Ancient Mysteries: The Discoveries That Are Rewriting History

Question 1

What is the name of the 12,000-year-old temple complex in Turkey that predates Stonehenge by approximately 7,000 years?

Accepted Answer

Göbekli Tepe

Answer

Çatalhöyük

Answer

Derinkuyu

Answer

Ain Ghazal

Question 2

What is the name of the ancient Greek device, recovered from a 2,000-year-old shipwreck in 1901, considered the world's earliest known analogue computer?

Accepted Answer

The Antikythera Mechanism

Answer

The Heron Engine

Answer

The Baghdad Battery

Answer

The Archimedes Odometer

Question 3

In what year was Tutankhamun's intact burial chamber discovered in Egypt's Valley of the Kings?

Accepted Answer

1922

Answer

1911

Answer

1934

Answer

1899

Question 4

Who led the archaeological team that discovered Tutankhamun's tomb in the Valley of the Kings in 1922?

Accepted Answer

Howard Carter

Answer

Flinders Petrie

Answer

Heinrich Schliemann

Answer

Giovanni Belzoni

Question 5

The Rosetta Stone, discovered in 1799, carries the same ancient decree written in three scripts. Which three scripts does it contain?

Accepted Answer

Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, Demotic script, and Ancient Greek

Answer

Hieroglyphics, Cuneiform, and Latin

Answer

Demotic, Phoenician, and Ancient Greek

Answer

Hieroglyphics, Linear B, and Coptic

Question 6

What aerial scanning technology, which fires millions of laser pulses from aircraft, revealed a vast hidden ancient city beneath the jungle canopy near Angkor Wat in 2015?

Accepted Answer

LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging)

Answer

Ground-penetrating radar

Answer

Satellite infrared imaging

Answer

Aerial photogrammetry

Question 7

Approximately how many terracotta warrior figures are estimated to make up the burial army of China's first emperor, Qin Shi Huang, near Xi'an?

Accepted Answer

More than 8,000

Answer

Approximately 2,500

Answer

About 5,000

Answer

Over 15,000

Question 8

In what year were the Dead Sea Scrolls first discovered by a Bedouin shepherd near the cliffs above the Dead Sea?

Accepted Answer

1947

Answer

1952

Answer

1938

Answer

1961

Question 9

What does the name 'Machu Picchu' translate to in Quechua, the language of the Inca people?

Accepted Answer

Old Mountain

Answer

Temple of the Sun

Answer

City in the Clouds

Answer

Sacred Gateway

Question 10

Ancient DNA analysis has revealed that the Neolithic people who built Stonehenge were descended from farmers who had migrated to Britain from which region?

Accepted Answer

Anatolia (modern-day Turkey)

Answer

The Eurasian steppes

Answer

The Iberian Peninsula

Answer

North Africa

Question 11

In 2023, scientists using cosmic-ray muon tomography discovered a previously unknown hidden corridor inside which ancient structure?

Accepted Answer

The Great Pyramid of Giza

Answer

The Pyramid of Khafre

Answer

The Step Pyramid of Djoser

Answer

The Bent Pyramid of Dahshur

Question 12

In what year did Mount Vesuvius erupt and bury the Roman city of Pompeii under metres of volcanic ash?

Accepted Answer

79 CE

Answer

62 CE

Answer

105 CE

Answer

44 BCE

Question 13

Which 19th-century archaeologist followed clues in Homer's Iliad to excavate the site in modern-day Turkey now believed to be the ancient city of Troy?

Accepted Answer

Heinrich Schliemann

Answer

Arthur Evans

Answer

Flinders Petrie

Answer

Howard Carter

Question 14

On which Greek island did archaeologist Arthur Evans discover the ancient palace of Knossos in 1900, the centre of the Bronze Age Minoan civilisation?

Accepted Answer

Crete

Answer

Rhodes

Answer

Santorini

Answer

Corfu

Question 15

What is the name of the ancient hominin species identified in 2010 entirely from ancient DNA extracted from a finger bone found in a Siberian cave?

Accepted Answer

Denisovans

Answer

Homo naledi

Answer

Homo floresiensis

Answer

Homo luzonensis

Question 16

The Nazca Lines, enormous geoglyphs depicting animals and geometric patterns etched into a high desert plateau, are located in which country?

Accepted Answer

Peru

Answer

Bolivia

Answer

Chile

Answer

Argentina

Question 17

What are the giant stone statues carved by the Rapa Nui people and erected across Easter Island called?

Accepted Answer

Moai

Answer

Totem poles

Answer

Menhirs

Answer

Stelae

Question 18

Which German archaeologist led the landmark excavations at Göbekli Tepe in Turkey from 1996 until his death in 2014, revealing what is considered the world's oldest known temple?

Accepted Answer

Klaus Schmidt

Answer

Heinrich Schliemann

Answer

Arthur Evans

Answer

Flinders Petrie

Question 19

What is the name of the ancient Indus Valley city, discovered by archaeologists in 1922, that at its peak housed an estimated 40,000 people and featured some of the ancient world's most sophisticated urban drainage?

Accepted Answer

Mohenjo-daro

Answer

Harappa

Answer

Lothal

Answer

Dholavira

Question 20

In what year was Ötzi the Iceman — a naturally preserved Stone Age man approximately 5,300 years old — discovered frozen in the Alps on the Austrian-Italian border?

Accepted Answer

1991

Answer

1978

Answer

2003

Answer

1965

Question 21

What did CT scanning and ancient DNA analysis ultimately determine to be the cause of Ötzi the Iceman's death?

Accepted Answer

An arrow wound to the left shoulder that severed a major artery

Answer

Exposure to extreme freezing temperatures

Answer

A blunt force blow to the skull

Answer

Starvation and dehydration over several days

Question 22

In which modern country is the ancient Neolithic settlement of Çatalhöyük located — one of the world's earliest towns, inhabited from around 7500 to 5700 BCE?

Accepted Answer

Turkey

Answer

Iraq

Answer

Iran

Answer

Syria

Question 23

In 2000, marine archaeologist Franck Goddio discovered the ancient Egyptian port city of Thonis-Heracleion submerged beneath which body of water?

Accepted Answer

Abu Qir Bay in the Mediterranean Sea

Answer

The Red Sea near Luxor

Answer

Lake Nasser near Aswan

Answer

The Nile Delta estuary near Cairo

Question 24

In 2018, LiDAR surveys conducted over the Petén lowlands revealed more than 60,000 previously unknown Maya structures hidden beneath the jungle canopy of which country?

Accepted Answer

Guatemala

Answer

Mexico

Answer

Honduras

Answer

Belize

Question 25

The Dead Sea Scrolls were first discovered in 1947 inside caves near which ancient settlement on the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea?

Accepted Answer

Qumran

Answer

Masada

Answer

Jericho

Answer

Ein Gedi

Question 26

The Minoan script known as Linear A has never been deciphered. What is the name of the related script that WAS successfully decoded by Michael Ventris in 1952?

Accepted Answer

Linear B

Answer

Linear C

Answer

Proto-Sinaitic

Answer

Cypro-Minoan

Question 27

The Voynich Manuscript, an illustrated book in an unknown script that has resisted all attempts at decipherment, was carbon-dated to which century?

Accepted Answer

The 15th century (1400s)

Answer

The 12th century (1100s)

Answer

The 17th century (1600s)

Answer

The 9th century (800s)

Question 28

Which ancient civilisation of Mesopotamia is credited with developing one of the world's first writing systems — known as cuneiform — around 3200 BCE?

Accepted Answer

The Sumerians

Answer

The Akkadians

Answer

The Babylonians

Answer

The Assyrians

Question 29

What type of erosion did geologist Robert Schoch controversially argue in the 1990s that the Great Sphinx enclosure walls show — implying the monument predates accepted dates by thousands of years?

Accepted Answer

Rainfall and water erosion

Answer

Wind and sand abrasion

Answer

Salt weathering from groundwater

Answer

Seismic damage from ancient earthquakes

Question 30

Which ancient Mesoamerican civilisation built the great city of Teotihuacán, home to the Pyramid of the Sun — the third-largest pyramid in the world by volume?

Accepted Answer

The identity of the builders is unknown — the city was abandoned before the Aztecs arrived

Answer

The Aztec civilisation

Answer

The Maya civilisation

Answer

The Olmec civilisation

Ancient Mysteries: The Discoveries That Are Rewriting History

What is the name of the 12,000-year-old temple complex in Turkey that predates Stonehenge by approximately 7,000 years?

Publisher

Ancient Mysteries: The Discoveries That Are Rewriting History