[@Byte] 
Hopefully it's come across a bit, but there's meant to be a sense of fading glory to Minadra.  The ancient races did things the younger ones just can't and where the old ones still exist its in pockets, where they are a shadow of what they once were.  

So the exploration and archaeology game is a big deal to them because they want to be the greatest craftspeople in history, but they just aren't.  The Turakindi (giants) were considerably more advanced than them, so exploring their ruins and trying to figure out how their stuff worked is a big deal.