Archaeology: Facts, Trivia, Quizzes, Brain Teasers & More

A famous fresco in Pompeii’s Villa of the Mysteries.

In 79 CE, the eruption of Mount Vesuvius buried the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum in 20 feet of ash, preserving amazing details about daily life in the Roman Empire.

The spectacular Incan ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru.

The Inca stronghold of Machu Picchu has astounded and confounded visitors since it was unveiled to the wider world more than 100 years ago by an ambitious Yale professor.

The famous Cliff Palace at Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado was home to Ancient Puebloan people for hundreds of years.

Make sure your passport is current, book your flight, and let yourself imagine the lives of the people who called these ancient cities home.

An exact replica of a cave painting in Lascaux showing a bison and aurochs facing each other, along with small horses and deer.

The astonishing cave paintings of bison, deer, and extinct animals were discovered by accident in France in 1940. They offer a tantalizing glimpse into prehistory.

The Parthenon sits atop Athens’s Acropolis.

The ancient Acropolis has loomed over the Greek city of Athens for more than 3000 years as a defensive citadel, temple complex, weather station, and even a site of resistance against the Nazis.

Cats become royalty at the Shanghai Museum.

The Shanghai Museum‘s “Meowseum Nights” allowed cats to witness their history.

Carved from rock in modern-day Jordan, Petra prospered for centuries under Nabataean and Roman rule. This dazzling settlement is now one of the region’s greatest attractions.

An exact replica of some of the drawings in Chauvet Cave, including the quartet of horses and a woolly rhinoceros.

The Chauvet Cave paintings are tens of thousands of years old and depict iconic animals that are now extinct. Even Werner Herzog was impressed.

A 1920 mural by paleoartist Charles Robert Knight depicting Cro-Magnon people painting on cave walls at Font-de-Gaume, France.

These prehistoric members of our genus, ‘Homo,’ occupy different branches of the human family tree.

A replica of the Laetoli footprints discovered in Laetoli, Tanzania; The original footprints were dated to 3.6 million years ago.

Scientists have uncovered ancient fossils, prehistoric artwork, and other clues to human evolution. Here are nine of the most revealing discoveries that have changed our understanding of our early ancestors—and ourselves.

Within the last 200 years, we’ve discovered about two dozen species of hominins in Europe, Africa, and Asia—which you can see laid out in this map.

According to a medieval saga, the Norwegian “Well Man” might have been used as a biological weapon.

Tollund Man—a bog body at the Silkeborg Museum in Denmark

China, Chile, and New Zealand are a few places that have historic mummies of their own.

Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site in Illinois.

Hundreds—even thousands—of years ago, Native American peoples built complex and mysterious earthworks. Here are 11 you can visit for a glimpse into prehistory.

The knight’s tombstone rediscovered at Jamestown.

Scientists examined microscopic fossils in the tombstone and suggest the jet-black slab with an English knight’s insignia could have come only from one place.

A Los Angeles high school turned out to be a hotbed for fossils.

Millions of fossils, from shells to the largest known shark species, were unearthed beneath San Pedro High School.

Notre-Dame has been the site of a mystery.

The 2019 fire at the cathedral brought a mystery to the surface: a lead coffin containing an unknown skeleton.

It might not look like much, but this Neolithic door is as old as Stonehenge.

Historic doors can reveal a lot about their times—like the medieval trend of covering doors in (allegedly) human skin.

Three views of the gold Roman-era bracelet discovered in a West Sussex field.

The rare golden bracelet was probably given to a soldier as a reward for bravery as Roman armies invaded England.

Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, the site of humankind's earliest ancestors.

The gorge in northern Tanzania has yielded many of the oldest fossils of humankind, shedding new light on our ancient ancestors.

A portrait of the scientists who found and examined the Piltdown Man skull (accompanied by a picture of Charles Darwin on the wall).

From forged artworks to fake mummies and even fraudulent orangutan bones, archaeological hoaxes fool scientists and stir the public’s imagination—until the culprits are forced to come clean.