I don't see any tie-in between archeology and spiritualism.

The idea that spirits exist goes way back, and people were telling ghost stories back in the 18th century and earlier. Ghosts or spirits are described as ethereal beings who have died and wander the earth. In the mid 18th century a scientist named Emanuel Swedenborg was a firm believer in the world of spirits, and claimed he could contact them. He was also an early discoverer of what we now call hypnotism. Hypnotism became a popular demonstration of science back in the late 18th and 19th centuries, so his ideas of spiritualism spread with the popularity of these demonstrations. This was also combined with the similar opinions of Dr. Franz Mesmer, famous for demonstrating Mesmerism (hypnosis). This makes the idea of spirits become well known by the start of the 19th century.

The Spiritualists of the 19th century in the USA normally declare 1848 to be the official beginnings of their movement when two young sisters in New York seem to be able to demonstrate communication with the dead. They are Kate and Margret Fox, and the stories of their spiritualist feats are published in newspapers around the country, repeatedly over many years. People of the time are fascinated with these sisters, and spiritualism gains believability and popularity. This kicks off the formal Spiritualist movement, and combined with the background of two very respectable men of science of the 18th century backing it, many people become believers.

In the field of science, there were three very mysterious properties that were called "the imponderable elements". They are light, electricity, and magnetism. These become more defined in the mid to late 19th century, and science discovers provable "invisible forces" of electron field, magnetic field, and electromagnetic field. The idea that nature actually has invisible forces excites the occultists and the Spiritualists, and some more prominent scientists even begin to believe that an invisible world might exist.

By about 1875, Spiritualism has some impressive followers, and this continues for the next 50 years. It finally falls apart in the 1920's when many of the leading Spiritualists are debunked as frauds and popular opinion turns against the movement.

But that connection to science and the imponderable agents... it still persists today with a small following of people who believe that spirits can alter or manipulate electro-forces, magnetism, and electromagnetic fields to communicate. They use modern gadgets like recorders, radios, and TV receivers to pickup these forces and try to find any evidence of communication. The movie "White Noise" is based on the beliefs of these modern followers of spiritualism.

So, the tie-in seems to be science and the discovery of invisible forces, and sparked by the popular fraud of the Fox sisters. Most of the followers and practically all of the leaders of the movement were highly educated people, and their exposure to what was happening in the world of science was much greater than the general public. This gave credibility to the movement.

Please notice that I only covered Spiritualism in the USA in my post. I was doing a study of major religious events and religions of the USA from primary sources a few years ago, and that is one area I studied. After a brief look at other areas of the occult, I found they were not very common in the USA (compared to Spiritualism), so I abandon that thread of study.

If somebody has more information to add about other areas of the occult, and in other countries, they could embellish on this thread.