductive reasoning, survival as mentioned earlier, hand to hand combat since most countries don't allow firearms and you may need to be able to defend yourself.
This list is by no means comprehensive... A lot of this comes from the courses that I took while getting my undergrad degree.. of course that doesn't cover the other things like Biological Anthropology, Medical Anthropology, Epidemiology.....
As for the languages 12 sounds like an awful lot.. unless of course your doing a pulp era hero. All of the professional Archaelolgists I know only know two or three languages. Of course it also depends on the area that the character is specializing in. If it is in an area where there are a lot of different cultures then it may make sense but most people studying say the ancient Aztecs would have no use for knowing Japanese, German etc... For that you would of course want English, Spanish, KS: Aztec Alphabet or something to that effect.
Crater Maker also had some good suggestions about contacts. It is a very tight knit community and many of them are familiar with each other even if they don't study the same areas. I am not sure about the structural engineering but Architecture would be another good one to know. Of course if you know how a building is built it may be able to help you understand the mechanics but you would not really need to know the property of the materials and loads etc.... Just some food for thought.

[Kid Chaos]

My theory for including Structural Engineering was for knowing things like "The retaining wall has collapsed, if we keep digging we're bringing this whole buried building down on our heads." as well as possibly knowing how to shore up said area so they can continue digging.

Though your KS:Field Excavation would probably cover the same thing.

Then again it's also possible that that sort of thing is handled by a hired specialist.

Come to think of it don't forget DNPCs as I've never seen a dig that wasn't at least 8 people large if not bigger.

[mangahunterd]

I have heard of Civil Engineers on job sites as well. Usually they are the very large jobs with a lot of excavation and dirt work involved. So I guess Contact Civil Engineer would be good. Typical field sites do have a lot of staff. Unless you are doing deep excavation though you would not worry to much about shoring and slopes. However you do make a good point.

[jackalope]

You might add a familiarity with Paleontology. It's pretty hard to spend much time studying archeaology and geology without picking up something on the subject. Some Anthropology might be a good idea as well.

[Rapier]

Thats kind of like saying "I want to be a doctor, what skills do I need."

It all depends on what kind of archeologist you are going to be. Some Knowledge Skills in history, specific cultures, languages, etc.

Depending on the type/culture you would be studying you would also like to have some kind of survival skills, Survival - of course, but don't forget Breakfall, Climbing, TF: Llama, etc.

Decduction would be a good thing to have.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head.

[freakboy6117]

after wtaching far to many episodes of time team ss geophyisics would be a handy one

[stmichaeldet]

You'll also want to keep in mind the style of the campaign - if you're mostly running around fightin' villains, and the secret ID is mainly for background and the occasional color or set-up scene, a small handful of broadly interpreted skills should do you fine. If being an archaeologist is gonna take up a significant amount of game time, that's when I'd start thinking about more specific, detailed skills like TF: Llama and such.

- St. Michael

[Trebuchet]

Don't forget Weapon Familiarities for bullwhip and pistol; essential skills for adventuring archaeologists. :D

[Corven_Ren]

Don't forget Weapon Familiarities for bullwhip and pistol; essential skills for adventuring archaeologists. :D

That would be fine but he really doesnt need it. He has a 50 STR