Anthropeum
A bronze bowl, a carved figure, a painted jar. Anthropeum puts ten real artifacts in front of you each day and asks where in the world, and when, each was made.
How Anthropeum works
Study the object. Look at the material, style and decoration of each artifact.
Pin the place and pick the period. Drop a pin where you think it was made, then choose a time period.
Compare your score. After ten rounds, see where you landed against all players that day.
A museum walk in ten steps
Anthropeum works best when you slow down. Look at each object as a curator would. What is it made of, what was it for, and what style does it share with things you know? Even wrong guesses teach you something, because the answer reveals a real piece from a real collection.
Two scores in one
| Part | What counts |
|---|---|
| Place | Distance from your pin to where it was made |
| Time | How close your period is to the real date |
Common Anthropeum questions
Where do the artifacts come from?
From museum open access collections, including The Met and the Cleveland Museum of Art.
How are points given?
By how close your pin is to the real place and how close your period is to the real date.
What map data does it use?
The site credits historical basemaps and OpenHistoricalMap, and has a note on how old borders are handled.
Is the Anthropeum game free?
Yes. You can play the daily game in your browser.
Anthropeum strategy
- Materials are big clues. Porcelain, jade and lacquer point to some regions, while marble and bronze point to others.
- Writing on an object can narrow both place and time a lot, even if you cannot read it.
- If you know the culture but not the date, pin confidently and pick a middle period.
Anthropeum in numbers
- Rounds
- 10 artifacts a day
- You guess
- A place on the map and a time period
- Score
- Closeness on both place and time
- Collection
- About 500,000 artifacts
- Sources
- Open access collections, such as The Met and the Cleveland Museum of Art
- After playing
- Your score on a curve of everyone that day
- Category
- History games, photos
Facts checked on 2026-11-09. Anthropeum belongs to Anthropeum. Megadle is not linked to it.