Archaeology is a fairly common theme in Science Fiction. A few examples are:
 
Dan Simmons  Hyperion   Bantam Spectra 1989
Dan Simmons  Fall of Hyperion    Bantam Spectra 1990
Alis A. Rasmussen   The Labyrinth Gate  Baen Fantasy 1988
Connie Willis Doomsday Book  Bantam Spectra  1992
Holly Lisle    Bones of the Past Baen Fantasy1993
Anne McCaffrey   All the Weyrs of Pern    Del Rey 1991
Anne McCaffrey   The White Dragon   Del Rey 1978
Anne McCaffrey and Mercedes Lackey   The Ship Who Searched   Baen Books 1992
 
Dan Simmons' award winning Hyperion saga includes a father searching for
a cure for his daughter, an archaeologist, who was digging in the wrong
place at the wrong time and "caught" something on the dig.  Sort of a
pyramid power meets SF.
 
Rasmussen's fantasy transports a modern couple back to a 19th century
reality where they go on an excavation of an ancient religious/mystic
power site.
 
Lisle's fantasy is set in a medieval type society where magic works.
Magician/professor types go in search of the lost city of the mysterious
first beings who were there before humans.
 
Anne McCaffrey's later books in the Dragon Riders of Pern series includes
the discovery of the first landing site and origins of the planetary
colony. Dragons digging. Poor/nonexistent methodology archaeo-wise.
 
McCaffrey & Lackey's Ship Who Searched deals with a young girl along on
her parent's excavation on an airless world who (again) catches a dread
disease as the result of excavation. As a plus it contains a description
of some archaeological methods (unlike most others) even if it is a bit
questionable.
 
 
Mary Ellin D'Agostino
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