I am thinking about writing a Indiana Jones-like story set in the 1890s. My idea is that the story is in the P.O.V of a college student attending a "prestigious" university in either America or England who is studying to be an archaeologist. My idea is that my main character is studying to be an archaeologist in hopes of making a big discovery that would make him famous, like Heinrich Schliemon. Eventually, my character volunteers to go on a archaeological expedition with his professor to Asia, unaware that this would cause him to go on a globe trotting adventure to stop some unsavory characters from getting their hands on an ancient, but powerful artifact. As you can tell, this story is influenced by Indiana Jones. Can i have some advice on keeping the Indiana Jones feel and vibe to this story while not ripping off Indiana Jones off completely and making it accurate to the time period it is set in?
Indiana Jones was already heavily based on stories from pretty much the time you're setting yours in- particularly H. Rider Haggard's stuff- so I wouldn't feel bad about ripping off a rip off a little bit! Obviously the 1890s is a different era, before the Golden Age of Travel- no Tri-motors or DC3s a la Indy, the British Empire is at its peak and Egyptomania is still 30 years away. Your man Evans is active by then, so your hero probably knows him, at least by reputation, though it's another ten years before he becomes properly famous for his work on the Minoans. The more actual archaeology you stick in the less like Indiana Jones it gets, really. As much as I love Dr. Henry Jones Jr., the man's just a bloody burglar, though not out of keeping with the gung-ho, slap-dash archaeology of the time, which was only really interested in finding places mentioned in ancient literature and big piles of gold.
Well, Indiana Jones is kind of this alpha male type and he has a lot of charisma. So long as your character has those two things, it will work as an Indiana Jones type story. If he doesn't have these two things, it can still work... just not as an Indiana Jones type movie.
Probably worth noting that Indiana Jones is getting a bit outdated now. The idea of taking artefacts from civilisations is mostly frowned upon these days (black panther pointed this out rather well). If you want to do that type of story maybe the answer is to reverse it. Maybe your MC can help preserve these items rather than stuffing it in a museum?
