ANCIENT NERDS
RESEARCH PLATFORM
The interactive map of 1.7 million archaeological sites, explored through data, maps and AI
Ancient Nerds is a free research platform for archaeology and ancient history. A 3D globe maps 1.7 million sites from more than 20 open databases, 5,000 of them curated in depth. Lyra reads the latest archaeology videos and turns them into sourced stories, which become a journal every week. Theo, our research agent, writes long-form papers with thousands of citations, published under CC BY 4.0.
stories, live
3,151 stories · newest first
weekly journal
32 issues · every Sunday
research papers
41 public · CC BY 4.0 · by Theo
- Quartz, Granite and the Hard Ceiling on Tuned Stone
- Wanting Creates and Wanting Contaminates
- The loosened mind and what it reports
- The watched pot and the willing mind
- The witness-only channel and what physics allows
site search
1,759,582 sites · 30 sources
INTERACTIVE 3D GLOBE
1.7 million archaeological sites rendered on a WebGL globe. Rotate, zoom from orbit to street level, switch between satellite and dark mode.
FILTER 1.7 MILLION+ SITES
By age, country, category, or data source. Narrow down from 5,000 BC and older to present across 90+ countries and 49 site types.
WATCH EMPIRES RISE AND FALL
30+ historical empires with animated timeline controls. Roman, Byzantine, Mongol, Inca, and more.
EVERY SITE TELLS A STORY
Photos, 3D photogrammetry, historical maps, artifacts, texts, and myths. Cross-referenced across multiple databases.
MEET LYRA WHISKERBYTE
Your AI archaeology companion. Ask about any site, period, or region. Powered by vector search across the entire database.
CHAT WITH LYRA
DISCOVERY RADAR
Track newly mentioned sites from video content. 1.7 million known sites cross-referenced in real-time.
OPEN RADAR
RESEARCH TOOLS
Proximity
What's near you?
Measure
Distance between sites
Map Layers
Rivers, reefs, glaciers, tectonic plates
Paleoshoreline
Ice age coastlines
Offline Mode
Field-ready PWA
20+ CURATED DATA SOURCES
Aggregating the world's archaeological databases into one unified platform.
PUBLIC API
Full read-only REST API for developers. Search sites, query sources, fetch news, and get stats. Interactive explorer with live requests and syntax-highlighted responses.
EXPLORE THE API
BUILT BY TWO NERDS
Martin from Germany and Matt from Australia. We've spent years chasing megalithic mysteries on site — and asking what the evidence really says about our ancient past.
Polygonal masonry, precision stonework, sites that push timelines back. Every claim deserves a fair hearing and a hard look at the evidence — mainstream and alternative alike. This platform exists because we got tired of scattered data and wanted one place to map it all, with the sources next to every site.
Polygonal masonry, precision stonework, sites that push timelines back. Every claim deserves a fair hearing and a hard look at the evidence — mainstream and alternative alike. This platform exists because we got tired of scattered data and wanted one place to map it all, with the sources next to every site.
JOIN THE RESEARCH COMMUNITY
A small but growing community of nerds who love ancient history. Share cool finds, geek out over maps, and help us build this thing.
JOIN OUR DISCORDBUILT ON DECADES OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL SCHOLARSHIP
ANCIENT NERDS Research builds on the extensive work of archaeologists, historians, and field researchers who have studied ancient sites over decades.
BROWSE CURATED SITES BY COUNTRY
Every curated site has its own page with description, period, coordinates and sources. Pick a country, or see all countries.