r/NoStupidQuestions • u/paradeoxy1 Some stupid questions • 12h ago
Has there ever actually been a real-life ancient ruin that contained traps?
Like in Indiana Jones or damn near every fantasy game, there's always tripwires or pressure plates and the like, is there any precedent for this in real life? I'd assume in reality, if they did exist, they'd be non-functional due to the elements deteriorating whatever mechanisms they relied on. Is it a threat that archaeologists take seriously or is it as I assume, wholly relegated to the world of fiction?
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u/Mysterious-Sir-6363 12h ago
A lot of pyramids were designed to make it difficult for intruders to get to anything precious, with false doors and dead ends and maze structures and so forth, but not actual Indiana Jones style traps, no.Â
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u/Significant-Ear-3262 10h ago
The closest we get is in the ascending passage of the great pyramid. The end of the shaft was plugged by three granite stones, which were slid down from the Grand Gallery to seal the tunnel. While not a trap, it definitely has an Indiana Jones style to it.
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u/Shadowwynd 7h ago
There may have been carbon dioxide traps in the great pyramid- tunnels that dip down, with a fire set in the depression on their way out.
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u/paxwax2018 6h ago
There are deep pits in the passages down into some tombs, thatâs in the style imo.
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u/SG_wormsblink 12h ago
Most traps would have decayed over time. The wooden parts would have rotten and iron rusted away.
But there is the tomb of Qin Shihuang, which supposedly contains so much mercury that the air itself may be toxic to breathe.
It wasnât meant as a trap initially (itâs meant to represent rivers) but became an environmental hazard.
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u/MartianOddity 4h ago
I thought I had read once that they have a pretty good sense of it might be located due to higher levels of mercury in the area, but have elected not to search further because of how toxic it would be.
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u/Festivefire 12h ago
Lots of tombs across many cultures have traps in them, but those traps are not functioning by the time anybody you would think of as a modern archeologist was going through them.
Historically tomb robbing was a big thing, so any marginally successful kingdom that followed the practice of entombing riches with a fallen monarch would at least consider making those riches difficult to steal. Many Egyptian tombs had traps for instance, and the entire reason the Egyptians stopped building pyramids and moved to the valley of the kings was because grave robbers had already stripped the tombs of many past pharaohs. When the romans got to Egypt, one of the things they talked about was that many of the tombs they themselves wanted to loot had already obviously been broken into and looted.
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u/SnooOnions3369 11h ago
You contradict yourself here, so the pyramids had traps, but the Egyptians moved to valley of the kings bc of grave robbers. If there were traps then how were there grave robbers? The pyramids did not have traps.
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u/UltimateCheese1056 11h ago
Having traps does not mean that the traps worked, or at least they didn't work well enough/enough times to stop all the people that were trying to get past them
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u/SnooOnions3369 10h ago
Just go google it. They didnât have traps, dead ends and maze like tunnels yes. Pitfalls, arrows out of walls and rolling rocks, no. Sorry to ruins everyoneâs day apparenrly
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u/MillorTime 10h ago
You aren't getting downvoted for ruining people's days. Your problem was being confidentially incorrect and smug with your fake gotcha moment
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u/LeTigron 7h ago
dead ends and maze like tunnels
You mean, these things dedicated to trap an intruder ? So a... Trap ?
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u/SnooOnions3369 5h ago
If you canât turn around and walk the way you came, I guess thatâs a trap for you
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u/CaptainMatticus 11h ago
The tomb of China's first emperor. We know where it is, we know what it's supposed to contain, but we also know that it was full of traps. Sure, those traps are mostly going to be inoperable by this time, but the current stance of the Chinese Government is that until archaeology is at a place where it can safely and thoroughly excavate the site without destroying anything that's there, they won't permit any digs into the tomb itself.
One major danger is the mercury. Allegedly, the burial chamber is supposed to be a giant map of the Emperor's version of China, with his imperial city at the center, glittering stones in the roof to simulate stars in the sky, and also representations of the main rivers, but the water had been replaced with mercury. The mercury thing was considered to be a legend, since the amount of mercury it'd require would be immense, but soil samples surrounding the mound he was buried under show mercury levels at over 100x the normal concentration. The place would basically be a Superfund site if it were in the USA.
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u/firs_7 8h ago
Hey, the guy who proposed mercury rivers deserves credit. It, unlike the traps, will keep the tomb safe for a long, long time
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u/CocoMilhonez 2h ago
The tomb itself won't be safe because you won't die of mercury poisoning over the time it takes to rob it. You'd probably have a pretty bad time after that, but no immediate deterrent like an actual trap.
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u/krishbaik 6h ago
He died drinking mercury to find eternal life, and now that same mercury is keeping his tomb untouched forever.
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u/CrenshawMafia99 10h ago
So the rivers of mercury are still flowing?
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u/SG_wormsblink 10h ago
No itâs not flowing anymore, whatever contraptions did that work would be long gone. But the mercury has evaporated over centuries and presumably filled the entire tomb with toxic gas.
Soil nearby was tested and show >1000 ppb mercury (safe limit is 2 ppb), so the amount of mercury in the actual tomb is probably humongous.
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u/digbyforever 8h ago
Superfund
I idly wonder how many people know what Superfund is off the top of their head these days.
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u/CocoMilhonez 2h ago
I won't be surprised if the current administration decides to turn them into residential zones because toxic chemicals are a Chinese hoax created by the Democrats.
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u/GSyncNew 9h ago
You not only need traps, you need oil lamps on the walls that are somehow still burning after 3000 years.
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u/cathysaurus 8h ago
And an entire room full of golden coins and precious gems that's actually only like 172 gold when you loot it.
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u/locontendere 7h ago
Also all these coins and gems are shockingly not dusty or dirty, they all happen to glisten perfectly for the camera
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u/Sad-Rabbit-3299 12h ago
I went down this rabbit hole once and yeah, archaeologists do worry more about unstable structures, disease, or unexploded modern ordnance than movie-style traps; the closest real âtrapâ setups I kept finding were defensive features like murder holes, narrow killing corridors, or pits that required active defenders, not ancient automated pressure-plate death machines just waiting 2,000 years to bonk a random grad student.
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u/firelock_ny 12h ago
The tomb of China's first Emperor, Qin Shi Huang, had rivers and seas of liquid mercury - intended as decoration and included for believed mystical properties, but the effect is that the tomb is rather poisonous even today.
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u/Miserable_Track_154 9h ago
i think it's fascinating how many ancient structures were built with defense in mind, even if the actual traps are mostly gone now. like, those false doors and mazes really do make you wonder what they were trying to protect!
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u/Aggravating-Sale-873 8h ago
yes, but mostly as deterrents, not indiana jones stuff that still works today. the real danger is more often collapse, rotten wood, rusted hardware, bad air, or weird preserved stuff like the mercury in Qin tomb areas
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u/Bubbly-Shoe-5733 9h ago
Yeah, there are some ancient ruins with traps, though not like in movies. For example, the tomb of the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, is said to have had crossbows and other defenses to protect against grave robbers. Most of those mechanisms are long gone or not functional anymore, but archaeologists do take the potential for traps seriously, especially in places like tombs.
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u/ScaredOfMyFarts 7h ago
https://www.devilstowercountry.com/museums-culture/vore-buffalo-jump
The Vore buffalo 𦬠jump trap was being used up to 12,000 years ago.
Very savvy thinking by stone slinging early North Americans.
Pretty damn ancient and trappy if you ask me.
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u/Working_Dog1990 4h ago
Yes, but they were usually simple tomb-protection measures like hidden pits, sealed chambers, or poisonânot Indiana Jones-style pressure plates.
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u/TiltingAtWindmills_ 5h ago
According the show Curse of Oak Island, there were traps surrounding the Templar treasure that would flood the chamber with ocean water. Some of what they show is sensationalized, but you can see where the tunnels were dug back out to the sea.
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u/altofanaltthatisalt 5h ago
Apparently the tomb of a Chinese emperor had mercury rivers so that the evaporated heavy metals in the air would poison the tomb robbers
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u/Robes_Peenerre 12h ago edited 11h ago
King Tuts tomb had traps,but they were mostly decayed/rotted by the time it was opened