Quiz Monkey |
Archaeology is the study of ancient human societies of which there are no written records.
Australopithecus – the earliest genus of ape from which humans are descended but chimpanzees and bonobos are not – began using stone tools about 3.3 million years ago (in the mid–to–late Pleiocene epoch, in geological time). This marked the beginning of the Stone Age.
Homo habilis – "handy man" – lived in the early Pleistocene epoch – from about 2.3 to 1.4 million years ago. He was followed by Homo erectus, Neanderthal Man, and finally (about 200,000 years ago) Homo sapiens.
The last Ice Age began about 110,000 years ago, and ended about 10,000 years ago – making it roughly contemporaneous with the Pleistocene epoch. The Stone Age ended at around the same time; the Bronze Age began a little over 5,000 years ago, which was late in the Holocene epoch.
The cave paintings at Lascaux are about 16,000 years old. They were made at the very end of the Pleistocene epoch.
Two temples built by Rameses II, moved in 1968 to save them from being submerged behind the Aswan Dam | Abu Simbel | |
The 56 pits that form one of the outermost circles of Stonehenge (but the innermost circle of the earliest phase of building) – named after the 17th century antiquarian who is thought to have identified them | Aubrey holes | |
Name given to the culture that flourished in central Mexico from around 1300 – during the so–called Post–Classic Period of what Wikipedia refers to as "the archaeology of the Americas": the 'Triple Alliance' between three of their city–states was conquered by the Spanish under Cortes in 1521 | Aztec | |
Diverse 'archaeological culture' of prehistoric western Europe, including Britain (c. 2800–1800 BC) – named after their characteristic pottery drinking vessels | Beaker people | |
Mayan site in Yucatan, Mexico, abandoned 1200 AD: includes the Temple of Kukulkan ('El Castillo'). (Kukulkan is the Mayan name for Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent.) | Chichen Itza | |
Discovered in the ruins of Babylon in 1879; bears a declaration in the name of the first Persian (Achaemenid) ruler, regarded by some as the first declaration of universal human rights (a view rejected by others as anachronistic) | Cyrus Cylinder | |
Qumran Texts (found at Qumran, Jordan, 1947–56) | Dead Sea Scrolls | |
Large block of sandstone standing in the Avenue, outside the main entrance to Stonehenge – close to the main road | Heelstone | |
Ancient city excavated by Kathleen Kenyon, 1952–8 | Jericho | |
Complex of ruined temples near Luxor, Egypt – the world's largest ancient religious site – famous for the Hypostyle Hall with its 16 rows of columns (134 in total) – constructed between the 16th and 3rd centuries BC | Karnak | |
Inca city (Peru) discovered in 1911 by Hiram Bingham III | Machu Picchu | |
Iron Age fort near Dorchester, excavated by Sir Mortimer Wheeler | Maiden Castle | |
Granodiorite slab (previously described as basalt or granite), which enabled Egyptian hieroglyphics to be decoded: found in 1799 in the Egyptian port now known as Rashid, by Pierre–Francois Bouçhard, an officer in Napoleon's army | Rosetta Stone | |
Bears a Ptolemaic decree of 196 BC in Egyptian hieroglyphics, demotic Egyptian script, and Greek, which was translated by Thomas Young and Jean–Francois Champollion; housed since 1802 in the British Museum | ||
Neolithic henge and stone circle on Mainland, Orkney: Britain's northernmost stone circle, and said to rank along with Stonehenge and Avebury as the greatest of them | Ring of Brodgar | |
Name given (in the media) to the circle of oak posts on the beach in the village of Holme–next–the–Sea, Norfolk, constructed in the early Bronze Age (21st century BC), exposed by coastal erosion and excavated in 1998 (apparently known to locals for decades previously) | Seahenge | |
The largest hoard of Anglo–Saxon treasure ever found (valued at £3.285 million) was found in 2009 (in the parish of Hammerwich, near Lichfield), and named after | Staffordshire | |
Archaeological site, donated to the UK government in 1918 by Cecil Chubb | Stonehenge | |
Anglo–Saxon burial site in Suffolk (dating from the 7th century AD) where a treasure–laden boat was excavated in 1939 | Sutton Hoo | |
Discovered in 1974 outside the Chinese city of Xi'an: funerary art guarding the tomb of Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China (259–210 BC) | Terracotta Army | |
Carthage was adjacent to the site of modern | Tunis | |
Ephesus (site of the Temple of Diana) and the archaeological site of Troy are in | Turkey | |
UNESCO World Heritage Site on the West Bank of the Nile in Egypt, opposite Luxor (ancient Thebes): location of the tombs of many pharaohs, including Tutankhamun and Rameses II | Valley of the Kings |
© Haydn Thompson 2017–23