Do Indiana Jones Style Traps Exist? DOCUMENTARY
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 18 มิ.ย. 2024
- Do Indiana Jones style traps and ruins exist? A big thank to our sponsor Morning Brew, sign up free today morningbrewdaily.com/invicta
In this history documentary we seek to explore the trope of ancient ruins which are distinguished by the following features:
1 - Hidden Locations
2 - Defended by Traps
3 - Contain Treasures
The history documentary tackles each of these in sequence. When it comes to hidden locations, we discuss the historical precedent for people hiding tombs and otherwise building secret, underground complexes. These examples range from the lost tomb of Attila the Hun to the Secret City of Kaymakli and the pirate lair of Oak Island. We then discuss the defenses of these locations. It turns out that there are actually examples of booby traps in such ruins. Some even come close to the boulder trap from Indiana Jones. We finally discuss the topic of treasures as they relate to rare cases such as the Tomb of Tutankhamun and the more banal findings of most dig sites.
If you are interested in learning more about the truth behind these sorts of tropes you can check out these other videos:
How Did Soldiers Level Up?
Did Legendary Weapons Exist?
Did Thieves Guilds Exist?
Credits
Resarch = Invicta
Script = Invicta
Narration = Invicta
Artwork = Gabriel Cassata
Editing = Invicta
#history
#documentary
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What movie tropes should we explore next? Thanks Morning Brew for my daily news briefing - sign up for free here morningbrewdaily.com/invicta
Could you please try the trope of the rambunctious Archaeologist or treasure hunter?
+ I actually love Morning Brew, the no nonsense description of the days news has been great! Also amazing content, as always, love the video!
Oh, I have an idea I was just thinking about today, while watching a live stream of Elden Ring : the trope of the sound effects ! For example : a metallic noise when a blade is unsheathed, although the parts of the sheath in contact with the blade would be made of leather and would not produce that sound. Also, sometimes, a strange glistening sound is heard when a protagonist is brandishing a sword - for no apparent reason. In Elden Ring, every hit (even with a hammer, etc.) produces a complex composite sound mixing an explosion, a metallic clang and some wind whoosh. Or in a more modern setting, this annoying clicking sound made by every firearm everytime its holder moves it or draws it - a firearm is mainly quiet and does not have clicking parts. I'm sure I can think of more examples.
could you make a video on the daily life of a courtier in a medieval kings court? what would be his functions and such. because he would not nescessarely be a noble, but i don't think they would be a free loader or something like that
I've always wondered why Indiana Jones, Lara Croft, Aladdin, and other treasure hunters don't just send robots into the ruins to gather the treasure, controlled from the comfort of their hotel room.
If they set off a trap, no harm done...
I saw Raiders of the Lost Ark as a kid in grade school. When I returned to school I frequented the library and checked out a bunch of books on archeology and our librarian asked me what sparked my interest. I told her I wanted to become an archeologist when I grow up and it’s extremely dangerous work so I needed to prepare myself. She was awesome and told me I’d make a great archeologist because I looked like I was up to the challenge and looked brave, and the books I checked out would definitely help me. Our school librarian was a treasure. I ended up with a fascination about ancient culture, the Incas, Mayans, Aztecs, Egyptians, and even Greek and Roman history that still is with me today. And I have a fond memory of my school librarian that made me feel like I was gonna be like Indy some day
I've been an archaeologist for 20 years. The reality is not like that. It's mostly being a contractor on construction sites. The coolest thing I have excavated was the grave of an American Civil War Veteran who had a glass eye and wooden leg. It happened when they were excavating foundations for a new hospital wing .
@@DT-sb9sv Definitely needed to tell us that you don't regularly avoid ancient boobytraps and deadly spike pits lol
@@DT-sb9sv So you're telling me you've never seen the Ark of the Covenant?
And you became?
@@DT-sb9sv I'm surprised down south Republicans give a s--- and don't just dig through the site. Profit at all costs. We don't need no regulations or laws. /s
Sounds like there aren't enough booby trapped tombs out there so I'll contribute to it when I die by building my own. Be the change you want to see in the world.
Perfect! I hope you don't mind me raiding it.
It's actually practical now: plant land mines. People still get blown up occasionally by unexploded munitions from WWI and even the American Civil War, so your tomb could be dangerous for well over a century.
How about including a concrete room where tomb robbers will be trapped and forced to watch that Twilight vampire TV show for all eternity? 😂
Unless you are planning on dying in a minefield with all your earthly possession ,I might consider raiding it
@@pbxn-3rdx-85percent Well sir, I'll go one step further, hallmark network movies.
I remember an Archeologist saying the traps themselves would be more valuable than whatever they are guarding because it is working high technology from thousands of years ago.
My favorite NPC I've ever had in D&D was the professional who had to install all this stuff.
"Look. Everyone says they want the crushing-spike-walls room, I get it, they sound cool, and you heard Jorik's tomb has them and Ragvar's and a lot of other people. But they're trash. Actual trash. They're super obvious if you know what to look for, they're expensive as hell, any rogue worth his daggers got taught how to jam them up with a pole in the mechanism, and that's assuming they don't have a goddamn wizard with them...and if it ever DOES work, you gotta scrape all the sticky bits off or the whole place reeks like the Nine Hells. And I don't do scraping sticky bits duty. No sir, don't bother calling ME about it."
That monolog right there, and that character, are glorious! 🤣
Okay, that sounds like such an amazing character concept and I love it.
Acererak: "And I'm an incredible powerful lich with tons of resources, magic, undead minions and, above all, free time. So let me make it perfectly clear:
I WANT MY SPIKE-WALLS ROOMS! WITH POISON AND LASER WIELDING MIMICS!"
@@raistlin3462 "...very well, sir, here's the catalog for that. People usually go for either wyvern venom or purple worm venom, but may I suggest oil of taggit instead? Rig up a sprayer, get it on those nasty intruders' skin, they'll pass right out and not even get a chance to try to get out of the way of your brand new crushing-spike-walls.
But you...you strike me as the kind of guy who wants to know people are awake for the whole experience. So, what'll it be?"
This is incredibly funny
The mercury in the Chin Emperors tomb was not put there as a trap, rather as part of a scale map of the land he ruled built around the caisson that held his corpse. Mercury was used to represent rivers as it would not evaporate like water would, and since it was very valuable, as a sign of his wealth.
No doubt it was also for spectacle, the roof supposedly has a model of the heavens, the milky way and the stars inlaid with precious gemstones. imagine the reflection of that 'skybox' on the ocean of mercury, perhaps lit by flickering oil lamps.
Mercury was also thought to be a key ingredient to immortality
A warrior king, ravager of the world's greatest empire buried in secret in a triple coffin of gold, silver and iron is legit one of the coolest thing I have EVER heard in history and I am personally offended it's not been used in more fantasy stories as inspiration.
Atilla wasn't around during the British empire though 🤔
@@cautiouslycatatonic you know he means the Roman empire, and it's debatable which one was greatest. Historical era and context is important. There's plenty of other great empires, like the Mongolian empire.
Did you miss the part right after where another literally had himself buried underneath a river?
@@alexdunphy3716 ???
there's a Clive Clusser book about it
4 features of stereotypical ruins.
The fourth being that they are always lit by torches.
@@ryucartel351 Correct!
I assume Lara Croft just runs through, lights all the torches, and then runs back for you the player to "discover"
@@ryucartel351 Were they just bumbling around in the dark or did they use something else like candles?
@@aniquinstark4347 More likely, the builders just... didn't put the roof on until they were done, so they'd have the natural light to work by. Tombs are sort of a single use thing when they've been constructed, so it's not like you have to be in and out every day, and temples not lit by torches could be lit by oil lamps, candles, or any number of other things that I don't even know about.
@@aniquinstark4347 They had electricity guys. Ever heard of the Baghdad Lamp??
I'm an archaeologist in northern British Columbia, so speaking from my experience:
- Most of the archaeological sites I find are well-off the beaten path, so it's fair to say that they're hidden.
"Traps" I've encountered include 8-foot tall stalks of devil's club, giant overgrown pits left by careless forestry practices from the last century, muskeg that can swallow up your ATV, and bears.
- The "treasure" I find doesn't have much monetary value - it's mostly just flakes from stone tool manufacturing. It's valuable data (eg. if you find obsidian sourced to a volcano that's 1000 km away, that tells you something about trade routes), but that's about it.
This belongs in a museum!
SO DO YOU!!!!!
I laughed hard, good one!
So does your Mom
Dr. Jones sit down!!!
Beat me to it!
Indiana Jones is solely responsible for my career trajectory. Also, every archaeologist is afraid of snakes. You spend all your time digging holes in dense under brush - often hours from medical attention.
That is called a rural Australian childhood. I do not recall seeing a non venomous.snake in the wild.
As a historian, i don't think i ever met a archeologist under the age of 60 who was not inspired by Indiana jones to start that career
Wow good for you
Unless you’re doing archaeology in Ireland
A story from Cusco, capital of the Incas in precolombian South America.
In 1990 in Cusco I befriended a nephew of the (current or former?) bishop. Visible in the cathedral floor is a blocked entrance to a vault. This my friend explained it was connected to an extensive network of natural tunnels and caves from the Incan times, including a small lake right under the cathedral. The local Church would not let anyone into this underground system, they were guarding something. My friend claimed that the church stored some texts from the time of the Spanish conquest, texts which contents would risk to disrupt the stability of the Church in Latin America should they become known to the world. Should you try and succeed to enter these tunnels the Church would make sure you wouldn't live to tell about. So let's get outside.
A couple of km's away, up in the hills near the Sacsayhuaman complex, is the entrance to cave system. The entrance is now closed with concrete since decades ago. While it was open, locals were scared to enter. One day an adventurous man entered and disappeared. ...Until he surfaced again as he came up under the cathedral, completely mad and exhausted from 14 days lack of food. After that the government blocked the entrance.
It was supposedly opened one time for a joint Peruvian/ Italian university expedition, incl.scholars and students. Rumours are that first, the group walking in a line through the tunnels, one student in the middle suddenly disappeared in the dark, and wasn't seen again. Not long after, a massive human worked stone block fell on top on another student. That made the expedition turn and leave. The entrance up in the mountains hasn't been opened again since then.
While I don't believe most of this is just a story, small parts of it could be true. The extensive network of caves and tunnels and even linking is indeed possible, as is getting fresh air kilometres away from the entrance.
In 1990 during the same voyage I visited the "Umajalanta" cave near the village of "Toro Toro" in Bolivia, the area now a national park. The cave had been explored first by a local and recently him together with prof. French cavers as far as 3,5 km's into the system. As for me, I was only accompanied by two locals without much knowledge of the cave, so we only entered a few hundred metres, about the same route as the tour the tourists get today.
In 2012 I was back and befriended local guide Mario, the caver who originally (and still ongoing, they have explored over 7 kms' now) explored the cave. In 1990 I had been looking for him but he wasn't in town, now he was. He took me on a private trip, and this time it was far into the cave system, all the 3,5 km's that I had missed 22 years earlier. Down as far as we got there were footprints in the sand, Mario's footprints from 10 years earlier. Now mine are there too (if not the occacional flooding has washed them away). This modern cave story just to say for sure taht even 3,5 km's into a cave system there can be fresh air to breethe. I hope you enjoyed.
tight 🔥 thanks for sharing
things that definitely wouldn’t work are things like spinning or swinging blades coming out of the walls or even pressure plates releasing something deadly. They’re sometimes shown to be reliant on wooden gears and rope to make them function. That stuff is definitely gonna rot away and deactivate the trap long before Indiana Jones encounters them. Not to mention the poison darts shooting out of a wall. Which would all rot away and the poison be neutralised. You’d need someone to maintain these booby traps even if you could get them to work.
And that's why Draugr are there 😃 to wake up once a week maintain the traps, clean away the corpses of adventurers, and carefully place all their modern currency/gear in random pots/chests throughout the ancient ruin lol
@@seanpoore2428 That comment... Sneak level 💯
Bronze or brass gears on the other hand will never rot or rust, and bronze blades remain sharp for millennia without maintenance.
Those are all true and valid. Of course, in fantasy settings, their greater longevity can be justified with magic or simply with properties of materials used which don't exist in the real world. Still, it is something worth thinking about.
@@TheVoiceOfReason93 or the monster who made the dungeon there home just desided to uppkeep the trals
My understanding is that quite many of the Egyptian royal tombs, for instance, were robbed by the people who built them, often immediately after the ceremony. Imo that's a fantastic heist movie waiting to be made.
It is a literal pyramid scheme!
no it isn't
Hey Invicta, could you do a documentary on camp followers in classical and medieval armies? They make up a large percentage of the army and yet are so often overlooked in history. Their contributions are worth learning about.
I second your request
Great idea
Person 1: what’s that Inca settlement up in the mountains called?
Person 2: Machu Picchu!
Person 1: bless you!
Lakes of mercury are more likely to be because mercury is cool as it's a liquid metal so may have been included in Aztec and Chinese tombs to represent water. Mercury in many cultures was also thought to be an alchemical secret for eternal life so could have been included as a reference to life and therefore death.
In the case of the Dragon Emperor, the legend is that it was used as a kind of decoration: it's said that the interior of the tomb had a layout of old China on the floor, with pools of mercury used to represent the lakes and rivers of the country. (The Emperor, who was obsessed with achieving immortality, had been trying to use a bunch of phony ancient potions to achieve that end, many of which contained mercury . . . and this is probably what killed him.)
Even if you could somehow acquire the vast quantity of mercury necessary to fill a small trench, I don't see how this would be much of an impediment. It's not THAT toxic.
@@jamesflames6987 I'm not sure it was supposed to be an impediment, if it naturally secretes from the walls it'll have to fill up & or dry up eventually..
@@_wanted_outlaw3007 Just the video mentions this in the context of "traps".
@@jamesflames6987 The problem is what happens to old mercury in the presence of moisture and bacteria: it converts into a soluble form such as methylmercury, which is VERY much "THAT toxic."
On the 1st trope there is a small village in Western Europe that hides a very strange underground complex that has amazed researchers for a long time.
6 to 7 levels deep with living areas, stables, stables, workshops for various types of crafts (including forges).
Clues suggest that the drilling of this complex spanned several centuries (~5th to ~12th).
The fact that the village is on a limestone plain, far from any castle to be able to protect themselves from an outside attack, led the researchers to imagine that it would be the villagers who, after having suffered several devastating attacks, created this spectacular complex. .
It must be understood as an emergency system.
in case of threat of invasion the villagers take refuge underground with their animals for a few weeks
Can you be more specific than "Western Europe", please?
When it comes to videogames that involve Indiana Jones styled traps, I cannot recommend La-Mulana enough. Traps can involve a falling sun relief, trapdoors leading into spikes, divine punishment, and an assortment of crushers. To progress, a grasp of mythology, metaphor, and a sense of archaeological care are necessary if you want to unravel the secrets. Seriously, a notebook and pen will be one of your best friends.
I've been eyeing that game up for a while now! I'll have to grab it in a sale sometime then!
I saw these stone doors in Kaymakli and Derinkuiu... Impressive! I hope that during one of my crazy journeys I will not fall into such a trap😬
Such an awesome place to visit! If you have a video on your channel feel free to share
@@InvictaHistory I have two videos, I will share with pleasure
I envy you. Well travelled 👍🏻 Derinkuyu is my next year's goal. Do you have any tips?
@@ivareskesner2019 It's Turkey so you can go everywhere without a guide, I recommend caution! Some corridors are uncleaned, cramped and very dark. You can crawl half a kilometer!
@@ancientsitesgirlCheers, mate 👍🏻 I've just come back from Morocco. I'm pretty used to labyrinth-like conditions...though no crawling. It sounds almost as if some wheeled contraption could be useful. Maybe even a wide skateboard. You could just lie on your stomach and use your legs and arms to propel yourself forward. Or you could make one that is slightly more substantial, with bigger rubber wheels and a plank of wood the size of your torso...just a thought.
This is what we needed and didn't even ask for it. That's how great Invitica is.
They say there are hundreds of structures built by the Maya lost in the jungles. I went on a tour and didn’t realize I was walking over a pyramid until I reached the other side which was partially cleared of vegetation. So I 100% believe it.
I remember watching one of those Wired articles or similar where they had an archeologist review some films and one of them was Indiana Jones.
She pointed out all those traps (pressure plates launching darts, the rolling boulder) still working after centuries or millennia would be more impressive than any idol or monument contained within those ruins.
That's the thing with archeologists: they are impressed by the wrong things. They will prefer a preserved rubbish hole over a treasure of gold.
@@eljanrimsa5843 that’s cause they’re looking for more information about the past and aren’t greedy grave robbing scumbags
@@eljanrimsa5843 That's because treasure tells you only about one person - the king buried with it. Whereas a rubbish hole will reveal much about the daily lives and the culture of the people who lived there.
Knowledge is a treasure worth far more than gold!
There was a book I read a few years ago that had an awesome take on this trope: the characters are hunting for an old map in an ancient temple, and quickly toss the idea of ancient traps since they’d obviously have corroded by now. And then they actually find the thing and realize that the descendants of the original builders are still around and have been maintaining it, which they are not happy about.
And then later, while trying to get through an identical but Unmaintained version they find out that even half-broken mechanisms can stick a rusty iron spike in one’s shoulder if they aren’t careful.
it wasn't until I was older and watched these movies when I asked who resets the traps after the intruder is killed? I thought that maybe it was the tribes who lived in the area but wasn't sure.
Do you remember the name of a book? Thanks!
Thats sounds like Hunt for Atlantis by Dermott. Atlantians built a Temple of Poseidon, and later a copy when they left for Southamerica. The copy got maintained by tribesmen.
@@Rudeljaeger Yup, that's it. Thank you, its been a while so I forgot.
As to the boulder traps, one of the tactics that the inca used against Spanish armies was to lure them to rough terrain (where their knights didn't have space to charge) and rolled boulders down the hillsides, so that may have echoes in guerilla raids on conquistador expeditions
Same as the Norwegian millitia and volunteers did under "The Scottish Train ' in 1618 , as the 1400 scot mercs with packtrain came up the mountain side , signal were given and rocks of many sizes were dropped down from either logpost rests or thrown. Then they attacked innclose quarters after it.
So that's where the inspiration for bowling came from.
I saw a video of some people who were planning on renovating an abandoned missel silo. While investigating it their voices went high like inhaling helium. That was a bad sign and a warning that they needed to get out of there fast. The accumulation of trapped gasses after a number of years. That's kind of like a trap in a underground complex.
Anyone who would go into anything underground with out gas detection equipment is either an idiot or in a reality show.
Helium has many uses in a missile, from purging gas lines, pressurizing fuel and oxydiser tanks, as inert material to protect detonators, and other uses inside the warhead itself, it makes sense that some might be present in a sealed silo even decades after it was closed.
Someday I’m going to write a story about a secret society of handymen who are hired to do maintenance and upkeep over the centuries for the other secret societies’ death traps. After all these trap mechanisms obviously aren’t going to work for 1000 years without regular maintenance.
“Hey Mac, do you remember that boulder trap we fixed in that Incan temple?”
“Yea, the one where Freddy got careless and almost brought the whole temple down?”
“Yea, well it looks like the Egyptians had that same idea, except this one’s not in such bad shape. I think our work here is done for the day.”
@@bigredwolf6 "By the way Mac, did you remember to tell the new intern about that trap in the Cambojan Temple ruins, that we are set for a do-over?"
"Ohhh, I knew I forgot something..."
"C-mon dude, AGAIN! That way the pit on hungry komodo dragons will be a pit of fat komodo dragons."
"My bad. Sorry. But at least now we will not have to go there and see how the komodos are going. They are fed after all.."
Well, you see the problem there, don't you? The muppet who built this tried to make a revolving door to the fire pit on a load-bearing wall. That's going to need a total rebuild, that is.
"Don't forget to bang up your replacement spikes with a hammer and spray on some rust-enhancer before installing them. We need to maintain the aesthetic."
I wanted to be Indiana Jones so bad as a kid. When I found out Archaeology is not like Indy’ adventures I told myself ill just make it like that somehow! I still believe it.
Their is so much to find still especially in Mexico its like the Egypt of the americas.
I've played Tomb Raider, so I can safely say that, yes traps like this do exist in some levels.
So what your saying is: D&D is fake?
My dungeon master has been lying to me all these years! 😭
What would be really interesting as a DM would be to have a half degraded dungeon where the traps are malfunctioning and things are eroding to be just as dangerously prone to collapse
@@InvictaHistory I've done that, where the poison gas has lost some potency, or the release mechanism is corroded and activates a round after being tripped.
Indiana Jones was such a treasure to find when I was a teenager. I still watch the first three from time to time. This was a very inspirational and educational video.
The first three? There ARE only three! ;)
@@Mystikan are you forgetting about Kingdom of the Crystal Skull? That came out 2008 with Shia LaBeouf. The one that so many hated.
@@soundhealingbygene There. Are. Only. Three. Indiana. Jones. Movies. Get it? ;)
I just wanna say, top tier video concept, whoever came up with it is a good TH-camr. Instantly grabs and engages you just with the concept alone, and the traps featured in the thumbnail seal the deal.
I'm just glad you folks remember -Han Solo as an archaeologist- good old Indiana Jones in this day and age where most folks probably only heard of Lara Croft and/or Nathan Drake.
The most recent movie was only released in 2008, a year *after* the first _Uncharted_ game and the same year as _Tomb Raider: Underworld,_ and there's another movie in production right now (whether or not that's a good idea).
I'm pretty sure Indiana Jones is more famous than both of those two combined.
@@stevenschnepp576 Overall perhaps. But I get the impression that younger generations that grew up in the PS3/Xbox 360 era aren't as well acquainted with Indy as much as his video game inspirations.
There has absolutely been a plethora of battle, hunting and territorial-defensive (is that a term 🤔) traps throughout history. But looking at the movies like Indiana Jones, it's pretty clear that most of them have been presented with a pretty hefty dose of artistic licence. Either entirely created (like the rolling stone trap) or greatly embellished. Which is fine. They're movies. I try not to let historical inaccuracies and just plain impossibilities ruin movies these days...it's hard but I try...
I think the term you're looking for is 'area denial'.
Ducktales clearly proves that trapped tombs with riches exist
I would guess that unintentional traps are more common, a rotting support beam that only stands because it hasn’t been touched, a floor over a basement ceiling that no longer is fit to hold much weight, or simply a buildup of radon in an airtight room made of the wrong type of rock.
So, what most of these tropes boil down to seems to be "Egypt do be coo tho"
Which, honestly, that's fair.
I grew up loving The Goonies! Kinda considered myself one in a way, always trying to find an adventure in the woods or hard to reach places. But of course we never found any pirate ships 🤣
The location has to be hidden for any story to work, regardless if it's a real location or a fictional one. If people know about it, it will either get repurposed, torn apart for materials, and or completely looted for anything of value as soon as the original inhabitants abandon it or are killed off. You can only find something of value if nobody else has found it already.
The rivers of mercury of the Quin tomb were not meant to be toxic, but cool-looking without evaporating like miniature water rivers would have done. Interestingly, the finding of mercury in the soil (strong hint that the tales about mercury rivers might likely be true) is what made the archeologist lend credibility to when the same source talked about automatic crossbows - just in case.
The reason I give a like to this video:
It's about legendary Indiana Jones.
This is the exact content the internet was made for. ❤
Indiana Jones is the closest thing to a father I've ever had
Also, a real archaeologist would be more interested in the traps than in the gold.
Ryan George of Pitch Meetings has a very funny video on how impractical it was to have traps in a secret tombs.
Big thing is that complex mechanisms tend to get gummed up over time with dust and insects and rodents. So any traps need to be either dead simple, or get ongoing maintenance. And dead simple traps tend to not automatically reset. So it's always a question of cost vs. benefit.
First video of yours I've seen. Can't wait to explore your other stuff.
Learning history IS fun. Great video TY!
Fantastic video keep it up your doing amazing job
The art in this video is so beautiful. Most especially the watercolor (?) landscapes.
Nice vid! And the artwork is AMAZING!!!
Could you share links to where you found the maps and 3D images of those complexes? Good source for dungeon design as a GM in an RPG.
You have to wonder with the hidden graves of Atilla if they respected his wishes or those in charge just stole everything and the hidden grave made a great cover story.
9:54 "What else do you find in these tombs, but waves and waves of draugr..."
The thing that gets me about the Hollywood traps is how they reset themselves. I mean I can go along with some ancient gravity driven mechanism still functioning after thousands of years, but how does it reverse its self?
Why would they reverse?
@@MrEazyE357 Door open, door close. Trap springs, trap self resets.
Pirates: Spend my treasure, or bury it. Hmmm...
Insects and other bacteria that humans have not been exposed to in hundreds of years can cause serious damage to the explorers when disturbed
Awesome video! We subbed in the first minute 👍🏻👍🏻
The boulder trap may be an offshoot of the log trap, where a stack of logs is rolled down a ramp. My guess is that the printing press has a lot to do with it. Once book publishing became popular, writers had to imagine all sorts of things. Robinson Crusoe & Swiss Family Robinson were written around 1800. Then came the gamers of the 20th century, with Gygax starting a RPG resonance based on Tolkien's works.
I'm sure someone at some point in the history of warfare used "roll a big ass boulder downhill" as a strategy
As an elaborate trap maybe not
But done? I'm sure
Maybe they read about someone using rocks
And log traps
And just
Put em together
The closest thing thing to booby traps is mummy curses like to he supposed curse on king Tut's tomb but who to know if there are booby traps in temples or ruins if there are any they most likely don't work anymore!
This was great!
Regarding the rolling boulders: smaller boulders were actually used by the Andean peoples as defensive measures against sieges for their mountain fortresses. This might have been a source of inspiration for the "rolling boulder trap" trope.
I image some rudimentary traps, like why need a door. Think about it if you wanted a place to hide something first thing you would do is in toub the whole thing so there's no entrance at all
Concerning the pathways and cellars under the cities: Try Znojno (Znaym) or Jihlava in the Czech Republic - those are kilometres long.
I'd say the fourth trope is an elaborate puzzle or mechanism. Often they are linked to traps, but many times it is just the means of opening chambers or giving clues to how to proceed.
I like to imagine that in-between the 4 Indiana Jones films, Indy is actually meticulously combing over pottery shards at a dig site in Anatolia or doing something mundane at the university, and the adventures where he races against Nazis to find mythological treasures are more of a one-off ordeal
very good ! Thank you
You forgot the ever mysterious, elusive torch and candle lighters.
This is a virtual museum full of fortune and glory.
I love the idea that in a lot of old mythology that to become a great warrior you go get the sward of the one who came before you from their grave, but so immortally awesome are these warriors that they defend their weapons in the afterlife, so you'll have to best the ghost and truly earn the weapon to be worthy even to START on your hero journey. I think anyone whose spent their life trying to be good at something can relate to wanting someone pursue them after their death and EARN access to your legacy this way.
Your graphics are awesome.
Sweet! very interesting subject
My favorite example of a hidden ruin has to be the great pyramid of Cholula. Largest pyramid in the world (in terms of volume, not height) and if I recall correctly, for the longest time, it was hidden in plain sight, since it was covered in grass and was mistaken for a large hill.
Where's it located?
@@BadWebDiver Cholula, Mexico.
Now this video is answering the real questions.
I think that's was where we got the idea of labyrinths from. Just make a big complex and hide the treasure in one little corner.
I remember the tale of opening an Egyptian tomb and being poisoned to deletion. I tried looking it up and can't find a specific event, but it is still plausible. Even if it's not an intentional trap; if they are in a contained area and bacteria has eaten the oxygen on the other side of a wall they break, they could be flooded/displaced with a heavier gas and asphyxiate in about 1 min.
GReat work thank yOU
It may not be the same as an ancient tomb, but Vietnamese tunnel networks could be quite complex, and could be trapped in a surprising variety of ways as well as using water locks to prevent passage. You could even say there was a 'treasure' within - the people who would help the nation survive the French and US occupations!
Cults also might have secretive places of importance, but they tend to be far smaller.
Ultimately, very few protections or traps last more than a century or two. Many sites used other people for security, but people move on. Wood rots, animals die or move off, poison denatures, iron rusts, and even the terrain changes. Thus, it's quite difficult to make traps or security that last. Not impossible, mind, but the longer it needs to last without maintenance, the more it costs to make just so, and the less money is available to build the rest of the place or fill the treasure vault.
What's an interesting example of more modern booby traps would be during the Black Death. You had so many grave robbers they actually sold special caskets that were designed to shoot grave robbers
A small addition to the list could be the grave boobytraps of 1700-1800's with explosives of guns built into coffins and tombs to deter body snatchers and grave robbers.
I imagine Indiana Jones as the bad guy in a version of Home Alone, facing ingenious traps…
totally awesome video! i think that there were probably quite a few traps, and maybe some still remain - but many deteriorated centuries ago, or were otherwise "Activated" - greek inventors had mechanisms for opening temple doors by lighting a flame on a pedestal (which would heat air in a vessel and causing ropes to wind around windlasses opening and closing doors) - they also invented stage scenery that would move onto the stage and off it using falling sand and weights. Automaton altars out in city spaces and nature areas with singing birds using organ pipes and other moving parts. I think probably many of these things once existed. and probably people were unfortunate to come across them! - pits with spikes, and large stones on slants would probably do the trick! or simply pits that you fall into and there's no way out or no one to hear you scream. Stone never deteriorates and a lot of good sized chunks of wood wont either if it is the right type or properly preserved. some of the incan aqueducts are still functioning even though theyve been abandoned for centuries, and then you have the Khmer empire who's entire cities were penetrated with water that performed various actions... probably reality is stranger than fiction in this case! just too bad not a lot of it was documented before it decomposed or some hapless tomb robber stumbled upon it...
Interesting video
in theory egyptian hase maid "trap" in a lower part of the tunel's filled things to rotten, some other material what made a relative long poisonus, at least not breathable air.
I imagine that many of these places might have once have included traps, but that many of those who haven't been destroyed by time might have been triggered by prior thieves.
I read the rivers of mercury were no intentional traps but decorative.
You should credit Carl Barks for The Seven Cities of Sibola. Barks was a genius. Forget how Disney portrayed the extended duck family. The long running series by Barks set standards.
I'm sure word of mouth from people having raided tombs spread far. Imagine raiding a tomb and then the moment something bad happens to you afterwards (illness, death, etc), you blame it on being cursed because you are superstitious as everyone was back in those days. Just that would help keep tombs a bit more secure. Remote location is definitely the best option though! Dead Sea scrolls survived thanks to that and so many more artifacts. Mercury: it was not used to poison back then. They actively consumed it (which actually led to Qin's death!) because it was considered one way to reach immortality (cause it's a cool liquid). So most likely it was to preserve his soul and tomb for eternity.
Lol. Ryan George. "I don't know how to build that kind of generational loyalty."
The saw trap aka breath of God challenge in Last Crusade and the spike trap in Raiders of the Lost Ark seem way too unbelievable since they’re activated with some kind of motion sensor which is impossible for primitive traps in old ancient ruins.
I seem to remember that some (or one?) Mayan royal sarcophagus was painted with a now-inert contact poison.
I recall reading that one archaeological site had somehow created an environment where toxic fungus spores would kill those who invaded the site unprotected. The site was otherwise protected by warnings of consequences for disturbing the site (supernatural in origin). Some of the people who originally explored the site died from the spores, but it took years before anyone figured out the cause, which helped to provide misplaced credence to the supernatural warnings against disturbing the site.
Source?
@@MrEazyE357 This was decades ago... If I can find it, I'll try to provide an attribution here.
7:00, it sounds like an old version of a wrecking ball swinging into a condemmed building whilst people happened to in them exploring. You see this in modern times also.
Any trap would need to be rearmed after triggered, so it is more like a defense weapon passively used by the habitants, then a "prevent future adventure" design, as they wont function alone...
Can you imagine the maintenance & upkeep requirements of these booby traps?! LOL
The thumbnail didn't load quickly for me, only the title. Thought it meant muscle traps 😅 was wondering which scene that was.
The pyramids were just a kid pharaoh doing a Home Alone.
always roll to check for traps before opening the chest or tomb!
Archeologists tried to get down to the Money Pit but were turned back by Tom Hanks yelling, “The stairs are out!”
3:06 Where is that background image from?
EDIT: Nevermind. I found that it's from Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria. It's a survival game coming out next spring. Looks pretty good.