Armchair archaeologist, anyone? Check out this unique this game to dive into history and culture

One of the artefacts from the Met that we got partially right is this “Bull Folio” from 15th-century Iran. The green zone on the map (left) shows we got the location right. Pics courtesy/Anthropeum.com

Did you used to have that childhood dream, too, of digging in the sand and discovering a historical artefact and then trying to figure out which era it was from? As a working adult chained to our desk, we don't spend much time with our fingers in the sand. But we still like to play a little archeological detective game on Anthropeum, a website with a daily game that challenges our understanding of human culture and how it evolved across time and geography.

Each daily game showcases 10 artefacts from The Metropolitan Museum of Art from across 5000 years of human history, and you have to guess where and when you think it might be from. Sounds tough? We're not going to lie - at first, we'd get most answers wrong, but there are a few tricks you can use to get better such as watching out for clues such as languages in text, or material (organic material like wood or paper usually don't endure longer than 500 years, so it's likely dated within that window).

Take the bull folio from Iran depicted here: from the Persian calligraphy, we correctly guessed that it originated from Iran. But our guess on its age was way off - since this is paper, we should have known it was likely to be no older than 500-600 years.

Playing this game is our way of rebelling against the constant barrage of brainrot and AI slop, and keeping our critical thinking and pattern recognition skills sharp. And, as a completely unforeseen byproduct, it has made visits to museums way more fun! We now look at everything more closely, appreciating how each artifact represents the zenith of art and culture from its era.

anthropeum.com

5000
Years of history recorded by the Metropolitan Museum of Art