How to Play the Anthropeum Game

Each day features ten artifacts from The Metropolitan Museum of Art — guess where each was made and when.

Daily game rules

  1. Visit the site once per day for a new set of ten artifacts.
  2. For each artifact, study the image, title, and material hints.
  3. Click the world map to place your best guess for where it was made.
  4. Tap a 250-year era block on the timeline to pick when it was created — you are choosing a range, not an exact year.
  5. Submit all ten rounds to see your total score and ranking.
  6. Copy your share card and post it on social media.

Reading dates: BCE and CE

The anthropeum game timeline runs from 3000 BCE to the present. BCE (Before Common Era) counts backward from year 1 — so 580 BCE is older than 200 BCE. CE (Common Era) covers everything after year 1. Egyptian, Greek, and Near Eastern artifacts often fall in the BCE range; European paintings and modern objects are typically CE. You do not need the exact year — pick the block that overlaps when the artifact was made.

Picking an era block

The timeline is split into 250-year blocksfrom 3000 BCE to 2000 CE. After you drop a map pin, tap the block that best matches the artifact's creation period. If your block overlaps the correct date range, you earn strong time points even without guessing a single year.

After each round, the review screen shows Your block vs Correct range, plus how many years off you were if the ranges did not overlap.

Scoring

  • Location (0–5,000 pts): Based on distance from the correct origin. Within 50 km earns maximum points.
  • Time (0–5,000 pts):Based on how well your 250-year block overlaps the artifact's creation period. Overlapping the correct range scores highest; nearby blocks still earn partial credit.
  • Share colors: 🟩 9,000+ · 🟦 7,000+ · 🟨 5,000+ · 🟥 below 5,000

Practice mode

Want more than one game per day? Try Practice mode for unlimited random sets — scores are not saved to the daily leaderboard.

New to the format? Read what the anthropeum game is and how it compares to TimeGuessr.