Anthropeum

How it works

1. 1
   Ten artifacts a day

   Each daily game serves ten objects drawn from the Met's open-access collection - 492,000+ public-domain works.

2. 2
   Two guesses per object

   Drop a pin on the map for where it was made, and drag a marker on the timeline for when.

3. 3
   Scored on both axes

   Points come from how close you land on geography and date - and the reveal includes a real description of the piece.

4. 4
   Hints if you're stuck

   A limited number of time hints and place hints per day - spend them on the objects you have no read on.

5. 5
   Ranked against the day

   After your 10 rounds, your score lands on a distribution curve of everyone who played that day - the Wordle-style hook that keeps streaks going.

Why people got hooked

It plays like "art history Wordle meets GeoGuessr" - a bronze chariot-looking sculpture that turns out to be 9th-12th century Central Asia, a gold ornament that reads as 17th-century Paris and is actually 8th-century Eastern European Avar work. The creator, University of Washington undergrad Matthew Chu, weighted the algorithm toward non-European art so the daily set isn't dominated by the Met's European-heavy archive - he programmed ten years of daily sets in advance.

The Met itself isn't affiliated - Anthropeum just builds on the museum's CC0 open-access images and data, and it doubles as a quiet art-history course: every reveal teaches you something real.

Score higher

1. 1
   Read material before style

   Fired clay, bronze, jade, gold leaf - material narrows the candidate regions faster than guessing from vibes.

2. 2
   Anchor the date loosely, the place tightly

   A century-level date guess and a precise map pin usually outscore the reverse.

3. 3
   Save hints for true blanks

   You only get a few per day - don't burn a place hint on an object you're 60% sure about.

4. 4
   Learn from the reveal

   The post-guess description is the real game - patterns (Islamic metalwork, Cycladic marble, Avar gold) repeat across days.

FAQ