The Legacy of Lovecraft and the Supposed Horrors of Archaeology lives on in modern Pop Culture.
There are a lot of cultural touchstones and media that touch on this theme - some of them more Lovecraftian than others, some of them more strictly archaeological than the rest - and the Media covered here might expand over time, but first, a bit of an introduction with a reoccurring Mummy.
The Mummy Franchise
This is a very easy and direct connection to make that has already been covered quite extensively by archaeologists such as Kevin McGeough and the aforementioned Peter Hiscock. The first film was made in 1932, with actor Boris Karloff as the main antagonist, followed by a myriad number of films and additional media up until the present day (2018). The film focuses on a group of archaeologists facing an Egyptian Mummy who has a curse associated with him, and many of the stereotypes and problems are present in this franchise. And it is, in fact, the franchise that much of the research into pop culture and archaeology began with, and it is likely to remain in cultural memory for a very long time.
The Arkham Horror Files
The Arkham Horror Files are a set of traditional games and some book adaptations all made and produced by Fantasy Flight Games. There are Card games, Board games, miniature games, and dice games all set in the same Arkham Horror Files world, with many of the “Investigators” crossing between games as playable characters. They are a good example of a modern adaptation for several reasons, the chief of which is the writing and lore that has been added to and put together to make this world come together.
The biggest set of worldbuilding and lore that the games have put together in one fairly cohesive piece is in Arkham Horror: The Card Game. It is a cooperative game - meaning the players win or lose as a team together - and the storytelling is extensive and extremely well-written. It takes heavy inspiration from the lore while updating it and making it accessible and new for a modern audience. The extent that the developers have gone to is quite impressive and not only is it a well-designed game, but it’s also incredibly immersive for a card game.
The tropes of the supernatural clashing with archaeological investigations are still there - and not all of it is strictly “archaeological” although there are quite a lot of direct references to archaeologists who are other characters, archaeological work that has been done, and a few Investigators that are directly related to or are archaeologists. The pictures to the right (or below on mobile) show some of the most notable examples, but all of the Arkham Horror Files have these connections. Read more about Arkham Horror & Museums here.
The Call of Cthulhu Games
The Dicebreaker YouTube Channel’s feature on the popularity of Call of Cthulhu in Japan and why it beat out Dungeons and Dragons.
These games, produced by Chaosium, are both very similar to the Arkham Horror Files. The game started as a Pen & Paper game in 1981 and is now on the 7th Edition, and it is one of if not the most popular RPG in Japan, beating out even Dungeons & Dragons.
It was adapted as a video game in 2018 by Focus Home Interactive, in which an Investigator named Edward Pierce. The video game is not immediately recognizable as archaeological, but many of the themes are very similar and there are art collectors, historians, ancient artifacts, and the Necronomicon, a book often associated with antiquity and Archaeology in the Cthulhu Mythos.
But looking back at the Pen & Paper game, even the Introductory Set already sets the players well into an archaeological mindset, with multiples of the ready-made characters being archaeologists or in fields that are often misrepresented or misunderstood as archaeology, such as Antiquarians, Classicists, Historians, Museum Workers, Paleontologists, etc. There are mysteries involving ancient artifacts and there’s an overall theme in the game of antiquity and the modern era (the game takes place in the 1920s) colliding.
Other Media
These are just two main franchises that are directly linked to Archaeology & Lovecraft in a very stated way from the beginning. There are many, many more and there are a lot of things that could be said. The two above have very obvious connections, much like the Mummy movies, and much like other major franchises mentioned earlier. The images below outline a few of the others, some very obvious, some less obvious, with possibly more to come in the future!
The Last Case of Benedict Fox
The Last Case of Benedict Fox (2023) follows the titular protagonist as he investigates the secrets of his family that await within the confines of their home. He is forced to enter their memories to find their secrets and he also reveals information about a secret order.
Dredge
Dredge (2023) is a “cozy” horror, fishing game where the player searches for lost artifacts in a sleepy town, all while trying to avoid the Lovecraftian horrors lurking below the surface attempting to capsize the fishing vessel.
Conarium
Conarium (2017) is a mostly puzzle-based, mystery horror game where the main character (an Anthropologist) attempts to learn what has happened to the rest of the scientists at the Antarctic Base. It was based directly on At the Mountains of Madness.
Star Wars
The Star Wars franchise is full of references and reactions to archaeologists. Most notably, both runs of the Doctor Aphra series (2016-2019; 2020 - present), are all about archaeological themes. Notably, The Screaming Citadel crossover comic series and the first few issues of the first run of the series both have a very Lovecraftian theme intermixed with them. Read more here.
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