Question 1 of 12Correct: 0
What is known for sure about the manuscript?
Why are claims of a decipherment not accepted?
What suggests the colonists did not leave in panic?
Why can't we know the colony's fate for certain?
Why couldn't druids have built Stonehenge?
What helped the builders raise stone pillars?
What did the expedition note reveal?
What helped locate the ships?
What makes the army's death in a storm hard to believe?
Which explanation is considered more plausible?
What did the authorities in Strasbourg do in 1518?
What is considered the main explanation today?
Questions from 6 articles
Each one takes 2 minutes to read. Stuck on a question? Peek at the article.
Why the Manuscript Has Remained Unread for 600 Years0/2Where did an entire settler colony go?0/2Who Built Stonehengein the app0/2Where Did the Arctic Icebound Expedition Go?in the app0/2Where an Entire Army Vanished in the Desert0/2What Was the Dancing Plague?in the app0/2
A quiz after every article
In the app, a quiz like this follows every article, and every read grows your streak and level.
Answers and explanations12 questions
- What is known for sure about the manuscript? The parchment's age: the first half of the 15th centuryRadiocarbon dating rules out the idea that it was forged later for sale.From “Why the Manuscript Has Remained Unread for 600 Years”
- Why are claims of a decipherment not accepted? The proposed reading works for a few lines and falls apart across the rest of the textIt has been scanned and is open to everyone, while claims of a solution appear almost every year.From “Why the Manuscript Has Remained Unread for 600 Years”
- What suggests the colonists did not leave in panic? The houses were dismantled, and no cross was carved above the inscriptionThe houses were dismantled log by log, and the distress sign - a cross - never appeared beside the inscription.From “Where did an entire settler colony go?”
- Why can't we know the colony's fate for certain? There are no records from the colonists, and part of the shore went into the seaThere are several versions, but no evidence from inside the colony survives, and the sea destroyed part of its site.From “Where did an entire settler colony go?”
- Why couldn't druids have built Stonehenge? They appeared long after it was builtDruids appear in sources almost 2,000 years after Stonehenge's first structures.From “Who Built Stonehenge”
- What helped the builders raise stone pillars? Ropes, levers, and sloped pitsThe pillars were pulled with ropes and raised with levers, using a pit with sloped and vertical walls.From “Who Built Stonehenge”
- What did the expedition note reveal? Two entries from different years: first all was well, then the ships were abandonedBetween those entries came the commander's death and the decision to travel on foot.From “Where Did the Arctic Icebound Expedition Go?”
- What helped locate the ships? Accounts from local residents that people had long dismissedTheir accounts were considered unreliable for a century and a half, but they proved accurate.From “Where Did the Arctic Icebound Expedition Go?”
- What makes the army's death in a storm hard to believe? Metal equipment does not disappear, and shifting sand eventually exposes what lies beneathNo undisputed trace has ever been found.From “Where an Entire Army Vanished in the Desert”
- Which explanation is considered more plausible? The detachment was smaller and died of thirst or in battleNumbers in ancient texts are usually exaggerated, and a storm sounds more dramatic than a defeat.From “Where an Entire Army Vanished in the Desert”
- What did the authorities in Strasbourg do in 1518? Provided spaces and hired musiciansPeople believed that hot blood had to leave the body through movement.From “What Was the Dancing Plague?”
- What is considered the main explanation today? A mass psychogenic reaction to famine and stressPoisoning causes seizures that make prolonged dancing impossible.From “What Was the Dancing Plague?”