Civ 6 Archaeologists [Research, Artifacts & Museums]

If you’re aiming to get a Cultural Victory in Civilization VI (Civ 6), then you’ll need to increase your Tourism which can be done through the help of Archaeologists. These Civilian Units help bring in Artifacts from Antiquity Sites and Shipwrecks which ultimately attract tourists from other empires.

However, acquiring an Archaeologist is more complicated, as it requires a few prerequisites. Plus, once you get an Archaeologist, there are a few limitations that you need to consider as you make your way to acquiring more tourists and the Cultural Victory.

How To Get An Archaeologist

The requirements for a Cultural Victory in Civ 6 are quite confusing. But one proven method to acquire it is to get more tourists, which ultimately gives you a better chance of acquiring victory. The best method of getting more tourists is to build Museums and then acquire and train Archaeologists to fill them up with items that can attract tourists.

Building A Museum

As mentioned, the first step of acquiring an Archaeologist is actually to have a museum. However, there are a bunch of prerequisites that you’ll need to fulfill before you can build a museum. Additionally, one needs to understand that there are two types of Museums in the game:

• Art Museums: A cultural building that is available later in the game and provides advanced cultural benefits.
• As suggested by the name, the focus of the Museum is on art rather than artifacts.
• These can be useful if you’ve got a lot of great artists; however, at higher difficulties maintaining such a museum can be more difficult than an archaeological museum.
• Archaeological Museum: yet another cultural building, similar to the Art Museum but dedicated to displaying artifacts (as long as artifact slots are free).
• The Archaeologist unit is tied to this type of Museum and is only available if you’ve got such a museum.

One major thing that you need to consider about these museums is that you can only have one type per district. Therefore, if you’re trying to get archaeologists, ensure that you don’t already have an Art Museum in place. Before you can build an Archaeological Museum, ensure that you meet the following criteria:

• Research the Drama and Poetry Civic.
• Have a Theater Square Specialty District (which is unlocked after researching Drama and Poetry Civic).
• Build an Amphitheater in the district.
• Research the Humanism Civic.

After you’ve completed all these steps, you’ll get the option to build either an Art or Archaeological Museum. Once you’ve got your Archaeological Museum in place, all you need to do now is to fill it up with artifacts, which is where the role of the Archaeologist comes into play.

Using An Archaeologist In Civ 6

Once you’ve acquired an Archaeology Museum in your Theater Square district, you’ll get access to the Archaeologists. You can use them to start filling up your Museum and ultimately attracting more tourists. With your Archaeology Museum in place, the next step is to:

• Research the Natural History Civic.
• That will allow you to unlock Archaeologists, that can then be sent to retrieve artifacts.

From there, all you need to do is understand the underlying mechanics of the Archaeologist to ensure you’re getting the most out of them.

• Your Archaeologists will be sent to Antiquity Sites.
• These sites will appear on your map after you’ve researched the Natural History Civic.
• You need to send your units to these sites and activate them there, quite similar to how other resource tiles operate.
• You’ll have two choices at the Antiquity Sites:
  1. Find an artifact from an ancient barbarian tribe.
  2. The land where you’ll be digging will have a culturally important item related to the civilization tied to the land; you can choose to retrieve that.
• Besides diplomatic effects, both options serve the same purpose.
• You can also send Archaeologists to Shipwrecks.
• These appear on your map after you research the Cultural Heritage Civic.
• Once you’ve got an artifact, you can stash it in your Museum and repeat the process.

General Tips

There are a few general things that you can do in order to make the entire process more efficient, allowing you to gain the Cultural Victory faster. The first tip has to do with where you stash your artifacts:

• Try to create a theme for your artifacts and your overall Museum.
• Like-themed artifacts, such as Ancient Artifacts or Renaissance Artifacts, placed under a single museum offer a theme bonus.
• The bonus can almost double your Culture output and attract more tourists.

Furthermore, there will eventually be a time when you won’t have any slots available in your Museum. But worry not, as you can still make use of any artifacts that you discover while your museums are full:

• You can use artifacts for trading.
• These, in return, will build up relations with other civilizations.

With that, you know all about Civ 6 Archaeologists. They can be quite useful for retrieving artifacts that can help you attain a Cultural Victory. However, they require a lot of preparation, such as creating a Museum. You can also learn more about religion beliefs and about war weariness. We also have a great guide that talks about natural wonders in the game and also how to deal with amenities.

Up Next:

• Civilization 6: All Secret Societies
• Civ 6: Byzantium
• BEST Pantheons Civ 6
• Civ 6 Tier List