Exploring Archaeology in D&D

The past holds all keys to understanding who we are and

where we came from

If your world is at least a few generations old it will have people interested in the lost past. Archaeology, and
its Archaeologists, is how we explore that past. Unlock the past of your game world with Archaeology, and
impress your players by having the past guide them through current day encounters.

Be sure to check the end of the guide for some examples on how you can include archaeology in your
Dungeons and Dragons campaigns!

by Divok

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, D&D, Wizards of the Coast, Forgotten Realms, the dragon ampersand, Player’s Handbook, Monster Manual, Dungeon Master’s Guide, D&D Adventurers League, all other Wizards
of the Coast product names, and their respective logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast in the USA and other countries. All characters and their distinctive likenesses are property of Wizards of the
Coast. This material is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any reproduction or unauthorized use of the m aterial or artwork contained herein is prohibited without the
express written permission of Wizards of the Coast.

©2016 Wizards of the Coast LLC, PO Box 707, Renton, WA 98057-0707, USA. Manufactured by Hasbro SA, Rue Emile-Boéchat 31, 2800 Delémont, CH. Represented by Hasbro Europe, 4 The Square,
Stockley Park, Uxbridge, Middlesex, UB11 1ET, UK.

Includes Artwork from the following Artists - Nathanaël Roux; Brian Vander Veen;
We Dig Dead Stuff
Archaeology has always been a passion of mine, I
studied it for 4 years at University here in the UK, and
then went on to work for 3 years in the field,
excavating up and down the country.
Archaeology is largely ignored in Dungeons and
Dragons, which is a huge shame, as many of the
archaeological discoveries of the past 50 or so years
have no doubt inspired much of what Dungeons and
Dragons is today.
What Can be Found?
Archaeology isn't all Sarcophagi and Castles. Much of
what we find on an excavation is much more mundane,
but still important nonetheless.
We'll cover the exciting bits first. The artefacts
themselves.
Artefacts can be broken down into different types:

Where IS Archaeology?
Archaeology is the study of people by definition. So in
theory anywhere people used to live, work or travel
could have archaeology.
However, much of that goes undisturbed. In our world,
archaeology is uncovered more often where people
live now. Some ruins buried under a desert that no one
travels through or builds on are likely to be missed. But  Lithics - Stone Tools, in a "Stone Age" any tool
a ruin buried under part of a modern-day town will be that is made of metal in later years was
uncovered as soon as building work starts in that part instead made from taking stone, and chipping
of town. it down until it had the required edge or
If a town or city erects a new building, its foundations surface. You'll be able to tell what they were
will cut into the earth below, revealing any ruins making, and at what scale.
beneath.
 Metallurgy - Metals provided the tools to
This can be taken a step further. If they implement a
every age after the Stone Age. In fact entire
sewage system, tunnel, or other underground network,
categories of history are usually named after
a large swathe of the city's underbelly will be
the metal, for example the British Bronze Age
uncovered, and anything surviving down there will be
and subsequent Iron Age. The availability of
brought up.
metal allowed for ease of farming. And with
With that taken into consideration, you will need to the populace fed by a fewer number, that
make a choice. If elements of archaeology are allowed many to turn to other professions. In
discovered in your world, will they send for later years worked metals also became a
Archaeologists to begin an excavation? prestige item, especially those that are pretty
I will go through Archaeologists themselves and their and which had a limited availability such as
excavations later on, but this is an important question gold.
for the next section, as if archaeologists are not called
in, "What can be found" is drastically reduced to the
most obvious items such as gold or ruined structures.
Which are uncommon across the world.
If you do choose to include excavations however, there
is a much larger amount of information your modern
world can learn about its past. So let's dig in.
 These are the main types of physical artifact, but there
 Pottery - Don't think of your plate and bowl are so many others I couldn't possibly list them all for
from the kitchen here. Think of the Classical you. If these aren't enough to entice your players, do a
Greek and Roman decorated pottery. Even as quick search of "types of archaeological artefact" and
far back as the Stone Age people were start throwing venus figurines or cylinder seals at
decorating their pottery with symbol. All of them.
this can tell you the stories their people were
So those were the physical artefacts and what they
telling, but often requires interpretation.
could tell you about the people you are excavating. But
 Remains / Bones - Think of how many people what else can be found on an archaeological site?
have died since the creation of your world.
Well, they don't tend to disintegrate unless hit
with a finger of death. They are likely buried
somewhere. Now in the real world we rely on  Structures - These are often found as ruined
certain non-acid soils to preserve bones, but stone walls, but in boggy conditions you could
in your world you can simply decide that even find wood or wattle and daub. In
bones survive if you want to include them. A extreme cases such as the above, you can find
good Osteoarchaeologist (an archaeologist the layout for an entire town buried beneath
specialised in human bones) will be able to tell the earth. By analysing which wall was
you age, sex, deformities and injuries just constructed first, you can build up a detailed
from a pile of bones. picture about the evolution of the town, or
perhaps even catastrophic events which
 Coinage - I have included this separately for 2
required rebuilding.
reasons. First and foremost, I spent 3 years
living with Numismaticists, who are effectively
coin archaeologists. Secondly, and more
importantly, because of its abundance,
coinage is actually a very common find.
Coins will often depict something too. Even
back to the earliest coins on my little island,
we were stamping images into the coins.
These are often symbolic images of powerful
beasts or gods, but in later years depicted the
ruler at the time. This allows you to date a site
based on the ruler, and to catalogue a list of
rulers throughout the ages so long as you
have archaeologists finding these coins.
 Excavations in D&D
Where archaeology is found, be it by the request of an
official, or simply for their own gain, you will often find
an archaeologist. They will do what they can to
properly excavate a site around any hint of
archaeological remains. But what does that look like in
Dungeons and Dragons?
Well in our world we use heavy duty vehicles such as a
JCB to clear off the top layers of earth, getting us down
to the level where archaeology was spotted. In D&D
this could quite easily be replaced by magical means.
Either by enhancing the power of a strong individual to
dig it for you, or by magically moving the earth away
until you have your site:

 Features - Perhaps the hardest to explain of

all. It is something which eludes many would-
be archaeologists. Disturbances in the ground
can be traced and explored by a trained
archaeologist. For example, if a pit has been
dug in a field, perhaps to store a treasure, as
an archaeologist digs down to it they will be
able to spot it. The earth within the pit will be
a slightly darker colour and softer texture
earth compared to the rest of the earth that
makes up the field.

Example: Raving Ronams

With the archaeology exposed, the careful work
Just going out for one yeah?
begins. Armed with their mattock and 4-inch trowel,
the archaeologist begins picking away, from most
The party find a lone Archaeologist examining his
recent to least recent, the layers of earth and
collection from a small pit behind him. He tells you that
archaeology. Now in D&D you might choose to use
the people who once lived in this area were rich party-
certain precise cantrips to help with that, but I would
goers from a period in history called the "Ronam
argue the physical act of digging would still largely be
Empire", yet all you see in front of him are a couple of
done by careful hand. You could of course use
coins, and half a broken pot. He explains himself:
enhancing magic on the excavators themselves, but the
"Well you see, these coins are marked with the head of
same is true of any profession in your world.
the Emperor Trajon. We can assume they lived during
As they dig, each new layer of earth or archaeology will
his time, or shortly after, but not before.
be given a number (or name). This will allow the team
This sherd (the name for a piece of pottery) now
to build up a picture of how the site developed through
cleaned up shows the Ronam God Dyonusus, God of
history, using those numbers as reference points. It
Wine and Raves. He is leading a number of men and
also lets us tie artifacts to a point in the site, as when
women along the pot. From previous examples the
we find anything, from a small sherd of pottery, to a
other side of the pot shows them dancing.
golden pendant, that item is recorded as being a part
So that is how I know!"
of that layer.
Layers are the single most important thing to an
excavation.
If you have 3 layers that were on top of one another,
let's call them layer 1 (on top), layer 2 (the middle), and
layer 3 (the bottom), you could start to put the site
together. Anything in layer 1, is newer than the other
layers. As it happened after layers 2 and 3 were
covered up, and so it couldn't possibly be older. Equally
anything in layer 2 is newer than layer 3, but older than
layer 1. As it is both buried by layer 1, so older than it,
but it covers layer 3, so it is newer than anything there.
If you really want to understand archaeology you may
want to re-read that a dozen times until it makes
sense. But in the grand scheme of things, all this means
for your NPC archaeologist, is that they can tell your
party with absolute certainty, that one thing is older or
younger than another if found on an excavation.
Archaeologists DO NOT JUST DIG however. Digging is
barely half of the time we spend on site. Most of our
time is spent recording.
On an archaeological site we take accurate drawings of
everything we find, measuring as much as makes
sense. Taking drawings from above, and where
possible from the side like you see above.
We also take pictures of everything. Multiple pictures.
Some with scales, some without.
In dungeons and dragons you might be unlikely to have
pictures. In that case, you would have artists around to
illustrate the finds and features. A successful
excavation in Dungeons and Dragons would result in a
book covered in detailed drawings, and beautiful
illustrations, as well as the thoughts of the
archaeologists involved.
Archaeologists in D&D
You might assume that archaeologists are just folks
that went to university to study history, and now run
about with a brush uncovering relics all across the
world. And while that sounds lovely, it isn't necessarily
true of all archaeologists.
Many of us went through universities or colleges sure,
and we do love our history, but very few get to travel
the glove uncovering tombs. Most of the research is
relatively mundane!
Your collection of archaeologists in Dungeons and
Dragons might include multiples of:
 The Studious - An archaeologist who went
through college and knows their stuff. They
will likely be the one writing up the book at
the end of this. They aren't afraid to get their
hands dirty though, and many of them relish a
chance to drop the books and jump in.
 The Beast - Someone who has fallen into
archaeology almost by accident. They were an
excellent digger and previously worked in
construction or some other industry, but
made friends with an Archaeologist who said
they would pay well for their services.
 The Treasure hunter - This person fell in love
with stories of treasure and discovery. As such
they have signed up to help with excavations
and have made a career from it. They
particularly like finding artefacts, and likely
know as much about them if not more than a
studious type.
While you may have each of these, with their
interesting personalities and goals in life that make
them unique, you can go one step further by giving
them a particular sub-class of archaeologist if you will.
Some examples of these might be, but are far from
limited to:
 Osteoarchaeologist - Expert of Human
(Person) bones
 Numismaticist - Expert on coins / currency
 Anthropology - Expert on the behavior of
people. Often study modern but
technologically lacking people.
 Regional Expert - Most Archaeologists have a
favoured region or period in history. Yours'
should too!
 Antiquarian - These are your travelling
collectors looking for exciting finds.
 Illustrators - Sites need drawings!
Bring Archaeology to life in D&D
The next time your party are looking for information of
a past time, try directing them to an archaeological
excavation. Have the head archaeologist or professor
on site show them around, let the party look at the
artefacts, and discuss what it might mean.
For bonus points, have your professor know 90% of the
"correct" answer, and see if your party can fill in the
blanks with the archaeological information they were
shown.
Example: The Chainmaw
Nothing could even put a dent in that thing!
The party are tasked by the local town to take care of a
horrible beast that has killed a number of cattle. They
have tried to fend it off for themselves, attacking with
swords and maces, but only the pitchforks seemed to
do any damage through its chainmail-like exoskeleton.
There is an excavation happening too, the talk of the
town. Professor Ruffelbert and his archaeologists have
found the remains of a town that was once built in this
same location over a thousand years ago!
At the dig site, Professor Ruffelbert will have just found
a sherd of pottery, depicting a hunt. Men armed with
long spikes of metal, as long as a spear, but thinner
still, tackling what looks like the beast the townsfolk
are talking about. He will invite the party to look at his
findings. Coins from the date that show what he
thought originally to be tools for stonework, but are
now obviously hunting weapons. They also found the
rusted remains of one such spear.
Professor Rufflebert may help the party come to the
conclusion that the beast they wish to fight is immune
to slashing and bludgeoning damage, but piercing
damage should work. But he will not let the party take
any finds, especially the spear. Instead he will suggest
they can pay his illustrator, Arabella, if she would copy
her illustration of the spear for the party.
If the party somehow replicate the spear, it will do
double damage against the beast as it is fashioned to
hunt and kill it specifically.
The party will have used the excavation site to turn a
particularly difficult monster fight, into a trivial one.
Example: The Lost Temple of Uthkhoduun
We need to find the temple of my patron!
The party are searching for the Lost Temple of
Uthkhoduun, the shady patron of their warlock. They
have found references to this patron being worshipped
by a tribe of people called the Khallacktar thousands of
years ago, but that is where the trail goes cold. With
the exception of a recent excavation opened up a few
days away at the site of a potential Khallacktar
nomadic settlement.
They go to the excavation and meet with Julia
Forstone, head Archaeologist, and her sponsor, Lady
Scarlet Relaina, an excitable antiquarian noble.
Julia will discuss the what they have found with the
party, but pry them for information themselves,
realising they know something about the Khallacktar or
their god.
Almost regardless of how that goes, Julia will show
them to the finds. The Khallacktar would mark their
territory with a huge wooden pole, 4 feet across and 20
feet tall, sticking 16 feet out of the ground. It was
underneath one of these that they found these pottery
sherds.
They all have these markings on them, a form of
primitive alphabet which Dr. Ryvor Jarling on site is the
only man to be able to interpret. These spikes here are
a series of mountains, and these wavy lines are not
sea, but sand. It seems to point to a range of desert
mountains, most likely the Poratora mountains to the
south. No one traverses it these days, but Julia would
put money on there being information there. Each of
these pots also has this strange symbol on it. Dr. Ryvor
suggests it is religious, but otherwise has no idea.
The lost temple will be in that mountain range. And the
party will be able to make their way through them, but
will periodically spot this religious symbol at forks in
the mountain paths, to guide them the right way.
Thanks for making it through my passage on how to get
Archaeology into your Dungeons and Dragons world. If
enough people are interested, I will most definitely be
releasing my Archaeologist background, so you and
your players can create characters that were
archaeologists and will be able to use their intellect
and ability to uncover mysteries in your campaigns. So
be sure to give us a rating!