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# Sum of the Arts: Lost Civilizations
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/sum-of-the-arts-lost-civilizations/
- Published: 2015-09-04T11:00:04.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:43:06.000Z
- Description: Number of large-scale bronzes that survive from ancient Greece = ~200
- Author: Allison Meier
- Tags: Art, Sum of the Arts, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 07:13 (2014, 2015, part 3)

![An archaeologist excavating a prehistoric mound in Sweden (1958) (photo by Björn Allard, via Swedish National Heritage Board/Flickr)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/09/archaeologistsweden.jpg)

An archaeologist excavating a prehistoric mound in Sweden (1958) (photo by Björn Allard, via Swedish National Heritage Board/Flickr)

[*Sum of the Arts*](http://hyperallergic.com/tag/sum-of-the-arts/) *is a periodic tabulation of numbers floating around the art world and beyond. In a special edition inspired by* [*the recent discovery*](https://hyperallergic.com/discovery-of-an-ancient-greek-palace-reveals-fragments-of-a-lost-language/) *of a Mycenaean palace in Greece, we’re exploring the numerical relics of lost civilizations of the ancient world.* 

- Number of times a year a snake-shaped shadow appears to slither on the steps of the [Maya El Castillo pyramid ](http://www.exploratorium.edu/ancientobs/chichen/HTML/castillo.html?ref=hyperallergic.com)\= **2** (at each equinox)
- Number of men [who drowned](http://www.rmg.co.uk/explore/sea-and-ships/facts/faqs/general/how-was-cleopatra-s-needle-transported-to-london?ref=hyperallergic.com) when their boat capsized during the first effort to bring Cleopatra’s Needle to London, in 1877 (although the drifting 1460 BCE obelisk was later found at sea) = **6**
- Number of Nazca Plateau geoglyphs possibly depicting llamas, [newly identified ](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/peru/11726451/New-Nazca-geoglyphs-in-Peru-could-be-older-than-famous-Unesco-site.html?ref=hyperallergic.com)through 3D scanning = **24**
- Number of skulls visible in the layers of an Aztec sacrificial skull rack, [discovered last month](http://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/archaeologists-find-aztec-sacrificial-temples-main-skull-rack-n413411?ref=hyperallergic.com) in Mexico City = **35**
- Percentage of construction at [Machu Picchu](http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/top-10/peru/machu-picchu/secrets/?ref=hyperallergic.com) estimated to be underground = **60**
- Feet below the water a 10,000-year-old monolith [was recently found](http://news.discovery.com/history/archaeology/underwater-stonehenge-monolith-found-off-coast-of-sicily-150806.htm?ref=hyperallergic.com) off the coast of Sicily (it was submerged in a flood 9,500 years ago) = **131**
- Number of large-scale bronzes [that survive](http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/aug/01/power-and-pathos-greece-hellenistic-bronze-sculpture-getty-center?ref=hyperallergic.com) from ancient Greece = **\~200**
- Years two forgotten cities in the jungle of Honduras appear to have gone undisturbed until [their recent “rediscovery”](http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/06/archaeologists-find-two-lost-cities-deep-in-honduras-jungle?ref=hyperallergic.com) \= **600**
- Age in years that customs officials listed for a Peruvian mummy, described as “an immigrant,” when [it came through New York in 1949](http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/fascinating-afterlife-perus-mummies-180956319/?ref=hyperallergic.com) \= **3,000**
- Estimated number of discarded items in [Monte Testaccio](http://www.history.com/shows/mankind-the-story-of-all-of-us/infographics/rome-ancient-supercity?ref=hyperallergic.com), the garbage dump of Rome = **53,000,000**