I'm making an archaeologist mystic with the scholar theme, and was wondering which skill best covers the field of archaeology: Life Science or Physical Science.
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I'd say archaeology is a specialization of Culture, but that's not an option with the Scholar theme.
If I had to choose one or the other, I'd pick Life Science. [Similarly, Mathematics isn't either Life Science or Physical Science, but I'd pick Physical Science for a mathematics Scholar.]
Edit: If one wanted to be a "scholar" of history, or literature, or the like, what theme would work best?
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Personally, I'd say archaeologist is an Int-based Profession. The Profession would cover the technical aspects of site excavation, documenting the finds, preservation of artifacts, etc.
The study of ancient civilizations (as opposed to actual archaeology) would be Culture. Each skill rank grants a language (which does not need to be a "modern" language), the skill is used to translate symbols/writing, etc.
Physical Science/geology might be useful for using sedimentation patterns, etc. to help approximate the age of excavated finds.
In other words, archaeology is probably more than a single skill.
Archeology is a blend of life science and physical science (it uses techniques developed in physical sciences to study and understand past life), so I'd say either one would accurately represent the field.
I vote profession skill, it doesn't fall directly enough under either knowledge skill and includes practical field techniques different from the lab/craft stuff that comes with the other two.
That's for something generally applicable. Individual tasks or knowledge checks might use either life science or physical science.
Archaeology is a Physical Science.
However, Indiana Jones was more a cultural anthropologist and that would be a Life Science (probably).
The big problem is that we blend way too much of archaeology and anthropology together.