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As someone with an actual degree in archaeology, I just can't bring myself to care. There's soooooo many other problems, bringing this out now just seems like a distraction tactic, rather than something the devs are actually excited about. When the dev team is excited and invested in a project they love, it invariably turns out better than when they are handed something from on high and told "do it". This is going to disappoint me.
Not sure where you are getting this impression from. As part of the core dev team that has been working on Archaeology for ~18 months, I can hand on heart say this is among (if not tops) the best projects I have had the pleasure to work on in my 9 years as an RS dev (and 14 years working at Jagex).
I'd not worked directly with Mod Ryan or Mod Iago before Archaeology - though have a bunch of times with Timbo over the years - and it's been re-invigorating for me. I've personally been in a bit of a slump through working on Invention and Menaphos, and they and this project have pulled me back out of it.
No update is universally loved and every update has its issues, but I am confident we've got a great update here that will find its fans. Even if not, I am super proud of what we've managed to create, regardless of how it ends up being received by the community. You develop a feeling for which updates are going to hit home and I have that feeling with Archaeology.
Given that some other updates I've worked on include Prifddinas, The Arc, Fate of the Gods, Lord of Vampyrium/River of Blood, Ports 3, Pieces of Hate, Memorial to Guthix, Dimension of Disaster and Player-owned Farm - some of which have been enjoyed by at least a few players - that should help put things in perspective a little better.
Archaeology might disappoint you, it's true, but it won't be due to the dev team not being excited nor invested. We've poured a lot of love and care into this skill.