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.
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For fun, here’s a link to the 10,000-year clock, built by The Long Now Foundation. The level of modern engineering, and planning, that it takes to build a clock that will operate for 10,000 years is fascinating. When you stop to think about, say, the trope of a mechanism that will slide back a 20-ton rock door reliably after 2,000 years is quite ridiculous.
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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?
I’m not sure about a pharaoh’s tomb, but there were rivers of mercury in the tomb of the first Emperor of China; also automatic crossbow traps I believe. It’s the tomb with the Terracotta Army. Extremely fascinating.
