Akkadian EmpireThe Akkadian Empire () or the Kingdom of Akkad/Agade was an ancient kingdom established around 2334 BCE, and the first empire in world history, succeeding the long-lived city-states of Sumer.3 min / Deep Archimedes PalimpsestThe Archimedes Palimpsest is a parchment codex palimpsest, originally a Byzantine Greek copy of a compilation of Archimedes and other authors.3 min / Deep Ancient Civilizations: CahokiaThe Cahokia Mounds (also simply known as Cahokia) (11 MS 2) is the site of a Native American city (which existed c.3 min / Deep Ancient Civilizations: ÇatalhöyükÇatalhöyük (English: Chatalhoyuk; , cha-tal-HOO-yuhk; Turkish pronunciation: ; also Çatal Höyük and Çatal Hüyük; from Turkish çatal "fork" + höyük "tumulus") is a tell (a mounded accretion resulting from long-term human settlement) of a very large Neolithic and Chalcolithic proto-city settlement in southern Anatolia, which existed from around 7500 BC to 5600 BC and flourished around 7000 BC. Çatalhöyük overlooks the Konya Plain, southeast of the present-day city of Konya (ancient Iconium) in Turkey, around 140 km (87 mi) from the twin-coned volcano of Mount Hasan.3 min / Deep Chavín cultureThe Chavín culture was a pre-Columbian civilization, developed in the northern Andean highlands of Peru around 900 BCE, ending around 250 BCE.3 min / Deep Clovis cultureThe Clovis culture is an archaeological culture from the Paleoindian period of North America, spanning around 13,050 to 12,750 years Before Present (BP).3 min / Deep Copper ScrollThe Copper Scroll (3Q15) is one of the Dead Sea Scrolls found in Cave 3 near Khirbet Qumran, but differs significantly from the others.3 min / Deep Ħal Saflieni HypogeumThe Hypogeum of Ħal Saflieni (Maltese: Ipoġew ta' Ħal Saflieni ) is a Neolithic subterranean structure dating to the Saflieni phase (3300 – 3000 BC) in Maltese prehistory, located in Paola, Malta.3 min / Deep Ancient Civilizations: HattusaHattusa, also Hattuşa, Ḫattuša, Hattusas, or Hattusha, was the capital of the Hittite Empire in the late Bronze Age during two distinct periods.3 min / Deep Indus Valley CivilisationThe Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC), also known as the Indus Civilisation, was a Bronze Age civilisation in the northwestern regions of South Asia, lasting from 3300 BCE to 1300 BCE, and in its mature form from 2600 BCE to 1900 BCE.3 min / Deep Library of AlexandriaThe Library of Alexandria in Alexandria, Egypt, was one of the largest and most significant libraries of the ancient world.3 min / Deep Linear ALinear A is a writing system that was used by the Minoans of Crete from 1800 BC to 1450 BC.3 min / Deep Lycurgus CupThe Lycurgus Cup is a Roman glass 4th-century cage cup made of a dichroic glass, which shows a different colour depending on whether or not light is passing through it: red when lit from behind and green when lit from in front.3 min / Deep Maya civilizationThe Maya civilization () was a Mesoamerican civilization that existed from antiquity to the early modern period.3 min / Deep Minoan civilizationThe Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age culture centered on the island of Crete.3 min / Deep Nabta PlayaNabta Playa was once a large endorheic basin (a temporary lake, or "playa") in the Nubian Desert, located approximately 800 kilometers south of modern-day Cairo or about 100 kilometers west of Abu Simbel in southern Egypt, 22.51° north, 30.73° east.3 min / Deep Nebra sky discThe Nebra sky disc (German: Himmelsscheibe von Nebra, pronounced ) is a bronze disc of around 30 cm (12 in) diameter and a weight of 2.2 kg (4.9 lb), having a blue-green patina and inlaid with gold symbols.3 min / Deep Ancient Civilizations: NewgrangeNewgrange (Irish: Sí an Bhrú) is a prehistoric monument in County Meath in Ireland, placed on a rise overlooking the River Boyne, eight kilometres (five miles) west of the town of Drogheda.3 min / Deep Caral–Supe civilizationCaral–Supe (also known as Caral and Norte Chico) was a complex pre-Columbian era society that included as many as thirty major population centers in what is now the Caral region of north-central coastal Peru.3 min / Deep Ancient Civilizations: OlmecsThe Olmecs () or Olmec were an early major Mesoamerican civilization, flourishing in the modern-day Mexican states of Veracruz and Tabasco from roughly 1200 to 400 BC during Mesoamerica's formative period.3 min / Deep Oxyrhynchus PapyriThe Oxyrhynchus Papyri are a group of manuscripts discovered during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by papyrologists Bernard Pyne Grenfell and Arthur Surridge Hunt at an ancient rubbish dump near Oxyrhynchus in Egypt (28°32′N 30°40′E, modern el-Bahnasa).3 min / Deep Poverty PointPoverty Point State Historic Site/Poverty Point National Monument (French: Pointe de Pauvreté; 16 WC 5) is a prehistoric earthwork constructed by the Poverty Point culture, located in present-day northeastern Louisiana.3 min / Deep Roman dodecahedronA Roman dodecahedron or Gallo-Roman dodecahedron is a type of small hollow object made of copper alloy that has been cast into a regular dodecahedral shape with twelve flat pentagonal faces.3 min / Deep Ancient Civilizations: RongorongoRongorongo ( or ; Rapa Nui: roŋoroŋo ) is a system of glyphs discovered in the 19th century on Easter Island that has the appearance of writing or proto-writing.3 min / Deep Sea PeoplesThe Sea Peoples are an unidentified seafaring confederation or group of tribes hypothesized to have attacked Egypt and other Eastern Mediterranean regions around 1200 BC during the Late Bronze Age.3 min / Deep Ancient Civilizations: StonehengeStonehenge is a prehistoric megalithic structure on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, two miles (3 km) west of Amesbury.3 min / Deep Ancient Civilizations: TroyTroy or Ilion was an ancient city located in present-day Çanakkale, Turkey.3 min / Deep Ancient Civilizations: UgaritUgarit (; Ugaritic: 𐎜𐎂𐎗𐎚, ủgrt /ʾUgarītu/) was an ancient Levantine coastal city located in what is today northern Syria, at a site known in Arabic as Ras Shamra or Tell Shamra.3 min / Deep Vinča symbolsThe Vinča symbols are a set of undeciphered symbols found on artifacts from the Neolithic Vinča culture and other "Old European" cultures of Central and Southeast Europe.3 min / Deep Gobekli TepeMonumental stone circles in Turkey pushed back timelines for ritual architecture.9 min / Medium RongorongoEaster Island's glyphs are one of the world's most debated undeciphered scripts.8 min / Medium TiwanakuA major Andean city influenced the region long before the Inca.8 min / Medium Mohenjo-daroA planned Indus Valley city reveals urban sophistication from deep antiquity.8 min / Medium Nabta PlayaA prehistoric desert site may hold early astronomical alignments.8 min / Medium CatalhoyukA dense Neolithic settlement challenges modern assumptions about early urban life.9 min / Medium Minoan civilizationBronze Age Crete left palaces, frescoes, trade networks, and unresolved scripts.9 min / Medium Maya civilizationA sophisticated Mesoamerican civilization produced cities, astronomy, and writing.10 min / Medium OlmecsColossal heads and early Mesoamerican culture shaped later civilizations.8 min / Easy Norte Chico civilizationOne of the oldest known American civilizations built monumental sites in Peru.8 min / Medium Sea PeoplesA debated group of raiders is tied to Bronze Age collapse narratives.9 min / Medium HattusaThe Hittite capital preserves fortifications, tablets, and imperial memory.8 min / Easy TroyArchaeology and epic poetry meet at a layered site in northwest Turkey.8 min / Easy PetraA rock-cut city in Jordan became a Nabataean trade masterpiece.8 min / Easy StonehengeA prehistoric monument still raises questions about labor, ritual, and astronomy.8 min / Easy NewgrangeA passage tomb in Ireland aligns with the winter solstice sunrise.8 min / Easy Hal Saflieni HypogeumAn underground Maltese temple complex preserves chambers, burials, and acoustic mysteries.8 min / Medium Great Pyramid of GizaThe last surviving ancient wonder still anchors engineering debates and awe.9 min / Medium CahokiaA Mississippian city near modern St. Louis once held vast earthworks.8 min / Medium Oxyrhynchus PapyriAn Egyptian rubbish dump preserved hundreds of thousands of fragments from the ancient written world.9 min / Medium Roman dodecahedronSmall hollow bronze objects found across the Roman world still have no agreed purpose.8 min / Easy Nebra sky discA Bronze Age metal disc carries one of the oldest known concrete depictions of the night sky.8 min / Easy Vinca symbolsMarks found on Neolithic artifacts in southeastern Europe may represent an early symbolic system.8 min / Medium Cucuteni-Trypillia cultureNeolithic communities built large settlements and repeatedly burned their elaborately painted homes.9 min / Medium UgaritA Late Bronze Age port city preserved archives written in one of the earliest known alphabets.9 min / Medium SanxingduiUnusual bronze masks and figures revealed a powerful ancient culture in China's Sichuan Basin.9 min / Easy Chavin cultureA ceremonial culture in the Peruvian Andes linked distant communities through art, ritual, and trade.8 min / Medium Poverty PointA vast earthwork complex in Louisiana was built by hunter-gatherers thousands of years ago.8 min / Medium