As I was thinking about how fun it would be to have a job where you solve puzzles in the world, it struct me that media never depicts archeology in a real light. My short search seemed to confirm my thoughts. Most ancient sites are not guarded by elaborate traps or secret riddles to get in. From what I’ve found there were some crossbows here and there. Some rare hidden rooms with a lot treasure, but again, no traps.

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Eh, the terracotta emporer from China almost definitely has booby traps that are likely still functional after 2,000.

      We don’t know, because the absolutely insane amount of open mercury in the tomb would have filled it with toxic gases, although it’s likely that wasn’t the intent.

      But yeah, most “ancient” tombs were pillaged centuries ago. What little happens now is entirely black market and people probably die all the time.

      I know Kim Kardashian took a booty selfie with a sarcophagus at the MET Gala a couple years ago, and one of the illegal tomb raiders recognized it. And because he never got his cut, he snitched to local authorities. So it still happens, we just don’t hear about the vast amount. Just the very careful government sanctioned ones.

    • ApollosArrow@lemmy.worldOP
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      5 months ago

      I’m surprised there hasn’t been a modern day person that buried their fortune with them under puzzles and traps.

  • Greg Clarke@lemmy.ca
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    5 months ago

    Do you work for big-ancient-temples? It sounds like you’re just setting me up so that I end up in a pit of snakes or buried in lava.

  • Dremor@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    There is one job that does what archeologist does in films: software engineers.

    You have to decipher ancient languages, riddles, and have to avoid traps all the times.
    Sure, you don’t go into deep jungle, but you sometimes get to dive into the deep web to find traces of documentations to help resolve a specific case.

  • 474D@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    If it’s important enough for traps, it’s important enough to be hidden. They could just be hidden well enough

  • jaschen306@sh.itjust.works
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    5 months ago

    Wasn’t there a pharaoh that had so much mercury on the site that anyone that tried to dig his grave would get mercury poisoning?

  • Komodo Rodeo@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Technically there have been ruins and tombs with traps and riddles. Take a look at some of the info about the Curse of Tutankhamun’s Tomb alone, including stuff like an anthropologist named Field having his house burn down, then flood after its rebuiling (purportedly because he had accepted a mummified hand as a paperweight which came with a cursed bracelet attached).

    Granted, there’s no Myst or Tomb Raider-style tomb puzzles unless you count translations of ancient dialects used by the original architects/artisans/scribes/etc., but a lot of death has been associated with burial sites/tombs, whether or not you attribute them to curses or long-dormant mould being disturbed and breathed in…