This Month's 'Archaeology' Trivia Quiz

Answer: Petra

Both Petra and Hegra were carved by the Nabataean kingdom. Whereas Petra (known to popular audiences from is use in "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade") is nestled within a canyon, Hegra stands starkly on an arid desert plain. Both sites show the marked Helenistic influence brought to the area by Alexander the Great (and nurtured under the Romans) juxtaposed with the mud-brick residences, since disintegrated, in which the pre-Islamic Nabataean Arabs lived. Discovered in recent years, a Latin inscription on one of the tombs indicates that the city was still active as late as the reign of Marcus Aurelius.

Answer: The Jews

One recent find that seriously impacts traditional understandings of medieval Judaism is the dig at City Hall Square in Cologne, Germany, which suggests that the Jewish community was in continuous residence there from the fourth century CE until the Jews were expelled by imperial decree in 1424.

The material culture of this 'Judengasse', as Jewish quarters of medieval cities were called in Germany, was extremely similar to its Christian counterpart, indicating that everyday life in medieval Cologne was not nearly as affected by religious differences as usually thought.

This division appears to have grown more rigid into the early modern period.

Answer: The Neanderthals

According to Zach Zorich's article, the mapping of the Neanderthal genome from bones found in Croatia indicates that non-African humans carry Neanderthal DNA in 1 - 4% of their genes. The implication is that Neanderthals did not die out so much as they were absorbed by their Cro-Magnon peers, the putative ancestors of modern humans.

Answer: The appeared to be Caucasian, and the official Chinese line was that Westerners did not arrive in the area until much later.

The ostensibly "white" features of these mummies have fueled separatist movements among the Uyghurs who live where the mummies were found. The majority-Muslim Uyghurs have some ethnic characteristics of the Turkic peoples from whom they are partially descended, and the mummies' remarkable appearance fueled a sentiment that the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region was not as historically Chinese as orthodox historians had claimed.

The region remains somewhat unsettled politically, but the Chinese government's attitutes towards the mummies themselves has moderated somewhat, and specimens from the find toured the United States in 2010.

Answer: The Maya

The size and extent of Mayan civiliztion has long been a source of debate among specialists. LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) technology may provide some direction toward consensus. Laser pulses from airplanes are used to penetrate the porous soil and map the stone structures below, including some that are less than a foot tall.

This approach allows some insight into the terrain of ancient Mayan settlements without the deforestation of hundreds of square miles.

Answer: The Picts

The Pictish stones blend traditional Christian symbols with pagan imagery. Their most characteristic element is the looping pattern of the Celtic cross. Though the stones almost certainly convey some message, it is debatable whether this is actually linguistic or iconographic in nature.

Answer: Greece

Paestum, fifty miles south of Naples, boasts three remarkably intact Greek temples: two to Hera (one of which may have been more pantheistic) and one to Athena. Though the colony was overrun by the Lucanians and Romans in ancient times, changing hydrogeologic patterns led to the settlement's abandonment to overgrowth in late antiquity. Thus, compared to ruins in Greece and other areas of continuous use, Paestum represents something of a time capsule of ancient Greece.

Answer: 6,000 - 4,000 years ago

Science writer Kate Ravilious goes on to describe how the society of stone age Kierikki was apparently complex and adaptable enough to transition over time between being able to fish in warm water coves to being able to hunt the seals which came during the later, harsher winters. Along with an organized culture, current anthropologists cite the relatively constant coastline of the area as opposed to other parts of coastal Finland as reasons why the settlement around Kierikki continued to thrive.

Indeed, even today modern Finns make contingency plans on how to deal with the constantly changing coastline.

Answer: Tutankhamun

Tutankhamun's funerary goods were discovered in 1908, fourteen years before Howard Carter excavated King Tut's amazing tomb. These include some leftover linens from Tut's wrappings and a dried floral wreath. Intriguingly enough, the labeling of these linens indicate that they were used in Tutankhamun's household during the pharaoh's life.

Answer: Mexico

In years past, the Teenek were thought to have been in the area for 3,500 years when they diverged from the Maya. More recent findings indicate that the Teenek built their settlement, which they still consider very sacred, about 1,000 years ago on top of much older ruins with ties to the Woodland cultures of the United States.